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Jewish settlement in Poland
The first Jews to arrive in Slavic areas were
"Radanici"[, which in Persian means "those who know the way" -
translator's note]: these were [Jewish] merchants conducting trade with
the East who came from Spain and southern France. In the tenth century,
Jewish merchants from wealthy German cities on the Rhine and Danube also
arrived in Poland. Historical texts by Ibrahim ibn Jakub and other
travelers confirm the existence of a trade route through Regensburg,
Prague, Wroclaw and Krakow to Kiev. There is no evidence that Jews
settled permanently in Polish lands at that time, however. The first
mention of permanent settlers refers to the first half of the eleventh
century and suggests that trading posts existed, though their locations
have not been determined with any certainty.
According to the Czech chronicler Cosmas, in 1097-1098 a group of
Jews from Prague fled to Poland to escape unrest sparked by the Teutonic
Knights. During that period, Jews from Kiev probably also arrived. The
first Polish sources mentioning a permanent Jewish settlement in Poland
date back to the twelfth century in Silesia. A document about the
endowment of a monastery of regular canons in Wroclaw mentions the
village of Tyniec, which was bought in 1153 from Jews and offered to the
monastery. In the second half of the twelfth century, the "service
village" of Sokolniki in Wielkopolska was also owned by Jews. Another
document, written for Henry the Bearded in 1226, told of Jews who were
living in the castellany of Bytom in Silesia. They were probably engaged
in farming. A tombstone of a cantor named David ben Shalom dating back
to 1203 indicates there was a more substantial group of Jews living in
Wroclaw at that time. His father, the senior kahalny (cantor) probably
came here from the region of Mainz or Worms.
In the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, increasing numbers
of Jews were living not only in Silesia, but also in Malopolska, as
demonstrated by the Polish Chronicle of Wincenty, known as "Kadlubek",
in Wielkopolska (numerous records mentioning the Jews of Kalisz in
particular), and in Mazovia (the town charter of Plock dated 1237
mentions a "Jewish well").
The presence of Jewish merchants (including women) is indicated by
the tariffs collected at the customs posts in Olesno and Siewierz. In
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Jewish minters were employed in
Polish mints. (brakteaty)
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The first Jewish Communities were founded at
the main princely castles that acted as territorial capitals, such as
those in Wroclaw, Krakow, Plock and Kalisz. This probably had to do with
the fact that Jews were granted the status of servi camerae [Latin,
"servants of the Treasury"]. By the fourteenth century, there were Jews
living throughout Poland. Most of them were Ashkenazim, and used a Low
German dialect. Their presence in Red Rus' was first noted in the second
half of the fourteenth century, though a small group had probably
arrived there from the east as early as the twelfth century.
Colonization of these territories led to the privilege granted by
Kazimierz III the Great possible. (privileges granted to the Jews) At
that time, Jews began arriving in Red Rus' from the German lands. The
Polish kings supported settlement in economically underdeveloped areas,
such as Red Rus'. Jews were well received there because of their
technical skills and expertise in trade and crafts. The largest group of
Jews in that region was in Lwow.
In the eastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian state, the Jews
lived in small communities in the countryside as well, where they owned
mills, inns and even landed estates. Their culture and professions meant
they were more apt to settle in the cities, however. They created
separate enclaves (Jewish streets), subject to their own
self-government. They were granted separate privileges that excluded
them from the municipal court system. As a result, the forms of Jewish
settlement that developed during the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries
in Poland differed from those existing in Western Europe and the
Mediterranean countries, where ghettos were the norm.
The history of Jewish settlement in Poland can be divided into
several stages: until the mid-fourteenth century, Jews settled
throughout the country, but the number of Communities was relatively
small; these were usually small groups numbering from a dozen to several
dozen people. Merchants, and immigrants, arrived in Poland from Germany
and the Czech lands, having fled the persecution of the Teutonic
Knights who were on their way to crusades in the Holy Lands. Jews from
Rus' and Byzantium probably also settled in Polish lands, particularly
in the east. From the mid-fourteenth to the late fifteenth centuries,
the number of Jewish settlers in Poland grew rapidly. There were violent
attacks on Jews, who were accused of having caused the Black Death that
decimated much of Europe's population during the years 1348-1350. This
prompted a heavy influx of Jews into Poland, particularly from German
cities.
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From the mid-seventeenth to the late eighteenth
century, Jews were leaving territories of the Commonwealth; at the same
time, already existing Communities experienced rapid demographic
growth. After the massacre during the Cossack uprisings, a large group
of Jews left the Commonwealth. Many of them returned after several
years, but in the mid-seventeenth century Poland nonetheless was no
longer the safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution that it once used to
be.
In the second half of the seventeenth century and the early
eighteenth century, many new Jewish Communities were founded (some even
on Church lands) thanks to legislation intended to spur economic growth
in Poland, destroyed by wars, and also to the numerous privileges
granted to the Jews. In addition, previously existing Communities
experienced a revival at that time. The Jewish population grew quickly
after the 1670's. The demographic structure of cities also changed,
where Jews came to represent an ever-larger proportion of the total
population.
(H.W./CM)
The Period of the Partitions - In the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries, Jewish settlement was subject to the legislation
of the three partitioning powers (legal status of Jews).
In the Prussian partition, privileges of settlement were only
granted to wealthier Jews, while most others were forced to pay a duty
for every day they spent in town (known in German as Tagzoll, "day
duty"); the poorest were resettled elsewhere. After they were granted
equal rights in 1869, Jews could settle in the cities of Pomerania and
Eastern Prussia.
In Galicia, which belonged to Austria, the most liberal of the three
partitioning powers, the distribution of Jews was more equal, and a
larger percentage lived in the countryside.
Russia permitted Jews to live only in the pale of settlement and in
the Kingdom of Poland. The tsarist government removed the Jews from the
countryside by several administrative decrees, which meant there was a
significant concentration of Jews particularly in the small towns of
Podlasie, Mazovia and Belarus (shtetl), where they often made up the
majority of the population. When the tsarist administration reduced the
area of settlement, Jews were expelled from many locations. Repression
and waves of violence instigated by the authorities (pogroms) resulted
in an exodus of Jews to Western Europe, the United States and Palestine
(emigration of Jews from Poland), as well as to the Kingdom of Poland
(Litwacy).
(A.C./CM)
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