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Warsaw
[Yiddish, Varshe, Varsha, Varshoy] - The
earliest Jewish settlement in Warsaw dates back to the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. In the first half of the fifteenth century, Warsaw
had a "Jewish Street", synagogue and cemetery. The first mention of
Jews being expelled from the city dates back to 1483. In 1527, Sigismund
I the Old confirmed Warsaw's de non tolerandis Judaeis privilege, which
had been granted earlier by the Mazovian princes. From that time, Jews
had been settling in Warsaw illegally, or in "jurisdictions" (private
holdings belonging to magnates and not subject to the magistrate), as
was the case in Pociejow or Marywil. They were allowed to be present in
the city while the Sejm was in session and take part in markets and
fairs.
In 1765, there were approximately 2,500 Jews living in Warsaw. Their
numbers increased significantly when Sejm legislation passed in 1775
gave them the right to engage in trade, run pubs and live in the Praga
district of Warsaw. In 1780, King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, at the
request of Szmul Zbytkower, allowed the Jews to establish a Jewish
cemetery in Brodno; that same year, he agreed to allow Jewish settlement
in Goledzinow, adjacent to Praga. As a result, in the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries, Praga became the center for Jewish life:
it had synagogues, a cemetery and a school. The Community there grew
rapidly, despite a massacre carried out by A. Suvorov in 1794: in 1796,
the Community had approximately 1,500 members.
In 1792, there were 6,666 Jews living in all of Warsaw (8.3% of
city's total population). By 1810, this figure was 14,061 (18.1%). This
growth was due to the fact that the Prussian authorities took control of
the city and allowed all Jews residing there in 1796 to legalize their
status. They were obliged to pay a yearly tax for the right to live
there, which was later changed to biletowe (�ticket�) (Jews' legal
status).
In 1807, the first decree expelling Jews from the nicest
neighborhoods and streets was issued, which was kept and then expanded
by the government of the Duchy of Warsaw in March 1809 as well as by the
Russian authorities. Jews lived in areas that were known as the "Jewish
rewir"; towards the late nineteenth century, it began to be called the
"northern neighborhood".
Despite the restrictions, which were lifted only in 1862
(emancipation), the city's number of Jewish residents grew steadily: in
1865, 77,200 were Jews living in Warsaw (31.7% of the total population);
by 1900, this figure was 249,900 (36.4%).
In the mid-nineteenth century, Warsaw became the largest and one of
the most important centers of Jewish cultural and religious life, for
both Orthodox Jews as well as for those supporting assimilation. The
special nature of this center is demonstrated by the fact that during
the nineteenth century, a separate Warsaw dialect of Yiddish had
developed. Chasidim from Gora Kalwaria had their seat in Warsaw, as did
those from Warka and elsewhere. Numerous synagogues and houses of prayer
were built in Warsaw, as well as baths; two large cemeteries were
established, in Brodno and on Okopowa Street, founded in 1806. The first
progressive synagogues were opened, and there was an Orthodox hospital,
traditional and modern religious schools, as well as ones that also
taught secular subjects (schools, School of Rabbis).
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In the nineteenth century, Warsaw became a main
center for Jewish publishing. There was an assimilationist press
(Jutrzenka [Morning Star], Izraelita [The Israelite]), and the first
Yiddish-language newspaper, Varshoyer Yidishe Tsaytung (Warsaw Jewish
Newspaper, 1867-68). Jews were active as writers, in the theater (in
both Polish and Yiddish), and in music and the visual arts. Warsaw
plutocrats of Jewish extraction patronized a great many artists, and
also helped fund scholarship (donors included J. G. Bloch, L.
Kronenberg, and H. Wawelberg).
By the turn of the century, the main political groups had
crystallized. During the 1905 revolution, the workers' movement
developed, and the Bund and Fighting Organization of the Polish
Socialist Party (Organizacja Bojowa Polskiej Partii Socjalistycznej)
cooperated, staging demonstrations, strikes and bombings. Later, they
organized the nascent trade unionist movement.
In independent Poland, despite the fact that the Jewish population
was growing, the proportion of Jews overall in Warsaw was diminishing as
the result of a large influx of non-Jewish residents. In 1918, 320,000
Jews were living in Warsaw (42.2% of the total population; by 1921, this
figure was 310,300 (33.1%); in 1931 - 352,600 (30.1%), in 1938 -
368,400 (29.1%).
Warsaw nevertheless remained the largest center of Jewish cultural,
economic and political life in Europe. Warsaw had the largest number of
publishing houses (36.2% of all Jewish periodicals and books published
in Poland); there were Jewish theaters (including Eldorado, Bagatela,
Ermitage, Centralny, Nowosci and Elizeum); famous choirs (such as that
of the Great Synagogue on T�omackie Street, directed by D. Ajzensztadt,
or the Grosser Choir, founded by Bund members). There was the Jewish
Musical Society, amateur and professional groups, and music courses.
Jewish painters and sculptors worked in Warsaw under the aegis of the
Jewish Society for the Advancement of the Fine Arts.
Warsaw was also an important center for Jewish academic life and
schools; most of the school headquarters were located in Warsaw, and
from 1928, courses were offered at the Institute of Judaic Studies.
Most of the political parties and groups moved their headquarters to
Warsaw after 1918. International charitable, self-help and emigration
organizations (such as B'nai B'rith and Joint) also had their
headquarters in Warsaw.
The heyday of Jewish culture in Warsaw was ended by the outbreak of
the Second World War and the German occupation. Beginning in September
1939, Jews were systematically repressed. In September 1940, the largest
ghetto in the Polish lands was created (in 1940, three hundred sixty
thousand people were crowded there; in 1941, it had 450,000 residents),
separated from the rest of the city by a wall. A. Czerniakow was head of
its Judenrat.
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Despite hunger, disease and the high mortality
rate, political parties continued their activities underground,
organizing civil resistance. In the ghetto, cultural life took the shape
of concerts, theaters and exhibitions; there were secret courses, and
an underground press. Jewish scholars tried to continue their research,
and a ghetto archive was founded (E. Ringelblum).
In July 1942, when deportations to the death camps began, youth
organizations began preparing for an uprising. It broke out on April 19,
1943, and was the first armed resistance against the Nazis in occupied
Europe. After it was suppressed, on May 16, the Germans blew up the
Great Synagogue on T�omackie Street. The liquidation of the ghetto
lasted until August. Many Jews hid on the "Aryan side", and some did not
leave the city after the fall of the Warsaw uprising, hiding in the
ruins until the liberation.
In 1947, Warsaw became the administrative center for Jewish life as
it began anew, but its cultural centers were in Lodz and Lower Silesia.
Warsaw was no longer the most important Jewish center after the war as
the result of waves of emigration in 1946, 1949 and 1956-57, forced
assimilation and repression on the part of the communist authorities.
Warsaw's role as the center of Jewish life in Poland completely
withered, however, only after the anti-Semitic campaign in 1968 (March
1968).
Warsaw currently has one synagogue, a kosher cafeteria and butcher
shop, the E. R. Kaminska Jewish State Theater and the Jewish Historical
Institute (ZIH). Jewish organizations also have their headquarters
there; these include the Social and Cultural Society of Jews in Poland,
the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, the Union of Jewish Communities in
Poland and Joint. There is also a Union of Jewish Students and a sports
club, as well as four publications: Biuletyn Zydowskiego Instytutu
Historycznego (Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute), Dos Yidishe
Vort - Slowo Zydowskie (The Jewish Word), Yidele [Yiddish, Little Jew]
and Midrasz.
Among those few Jewish buildings and historical sites that have
survived, the most important are the Jewish cemetery on Okopowa Street
(formerly Gesia Street); the cemetery in Brodno (ruined only after the
war); the building of the Judaic Library of the Institute of Judaic
Studies (which currently houses the Jewish Historical Institute); the
Nozyk Synagogue on Twarda Street, dating back to the early twentieth
century; the student dormitory of the "Auxilium Academicum Judaicum"
Association; and the building of the Jewish Religious Community trade
school, which currently houses the "Baj" theater in Warsaw's Praga
district.
(G.Z./CM)
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