It became a royal domain 200 years later and was chartered by King Sigismund II Augustus in 1549. The earliest documents confirming the presence of Jews in the town date back to 1596. At the beginning of the 17th century, there were five Jewish families living in Kozienice. In 1616, a Jewish community was established there by virtue of a privilege issued by King Sigismund III Vasa. The Jews were given the right to own twelve houses, produce alcoholic beverages, and make a living from butchery. The privilege was confirmed by King Władysław IV Vasa after his accession to the throne (1633). The monarch also granted Jews permission to erect a synagogue and establish a cemetery. The first Jewish burial site in Kozienice was situated on a hill outside the densely developed urban area.

The growth of the community was facilitated by the fact that Kozienice did not hold the de non tolerandis Judaeis privilege. In the second half of the 18th century, the town – inhabited by 1,240 Jews (55% of the total population) in 1786 – became an important centre of Hasidism. This was thanks to Yisroel Yitzchak Hopstein, also known as the Maggid of Kozhnitz, a preacher and expert in both Talmud and Kabbalah, who founded a Hasidic dynasty in the town. His successors in the Kozhnitz line (after the Yiddish name of Kozienice) were Moshe Elyokim, Chayim Myer Yechiel Shapira, Elozor, Yechiel Yaakov, Yerachmiel Moshe, and finally Aharon Yechiel, who resided in Łódź, Otwock, and Warsaw (where he died in the ghetto in 1942).

In the times of the Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland), the Jewish residents of Kozienice outnumbered the Christian population (in 1827, there were 1,185 Jews, accounting for 59% of all townsmen) and were the dominant force in the commercial life of the town, especially in crafts, trade, and running public houses. Kozienice experienced an economic boom after the establishment of Kozienice District in 1867 and the construction of the road to Radom. Some of the most important production plants in the town, such as the tin factory, tannery, brewery, and several mills, all belonged to Jewish entrepreneurs. In 1897, the population of Kozienice reached 6,400 people, 59% of whom were Jews.

Kozienice suffered considerable damages in the course of World War I. Shortly after Poland regained independence, the town had a population of less than 9,000 people, 45% of whom were Jewish. Jews constituted the majority of inhabitants in the Market Square and in ten out of the forty streets of the town. They were especially dominant in Magidowa (Magietowska) Street, which was also the location of two synagogues and the famous house of the Maggid. Kozienice remained a vibrant centre of crafts, especially shoemaking, with Jews retaining their leading position in the sector. The situation was similar in trade – 103 out of all 126 stalls in the town were run by Jewish merchants – and in real estate, with 64% of Kozienice’s properties owned by Jews. On the eve of World War II, the town was inhabited by almost 5,000 Jews (over 40% of the population).

The local Jewish community was actively involved in the administrative life of Kozienice (in the interwar period, the post of the municipal treasurer was held by a Jewish deputy). Jews were well-represented on the Municipal Council, with the elected officials advocating for various political groups, including the Orthodox Jews, Folkists, Zionists, and Bundists. In 1924, the community employed five rabbis and four shochetim. There were also several active associations, including the local branch of the Auxilium Academicum Judaicum, the “Talmud Torah” Society for the Care of Religious Education of the Jewish Youth (Polish: Towarzystwo Opieki nad Religijnym Wychowaniem Młodzieży Żydowskiej „Talmud Tora”), the “Linas Hatsedek” Society and the ”Gemilut Chesed” Charitable Association.

In September 1939, right after the outbreak of World War II, Kozienice was invaded by the German army. A few days after entering the town, the Nazis burnt down the synagogue and the Maggid’s house and profaned his ohel in the cemetery. The local Judenrat (Jewish Council) was set up in October 1939. In the autumn of 1940, the Germans established a ghetto in Kozienice, where they gradually gathered Jews from nearby localities. The Jewish district remained formally open until January 1942. In its peak, its population comprised over 12,000 people. In 1942, the 4,000 local Jews were joined by the inhabitants of Magnuszewo, Trzebień, Wierzbica, Głowaczów, Sieciechów, and other localities in the area. The ghetto was liquidated in September of the same year, with its prisoners deported to the Treblinka extermination camp. The Kozienice Ghetto was located between Radomska Street and the Zagożdżonka River. Almost all buildings within the district’s perimeter, including the houses at Magidowa Street, were pulled down by the Germans once they had deported or killed all Jews from the town.

In September 2016, a monument commemorating the Jewish inhabitants of Kozienice murdered by the Germans during the occupation was officially unveiled at Bohaterów Getta Street. It was erected thanks to the efforts of the Association of Lovers of Kozienice Land (Polish: Towarzystwo Miłośników Ziemi Kozienickiej).

The Jewish cemetery in Kozienice, located on a hill south of the town centre, in the area of today’s Wójcików Street and Radomska Street, was most probably established in the early 17th century (already in use by 1627). The last recorded burial at the site took place in 1949. During World War II, the Germans vandalised the cemetery, tearing out most of the tombstones and – as already mentioned – destroying the ohel of Tzaddik Yisroel Hopstein. The abandoned necropolis was falling into decline in the first post-war decades, with local residents using it as a source of building materials (stone matzevot and sand). In 1957, the local administrative authorities officially closed the cemetery.

Repeatedly enlarged throughout its history, today the cemetery occupies a plot of 3.6 hectares. Only fragments of ca. 90–100 damaged tombstones have survived on the grounds. The oldest one dates back to 1821. The matzevot were made of sandstone and granite boulders. There is also a monument-obelisk in the cemetery – it marks the mass grave of people murdered in 1942, during the deportation of the local Jewish population to the Nazi German death camp in Treblinka. The last two people to be buried at the site were Jewish soldiers from an engineer unit. Their bodies were exhumed from a field cemetery and moved to the Kozienice necropolis in 1949.

In 1984, the necropolis was cleaned up and fenced with wire mesh. The ohel on the tzaddik’s grave was also reconstructed at the time. In 1989, the cemetery was entered into the register of historical monuments. In 2004, the historic brick wall with the gate was restored and the ohel of the Maggid of Kozhnitz was rebuilt (new matzevot and boards commemorating members of the dynasty were placed inside). The works were carried out with the financial support of Rabbi Mendel Reichberg and the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage.

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