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Przysucha
First word of Przysucha dates from the beginning of the 15th century. The city did not, however, receive its municipal charter until August II the Strong granted it in 1710. This royal privilege was intended to make Przysucha a town of German craftsmen. Thirteen years later, in 1723, permission was given for the first Jews to settle, and in 1745 a third, Polish district was created in the city.
Each of the city's three ethnic groups created its own distinct neighborhoods, each with a square, streets and public buildings. Thanks to this unique development, Przysucha is a unique "tri-city" possessing three city centers.
A half a century after its creation the Jewish district housed 105 families, and was clearly in need of a synagogue. In 1777, one was finally built; members of its congregation thought it to be a splendid structure. It is a spacious 20 meter by 30 meter rectangle built of sandstone in a neoclassical style. Its interior architecture conformed to the traditional Polish style of a "nine field" design, in which the center of the ceiling was supported by four columns connected by four arcaded columns that surround the bimah.
Synagogue. Photo: J.J.
Przysucha became a well-known in Jewish circles when the famous tzaddik Jacob Isaac ben Asher (called The Holy Jew by his contemporaries) settled in the town. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the city was a center to the Chasidic movement. The tzaddik's famous home drew the faithful from the area around Kielce and from all over Mazovia as well.
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So great was his popularity that many decided to settle close by, thus greatly contributing to the growth of the city's Jewish population. In 1939 Jews accounted for some 65% of the population.
During the German occupation of Poland, the Jewish residents of Przysuchy were exterminated. The city's ghetto was created in 1942 and eventually held 5000 souls, who in the fall of that year were sent to their deaths at Treblinka.
The Jewish cemetery created in the 18th century was completely destroyed during the war; only meager fragments of graves and gravestones remain today.
Synagogue. Photo: J.J.
The once well-known synagogue is slowly falling into ruins. An incompetent attempt to renovate it only further hastened its decline. In the 1970s, a tin roof was installed, though without exploring how it might impact the walls. The building is now crumbling under its own weight. However it is still possible to catch a glimmer of its former architectural splendor, its polychrome interior with ornamental plants and animals, frescos with Hebrew inscriptions, and above all its baroque aron ha-kodesz of carved stone that is held to the columns that surround it by griffins.
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