The earliest mention of Jews in Leżajsk can be found in documents dating back to 1521. The town saw a steady influx of Jewish settlers – by 1563, their population already comprised 20 families. Around a decade later, in 1577, there was a temporary drop in the number of Jewish residents, as only 12 families were recorded in Leżajsk. However, the Jewish community soon started to grow once again. It had founded its own synagogue by the beginning of the 17th century. In 1635, King Władysław IV granted the Jews of Leżajsk the right to brew and sell beer and mead. The privilege was later confirmed by King John III Sobieski in 1682. The same period saw the establishment of a Jewish street in Leżajsk. The local population was organised into a kehilla which maintained a synagogue, mikveh, and an almshouse. The first Jewish cemetery in the town was founded in the mid-18th century.

The necropolis was established about 150 metres south of the Market Square. At present, it covers an area of 2.06 hectares. It was originally smaller and periodically enlarged as needed. The oldest section of the cemetery stretches from the gate to the ohel of Elimelech of Lizhensk (Leżajsk).

In 1787, the cemetery (at that point probably only recently established) became the resting place the most famous Jew from Leżajsk – tzaddik and rabbi Elimelech ben Eleazar Lipmann. A wooden ohel covered with shingles was erected over his grave. The area of the cemetery surrounding his grave became a quarter for the deceased of a higher social standing. Historical sources show that the necropolis remained unfenced until ca. 1930, when it was finally surrounded with a brick wall – the community could not afford the investment beforehand.

During World War II, the Germans deliberately destroyed the cemetery. They pulled out tombstones and used them – together with bricks from the Leżajsk synagogue – to pave the Market Square. The ohel of Tzaddik Elimelech was destroyed and his grave was desecrated. Jews who were discovered hiding between tombstones in the cemetery were executed on the spot.

The necropolis continued to fall into decline after 1945, with the matzevot regularly plundered by local residents and used to pave roads and yards. Ca. 60 tombstones survived on the cemetery grounds. In 1957, the municipal authorities passed a resolution to close the cemetery, which was formally confirmed by the decision of the Minister of Municipal and Housing Economy in 1961. Trees were planted on the premises of the necropolis.

In the 1960s, a brick ohel was built over the grave of the tzaddik on the initiative of Boruch Safir, a former resident of Leżajsk. He received support from Rabbi Friedman from Vienna and Rabbi Mendel Reichberg from New York. In the same period, a number of matzevot paving the Market Square were unearthed. They were reportedly used in the construction of a monument to Poles murdered by Germans.

In 1988, the Nissenbaum Foundation renovated and enlarged the ohel of Tzaddik Elimelech. The building now houses three halls – the middle one holds the tombstone of the tzaddik, while the side ones serve as prayer rooms for men and women. Epitaph plates were also placed inside the ohel. They commemorate two sons of Elimelech: Eliezer, tzaddik of Chmielnik (died on 26 February 1813) and Menachem Yissachar (died on 5 February 1814), as well as Elimelech’s grandson Naftali, tzaddik of Leżajsk, and his two sons-in-law: Nathan Ezekiel and Israel.

Standing at the entrance to the ohel is the matzeva of Eleazar, son of Elimelech, who died in 1806. It is the oldest surviving tombstone of a tzaddik in Poland. Still in 1988, several dozen tombstones were excavated from the paving of the Market Square. Some of them were in a good enough condition to place them back on the cemetery grounds, while more damaged stones were embedded in the wall surrounding the necropolis. More matzevot were found during the construction of a roundabout in 2001, followed by another 100 fully preserved tombstones and 50 fragments uncovered in the summer of 2020, during works at the Market Square. This last group matzevot is exceptionally valuable as many of them still bear their original decorations and polychrome paintings. Their condition is much better than that of those preserved in the cemetery.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the cemetery has been cared after by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, which carries out regular cleaning works at the site and repairs the fence. The cemetery in Leżajsk is listed in the register of monuments under the number A-1228, dated 10 May 1991.

The Jewish cemetery in Leżajsk is the most important Hasidic pilgrimage site of in Poland. It is visited by throngs of Hasidim from all over the world, who arrive there each year on the 21st day of the month of Adar (turn of February and March), on the anniversary of the death of Tzaddik Elimelech. They pray together on the tzaddik’s grave and leave notes with petitionary prayers (Yiddish: kvitelach). A Hasidic centre was established in the vicinity of the cemetery on the initiative of the Foundation of Lizhensk Hasidim (Polish: Fundacja Chasydów Leżajsk). It houses a kosher canteen, a mikveh, a synagogue, and rooms to rent.

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