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Farming
Farming and sheep-herding were the two main
occupations of the ancient Israelites. All the major Jewish
holidays
were originally related to agriculture, connected to the
harvests of
various crops (yearly rituals). In medieval Europe, the Jews
who were
directly subject to the monarch and belonged to his treasury
(servi
camerae), settled primarily in the towns that were centers
of the
monarch's power. This is why they were involved in
occupations typical
of cities (trade, crafts), or those that related to the
court
(purveyors, creditors, brokers).
The oldest information about Jews in the Polish lands
indicates they
also owned land, though it is not known whether they farmed
it, or
whether those lands were taken as collateral. A Silesian
magnate, Piotr
Wlast, bought the village of Tyniec from Jews before the
year 1153.
Before 1203, Josef and Chaskiel owned the prince's "service"
village of
Sokolniki. A document of 1226 stated that the Jews in the
castellany of
Bytom were to give a tithe of hay to the Church. The Church
probably
believed it had a right to taxes from land belonging to
Jews, but it
cannot be ruled out that the Jews were farming it
themselves.
In the fifteenth century, Woloczko Czolner was involved
in the
establishment of new villages under Magdeburg Law, and was
also a wojt
[title given by the king to a town's founder - translator's
note]. Jews
had gardens and fields outside town where they raised
animals and
farmed, as did other burghers. They sold the food they
produced (such as
milk or vegetables) at the local market. Around the year
1500, the
fields beyond the San, near Przemysl, were owned by Anna and
Mojsze.
Jakub Ickowy owned two village houses in Gora Solna, near
Bochnia.
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In the second half of the sixteenth century,
after the annexation to the Crown of the voivodships of
Volhynia, Kijow
[Kiev] and Braclaw, those territories quickly began to be
put to use.
Jews leased entire estates there. From the early sixteenth
century, the
number of Jews living in the countryside gradually grew;
these were
primarily inn-keepers. Most of them farmed a small piece of
land for
their own use, and also raised chickens and cattle. Jews who
leased the
right to produce and sell alcoholic beverages, i.e., beer
and spirits,
also owned land on which they grew barley and hops.
According to the
poll tax of 1765, approximately 25% of the Jewish population
(200,000-250,000 people) lived in the countryside, most of
whom were
inn-keepers with their families.
Although by a law passed by the Sejm in 1775 Jews were
allowed to
settle on and cultivate fallow land, not many were
interested in doing
so. They were probably concerned that their rights would be
restricted
and that they would be forced to pay dues to the nobles. In
sources
dating back to the late eighteenth century, there is limited
information
about Jewish farms in Wielkopolska and Volhynia. The
well-known
merchant and banker Szmul Zbytkower leased pastures and
other
agricultural lands near Warsaw.
(H.W./CM)
After the decree of Alexander I in 1804 regulating legal
relations
in the Russian partition, about 600 families settled in the
countryside.
Nicholas I, in an attempt to encourage Jews to become
farmers, gave
them financial incentives in 1835. There were requirements
for future
settlers, such as that there be family-based settlements, at
least three
men be involved in farming the land, an imposed plan of land
usage, and
no subsidies. These all meant that results fell short of
expectations.
Conditions for Jewish farmers improved markedly after
the
enfranchisement of the peasantry in the 1860's. Jews living
in the
countryside were treated as peasants, and thus became
landowners. They
did not gain the right to inherit land, however, which meant
their
holdings quickly diminished.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
interest in
farming increased, largely due to the growing Zionist
movement and plans
for the future settlement of Palestine. The first
agricultural schools
and settlements were established (in Czestochowa, for
example) to
prepare future farmers.
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The situation of Jewish farmers in the Austrian
partition was somewhat different. Joseph II's decree of
March 1805
allowed Jews to acquire land under the condition that they
would farm it
themselves and treat it as their only source of livelihood.
As a
result, by the 1920's, about 800 Jewish families had settled
on farms,
though their numbers steadily decreased over the coming
years because of
worsening economic conditions. Attempts to strengthen Jewish
farming in
Galicia during the 1850's and 1860's also failed to have any
significant effect.
The number of Jews who were landowners grew quickly,
however: in the
early twentieth century, they constituted as much as 20% of
all the
owners of large landed estates. The number of Jewish
lease-holders grew
even faster, particularly in eastern Galicia: in 1902, there
were about
16,000. Approximately 4,000 Jews served as managers of
private estates.
During the interwar period, few Jews made agriculture
their
livelihood, despite the fact restrictions had been lifted.
In 1931, only
4% of Jews were farmers. These were primarily farm owners
from what had
been Galicia, and peasants living in some of the eastern
voivodships-descendants of settlers from the first half of
the
nineteenth century.
For ideological reasons, however, young people were
becoming
increasingly interested in agriculture under the influence
of Zionism.
Teaching farms were established. In Warsaw, such settlements
existed in
the Grochow and Czerniakow districts. Baron M. De Hirsch's
foundation
and ORT helped establish farms and vocational schools for
the training
of farmers, both for those who intended to emigrate to
Israel and those
who wanted to work in Poland.
After 1944, family farms were established, as well as
agricultural
cooperatives and kibbutzim associated with the Zionist
movement. Joint
and ORT provided future farmers with livestock and
equipment, and
financed the purchase of land. Agricultural settlements were
concentrated around Dzierzoniow (95 families) and Szczecin.
After the
Zionist organizations were liquidated, some of the farmers
quit and left
the countryside, while others were collectivized. A few Jews
in the
Western Territories kept running their own farms.
(G.Z./CM)
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