Jewish Life in Poland

May 18, 2017 by Irv Kempner

The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over 1000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Browse this presentation of a documentary pictorial history of Jewish life in pre-war Poland.

Wysock, a tiny village in Volhynia, 1937.

A well in a rural area of Volhynia

Mountain Jews in Rosachacz, a village in the Eastern Beskid range of the Carpathian mountains.

Mountain Jews in Rosachacz, a village in the Eastern Beskid range of the Carpathian mountains.

Jew and peasants in a village in the Carpathian mountains, 1921.

An elderly wanderer and his grandson en route between Warsaw and Otwock

Wooden foot bridge in Maciejowice, one of the oldest Jewish settlements in Lublin province.

The store and home of Yankev and Perl Rebejkow on a street in Jeziory, ca. 1900.

The store and home of Yankev and Perl Rebejkow on a street in Jeziory, ca. 1900.

The store and home of Yankev and Perl Rebejkow on a street in Jeziory, ca. 1900.

Zablludow, 1916. A town famous for its seventeenth-century wooden synagogue.

Market day in Hrubiesz, 1925.

Water pump in the fish market in Otwock, twenty-eight kilometers southeast of Warsaw.

Entrance to the Jewish quarter in Cracow, 1938.

Jatkowa (Meatmarket) Street in the old Jewish quarter of Vilna.

The Jewish quarter in the old section of Lublin, 1938.

Market day in Kremieniec, 1925. One of the oldest settlements in eastern Poland.

Sale of clothing at the market in Krazimierz nad Wisła (Yiddish: Kuzmir), ca. 1920.

Jews praying at the tombstone of REMA (Rabbi Moses Isserles) o Lag ba'Omer, the anniversary of his death.

The tomb of Elijah (1720-1797), the Bilna Gaon.

Tombstone of Jacob Meshullam ben Mordecai Ze'ev Ornstein (1775-1839)

Tombstones in the old Jewish cemetery in Stryj.

Family gathered at a tombstone in the Wloszczowa

Professional Mourners (klogerins) in the cemetery in Brody.

Interior of the Old Synagogue of Kazimierz (Cracow).

The synagogue in Orla. Originally a Calvinist church, the building was sold to the Jews of Orla in 1732.

The Tlomackie Synagogue in Warsaw.

Jewish Life in Poland

Worshipers leaving the Altshtot (Old City) Synagogue on Wolborska Street, Lodz, 1937.

Exterior of the famed eighteenth-century wooden synagogue in Wolpa.

Interior of the magnificent seventeenth-century wooden synagogue in Zabludow

Exterior of the Eighteenth-century wooden synagogue in Jeziory.

Moyshe Pinczuch, a shames (sexton) for forty years. Wysokie Litewskie, 1924

Jewish Life in Poland

Dovid Elye, the soyfer (scribe). Annopol, ca. 1912.

The Gerer rebe Abraham Mordecal Alter (d. 1948)

Hasidim outside a house of prayer on Saturday. Cracow, 1938.

Hasidim and others at Krynica-Zdroj, the most famous spa in Poland, in the 1930s.

Sholem David Unger (d. 1923), the Zhabner Rebbe, of Zabno.

Yitskhok Erlich, the belfer (helper of the melamed), carries youngsters to kheyder in Staszow.

Kheder boy. Warsaw, 1938.

Boys' kheder. Lublin, 1924.

Girls' Kheyder in Laskarzew.

Yeshivah students on Nalewki Street. Warsaw, 1928.

Men studying the Talmud in the bethmedresh of a home for the aged at 17 Portowa Street, Vilna, 1937.

Women's executive board of the Orla Talmud Torah, 1930s.

"Very good and beautiful hallahs for the Sabbath. Egg hallahs also." Cracow, 1938.

Housewives in Bialystok carry "tsholnt", a dish of meat, potatoes, and beans, to the baker's oven on Friday afternoon.

Ezrielke the shames (sexton) was also athe shabes-klaper.

The interior of the old mikve (ritual bath) in Zaleszczyki.

Blessing the Sabbath candles.

Reading the Tsenerene, a Yiddish version of the Pentateuch. Vilna.

Returning from the synagogue. Chodorow, 1938.

Reform Jew wishes a Hasid a happy New Year.

On Rosh Sashanah, Jews pray at a stream and, according to custom, empty the contents of their pockets into the water, symbolically casting away their sins.

Shlogn kapores- a rite performed on the day before Yom Kippur.

On Sukkot, Jews eat, sleep, and study in temporary dwellings.

Examining the etrog (citron) for imperfections.

Buying flags for children to carry in the Torah procession on the eve of Simhat Tora

Khanike- gelt -- coins are given to children on Hanukkah

Purim- shpiler in Szydlowiec, 1937.

Airing the bedding and cleaning house for Passover.

Rabbi Binyomin Graubart, with teachers and students of the Mizrachi Talmud Torah on Lag ba'Omer, Staszow.

Naftole Grinband, a clockmaker. Gora Kalwaria (Yiddish: Ger), 1928.

Khone Szlaifer, 85-year-old grinder, umbrella maker, and folk doctor. Lomza, 1927.

Yisroel Lustman, weaver of peasant linen in Wawolnica.

Zelig, the tailor in Wolomin.

Shoemaker. Warsaw, 1927.

Chairmender in Vilna.

Watecarrier in Stoszow, ca. 1935.

Khayim, an old ferryman, on the Vistula River near Kaszimierz nad Wisla.

Sime Swieca, a feather plucker, in Kosow.

Women spinning cord, 1938.

C. Nachumowski, the Jewish propietress of an inn. Lubcza, 1930s.

Jews and peasant on market day in Otwock, 1937.

Zisl, the street musician. Staszow, 1930s.

Klezmorim - traditional musicians, most of them members of the Faust family.

Berl Cyn, age 87, the oldest blacksmith in the town. Nowe Miasto, 1925.

About Irv Kempner

Irv Kempner is the chair of MOTL New England. He is the CEO of the Kempner Family Foundation and serves on many nonprofit boards, including World Boston and American Jewish Committee of New England.