The domain remained in private hands until the 19th century. The earliest confirmed mention of the presence of Jews in Grodzisk comes from the second half of the 16th century. In the third quarter of the 18th century, parish priest Jan Klemens Mokronowski allowed the local Jews to erect a house of prayer and establish a cemetery outside the town borders. An independent Jewish community was founded in Grodzisk before 1793. It started to dynamically develop after the Third Partition of Poland, as the Prussian authorities introduced a series of policies encouraging Jews to move from the countryside to towns and cities. The Jewish newcomers had the right to freely engage in trade and crafts. In 1797, Grodzisk was inhabited by 125 Jews (51% of the total population), and a quarter of a century later – by as many as 444 Jews (89%).

In the second half of the 19th century, the Jewish community was rapidly growing in size. It undertook a number of investments, the most important of which was the construction of a new, wooden synagogue on a brick foundation in the mid-1850s. At the time, Grodzisk boasted a number of Jewish religious schools and a community-funded elementary school. A characteristic feature of the local community was strong influence of Hasidism. Its popularity was fostered by the foundation of a local dynasty by Tzaddik Elimelech Shapiro (died 1892), grandson of the Maggid of Kozhnitz (Kozienice) and son of the founder of the Mogelnitz (Mogielnica) dynasty. On his mother’s side, Shapiro was a descendant of the famous Elimelech of Lizhensk (Leżajsk) and the Seer of Lublin. Shapiro’s court and school were both based in Grodzisk.

The end of the 19th century saw dynamic development of Grodzisk, which started to become an industrial centre. The economic changes went hand in hand with social transformations. Proportions between the local Jewish and Catholic populations changed. The share of the former was visibly decreasing – in 1897, they constituted 77% of the entire population. Jews from Grodzisk were migrating abroad or moving to bigger cities, mainly to Warsaw. In the first years of the 20th century, the Jewish community actively participated in the political and social life of the town. A private Jewish school opened in 1901 also offered classes in Polish.

The development of the town was thwarted by World War I and partial deportation of the local population ordered by the retreating Russians. This resulted in a significant decrease in the number of Jewish residents – the census of 1921 showed that there were less than 2,800 Jews living in Grodzisk (25% of the population). In the interwar period, most local Jews made a living from crafts and trade. They were organised into their own guilds and professional associations. The Jewish community controlled 51% of all artisan establishments in Grodzisk. The most popular professions were tailors, shoemakers, stocking-makers, trimmers, and butchers. In reborn Poland, Jews played a relatively small role in the local government structures.

After the outbreak of World War II, a ghetto was established in Grodzisk Mazowiecki in December 1940. It covered the area delineated by today’s Joselewicza, 11 Listopada, Piłsudskiego, Legionów, and Limanowskiego streets. The district was supervised by the Judenrat (Jewish Council) established by the Germans, with Chaim Jakubowicz at the helm. Over 2,000 Jews displaced from Greater Poland and Kraków, as well as from Brwinów, Milanówek, Nadarzyn, Podkowa Leśna and other localities were deported to the Grodzisk Ghetto. It is estimated that just before the liquidation of the Jewish quarter, it had a population of ca. 6,000 people. Jews were obliged to perform forced labour for the occupant. Thanks to the efforts of the Judenrat, a soup kitchen, infirmary, and a shelter for the elderly and sick were opened in the district. The Germans liquidated the ghetto in February 1941 – its prisoners were first transported to Warsaw and later sent to Nazi extermination camps. Only a small number of Jewish craftsmen was left in Grodzisk. They stayed in the town until July, when they were resettled to the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Jewish cemetery in Grodzisk Mazowiecki was established in the second half of the 18th century on land located between the roads to Błonie and Rokitno (the latter road was later named Żydowska [Jewish] Street). A small pre-burial house probably stood near the entrance gate. In 1845, the cemetery was surrounded by a wooden fence and enlarged to ca. 0.8 hectare. At the end of the 19th century, the cemetery area was expanded again with a plot of land adjacent from the north. The entire perimeter of the necropolis was surrounded with a brick fence. Further expansions of the cemetery were carried out in the interwar period. It eventually came to cover an area of two hectares. Before the establishment of the Jewish cemetery in Bródno, the cemetery in Grodzisk was also used by Warsaw Jews.

In 1922, restoration works were carried out at the cemetery. They were necessary to repair the damages brought by World War I. During World War II, the Germans ordered to tear out some of the tombstones and use them in construction works. The brick fence was also dismantled. Burials were held at the cemetery until the liquidation of the Grodzisk Ghetto. The process of devastation continued after the war, with the problem largely ignored by the authorities. With time, most of the former area of the necropolis was taken over by various companies, including a scrap metal warehouse. For many years, activists of the Social Committee for the Revival and Reconstruction of the Jewish Cemetery in Grodzisk (Polish: Społeczny Komitet Odbudowy i Rekonstrukcji Cmentarza Żydowskiego w Grodzisku) had been making efforts to stop the progressive destruction of the necropolis. In 1988, they finally managed to secure financial help from the municipal authorities and Jewish organisations and repaired the cemetery fence. The entrance gate was adorned with a preserved plaque commemorating the contributions of American Jews hailing from Grodzisk to the restoration of the cemetery in 1922. The necropolis was entered in the register of monuments in 1996. A few years later, several dozen matzevot were discovered on one of the properties at 3 Maja Street; during the war, they had been used to pave the courtyard of the tenement house occupied by the Wehrmacht. The tombstones were excavated and moved to the cemetery.

The necropolis occupies an elongated rectangular plot which originally had an area of 1.92 ha (310 × 62 m). Over 200 full matzevot or fragments (mostly made of sandstone) survived at the site. Most of them date back to the turn of the 20th century (there are a few tombstones from the first half of the 19th century). The oldest part of the necropolis has been completely devastated (including the gravestone of Tzaddik Elimelech of Grodzisk).

Description copyright owner: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews