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Rzeszow
[Yiddish: Rayshe, Reyshe] - Granted its town
charter in 1354, Rzeszow was an important trade center
beginning in the
late sixteenth century. Located on the trade route from
Krakow to Rus',
Rzeszow was known for its fairs; until 1772, the town was in
private
hands.
Jewish settlement is recorded as early as the
mid-sixteenth century.
Jews would lease the right to collect taxes and operate
mills. They
were also engaged in trade, including wine, broadcloth and
canvas, goods
which they also supplied to Gdansk. In a privilege granted
in 1599 by
Mikolaj Ligeza, they were forbidden from trading in products
made by
artisans; this, however, did not hamper the development of
crafts. Jews
were engaged in the production of spirits, and were tailors,
jewellers,
embroiderers, carpenters, glaziers, soap-makers and
pharmacists.
The Ostrogski family, the town's owners, issued a decree
in the
first half of the seventeenth century stating that Jews
could own seven
buildings in Old Town and forty others located nearby, in
New Town.
These figures suggest that the Community had approximately
500 people.
During this period, there was a synagogue (known as "Old"),
which was
built next to the defensive wall. The town was seriously
affected during
wars in the mid-seventeenth century and early eighteenth
century, as
well as by fires and disease. These events meant economic
development
stopped, though they did not hinder demographic growth in
the Jewish
Community. In 1765, it had approximately 1,200 members.
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As a result of the first partition, the town
fell under Austrian rule, and became the seat of the
starosta (the local
royal representative) and other government institutions. The
economy
was bolstered by the construction of railway links with
Krakow, Lwow and
Jaslo. Several industrial plants were located there,
including a
factory producing farm machinery. In addition, the
goldsmiths' products
were especially popular. The town was an important trade
center for
agricultural products; fairs were held for the sale of
grain, cattle and
horses. The town's population grew quickly, as did that of
the Jewish
Community: in 1800, the Jewish population was 3,500; in
1880, it was
over 5,800 (or 52% of the population).
In the nineteenth century, a Jewish hospital, old
people's home,
schools and many cultural institutions were founded.
Chasidism became
very influential. Jewish political parties became active
beginning in
the late nineteenth century. These were Zionist for the most
part, and
became particularly influential during the interwar period.
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In September 1939, there were approximately
14,000 Jews living in Rzeszow (or 47% of the town's total
residents).
Shortly after the Second World War broke out, Germans
deported 6,000
Jews to Rzeszow from areas that had been annexed to the
Reich. In
January 1942, they created a ghetto, which eventually held a
total of
25,000 people, of which approximately 16,000 were Jews from
small nearby
towns. Most of the ghetto's residents were killed at the
Belzec death
camp in the summer of 1942; several thousand were shot in
the forest
near Rudna. The ghetto was liquidated in September 1943.
Those fit to
work were sent to labor camps in Szebnie and Plaszow; the
rest perished
in Auschwitz. A few Jews remained in the local labor camp
until July
1944.
In Rzeszow, two seventeenth-century synagogues have
survived. The
Old Town synagogue currently houses an archive, and the New
Town
synagogue has been made into a gallery. The cemetery, with
nineteenth
and twentieth century headstones, also has survived. The
town's museum
also has a rich collection of Judaica.
(H.W./CM)
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