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Jewish Life in Lublin from the 19th Century to the 2nd World War
In the nineteenth century, Lublin became an important center of Hasidism, primarily thanks to the activities of the tsaddik Jakub Icchak Horowitz (d. 1815), who was called the Seer of Lublin. The Seer's first court was in Wieniawa, and attracted students from all over Poland, Galicia and Volhynia. News of the rabbi's miracles spread and he became more famous, which did not help his relations with the rabbi of Lublin. For a certain period, Horowitz was forbidden to go into Lublin because the rabbi there was not favorably disposed towards him. When the Seer's supporters came to include local wealthy people, even members of the kahal had to submit, and Horowitz moved his court to Szeroka Street 28, right in the center of the Jewish town.
Chewra Nosim, photo: A.Olej&K. Kobus:
The first Hasidic synagogue in Lublin, opened in 1794, was built at the rear of this building. The Seer's activities provoked controversy both among Orthodox Jews as well as supporters of the Haskala. When Napoleon entered the Polish lands with his army, this raised the Poles' hopes that they would regain their independence. Napoleon approached the most important rabbis and tsaddikim to ask them whether they would support his army and expedition to Russia. The Seer met with Święty Juda of Przysucha and Magid of Kozienice at his court to discuss the matter. He predicted Napoleon's defeat in Russia, and called him Armilius - i.e., the incarnation of the greatest evil, whose downfall would mean the messianic era had begun for the Jews. In 1814, his interlocutors died, and in 1815 he did as well, in mysterious circumstances. He was buried in Lublin's old Jewish cemetery. Hasidim from all over the world now make pilgrimages to his grave. Jakub Icchak Horowitz did not found his own dynasty, and none of his sons had the gift of clairvoyance or miracle-working. One of them was a rabbi in Tarczyn and a second became a respected and wealthy merchant. In the mid-nineteenth century, Zysie Szternfeld was rabbi of Piaski in Lublin - the great-grandson of the Seer. None of his descendants became as famous as he had been. After the Seer's death, for many years Lublin had no Hasidic leader, although the city remained home to the largest Hasidic community in that part of Poland. In the mid-nineteenth century, the following Hasidic groups existed: Lublin, Kock, Izbica, Turzysk, Kozienice, Kazimierz and followers of the Tsaddik of Góra Kalwaria.
Another important tsaddik in Lublin's history was Jehuda Lejb Eiger, the grandson of Akiba Eiger, Gaon of Poznań and the son of Salomon, rabbi of Kalisz. After arriving from the west of Poland, he founded the Lublin dynasty, which lasted until the Second World War. The was a respected scholar and a virtuous man who was in contact with a wide variety of Jewish groups, including those who supported assimilation as well as with Christians. He took part in the activities of the Jewish School Committee, which was to prepare a reform of traditional religious education. His son Abraham was the last great Lublin tsaddik - later the dynasty disintegrated as the result of discord among Abraham's sons. The younger of them, Szlomo Eiger, was designated by Meira Szapiro as his successor in the position of rector at the Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin.
The nineteenth century was also when Poland, still under the Partitions, made attempts to fight for its independence. The first uprising in 1830, the November Uprising, was officially supported by the Jews of Lublin, and several dozen Jews took an active military role in the fighting. The January uprising of 1863 was condemned by the Lublin rabbi Ashkenazi as a period of riots and insurgent terror. It was probably significant that tsar Alexander II issued a decree in 1862 granting equal rights to the Jewish population. Local Jews preferred to adopt a conservative stance and not run risks with the tsarist authorities.
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Lublin slowly became an industrial town. By the second half of the nineteenth century, the Jews in Lublin already owned impressive buildings, breweries, mills, tanneries, tobacco factories and numerous shops. In 1865, there were 12,992 Jews living in Lublin, making up 59% of its total population. This percentage, with only small fluctuations, remained the same until the Second World War.
In 1862, the Home for the Protection of Jewish Orphans was founded, located ul. Grodzka 11. In 1886, a Jewish hospital was built, which currently houses a maternity clinic. In 1908, a Jewish cultural association was formed - Hazomir - which had a choir and amateur theater directed by Jakub Waksman. In 1910, Chovei Sfos Ever was founded - a society for the popularization of the Yiddish and Hebrew languages and cultures. There was also a group supporting assimilation, whose leading members were Dawid Warman, a graduate of Warsaw's Rabbinical School; the well-known merchant Bernard Meyerson and his wife Malwina, who was the first Jewish woman in Lublin to write and publish literary works in Polish. Their children became famous as well: their daughter Franciszka Arnsztajnowa was a poet, and her brother, Emil Meyerson, was a leading French philosopher. In 1903, the first group of the socialist Bund was founded, led by Henryk Erlich. During the 1905 revolution, Lublin's Jews actively participated in the strike and demonstrated with the Poles, demanding autonomy for the Kingdom of Poland. National aspirations developed among the Jews as well. During the years 1912-1913, anti-Semitic sentiments grew, manifesting themselves in an economic boycott, encouraged by the National Democratic party, which accused the Jews of every possible anti-Polish activity.
After Poland regained its independence in 1918, the first government was formed in Lublin that November, headed by Ignacy Daszyński. During the interwar period, Lublin was an important center of Jewish social life. In 1926, there were already seventeen Jewish schools. In 1930, Rabbi Meir Szapiro founded the Talmudic Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin (the Yeshiva of the Wisemen of Lublin).
Jewish schooling developed at the elementary and secondary levels. Sixteen Jewish printing shops existed in the city. The most famous daily was the Lubliner Togblat, whose last issue appeared in September 1939. Beginning in 1926, the Bundists published their own weekly, also in Yiddish, titled Lubliner Shtime. Lublin's Jewish community was divided both politically and religiously. The Bundists were most influential, and in 1918, that party's national congress took place [in Lublin]. Zionist and Orthodox-supported parties were also active, as were communists. Jews had representatives in the City Council, and each of the parties had associated youth, cultural and educational organizations. Because the high level of social differentiation among Jews, there were many different associations and trade unions, such as the Union of Transport Workers, the Union of Trade Employees, and Union of Jewish Craftsmen which organized the Bank of Cottage Workers, which gave zero-interest or low-interest loans.
In Lublin, the Jewish Theater was housed in the Panteon building, on Jezuicka Street. It featured amateur actors in a Jewish repertoire of both classics and works by local authors. The largest events were however screenings of films in Yiddish and guest performances by Jewish actors from Warsaw, Wilno or Lódź. Symcha Trachtenberg, the theater�s director, was shot in April 1942 in the Krepiecki Forest after one of the last selections carried out at the Majdan Tatarski ghetto.
In 1931, there were 38,937 Jews living in Lublin, making up 34.67% of its total population. On the eve of the war, in 1939, Lublin had 42,830 Jewish residents, who comprised 31% of its total residents. The Community had seven synagogues, two mikvahs, a hospital, orphanage, old people's home, and numerous schools.
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