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Elisha Wolowski Schor

Elisha Wolowski Schor (1690-1757), Frankist. The Wolowski family joined the Frankists in 1755-56 and converted to Catholicism. Elisha is the first known member of this family and for many years held the position of maggid in Rohatyn. He was among the leading followers of Shabbetai Tsevi in south-eastern Poland. Regarding Jacob Frank as the successor of Shabbetai Tsevi he and his sons became adherents of the Frankist sect. He initiated the disputation between the Frankists and the Rabbinates in Kamenets Podolski, participating as an advocate of Frankism. When Bishop Dembowski, the patron of the Frankists, died, Elisha had to flee across the border to Turkey along with his followers. He died there during an outbreak against members of the sect.

SCHOR

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. Schor, which is Hebrew for "ox", is one of Yosef's biblical bynames. Yosef (in English, Joseph), son of Jacob and Rachel, was sold into Egypt by his brothers, and eventually became the pharaoh's chief administrator. In Deutoronomy 33.17, Moses compared him to a strong ox. Other surnames and titles of Joseph include Hamashbir (Hebrew for "the provider"), because "he it was that sold (grain) to all the people of Egypt" during the 7-year famine he had foretold (Genesis 42.6); and Porat, "a fruitful vine" (Genesis 49.22). The word Schor is also one of the most common examples mentioned in the biblical chapters discussing laws of property, ownership and taxes, for example in Exodus 21 (the Torah giving in Mount Sinai). The German spelling variant Schorr is recorded in 1708.

In some cases Shor is a Hebrew acronym (a name created from the initial letters of a Hebrew phrase, and which refers to a relative, lineage or occupation), and which refers to a relative, lineage or occupation, for 'Shochet VeRav' ("ritual slaughterer and rabbi"). Shor is documented as a Jewish family name with the 15th/16th century chancellor of the Moldavian (Romanian) ruling princes Stefan and Bogdan, Isaac Ben Benjamin Shor of Jassy. The German spelling variant Schorr is recorded with Loebel Schorr of Vienna who visited the Leipzig (Germany) fair in 1708.

Distinguished 20th century bearers of the Jewish family name Schor include the Polish-born American artist and silversmith Ilya Schor.
WOLOWSKI

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a patronymic surname based on a male ancestor's personal name, in this case of biblical origin.

Literally "from/of the ox", the Polish Jewish family name Wolowski, in which the ending "-owski" stands for "son of", is based on the Hebrew S(h)or, which means "ox". Shor became a frequent 'kinnui' ("secular equivalent") of Joseph because he is described as a young bull in Deutoronomy. Polish Jews translated the 'kinnui' as Byk, which has the same meaning, or Wol, that is "ox" The German equivalent is Ochs. Shor is documented as a Jewish family name with the 15th/16th century chancellor of the Moldavian (Romanian) ruling princes Stefan and Bogdan, Isaac Ben Benjamin Shor of Jassy. The German spelling variant Schorr is recorded with Loebel Schorr of Vienna who visited the Leipzig (Germany) fair in 1708.

A well-known bearer of the name Wolowski was the 18th century Galician rabbi and follower of Jacob Frank, Elisha Wolowski, originally called Shor.

Dunajska Streda

Hungarian: Dunaszerdahely; German: Schuett Szerdahely; Yiddish: סרדאהלי

A small town in south-west Slovakia. Until 1918 the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia

21st Century

There are perhaps a few Jews left in Dunajska Streda.

History

Jews lived at the area where present day Dunajska Streda is situated at the time of the Roman Empire. In the 16th century the area belonged to the nobles of the House of Palffy and the settlement gradually became a marketing center for agricultural produce.

In 1728, there were 19 Jewish families living there. In 1739 Count Janus Palffy granted the towns' Jews privileges similar to those his family granted the Jews of Bratislava and Stupova earlier. In the document, the autonomic status of the community was established by defining the privileges and obligations of the Jews in relation to the authorities. The Jews of Dunajska Streda were allowed to conduct trade and engage in craftsmanship. The head of the congregation was titled The Jews’ Judge (Judenrichter) and was given the responsibility of collecting taxes and other fees. The count gave the community land to build a synagogue and a cemetery. In 1740, 16 additional families moved there from Moravia. Besides the rabbi, the congregation employed a butcher who was also the cantor in the synagogue and served the nearby villages as well. Both the royal treasury and the Palffy family burdened the Jews with heavy taxes.

The community developed rapidly and in a census of 1770, there were 53 Jewish families in the town itself, then called Dunaszerdahely. Another 60 Jewish families lived in nearby villages. They too were members of the community, which numbered at the time 600-700 persons. The earliest tombstones in the old cemetery were from 1755. In 1787 another synagogue was built.  In 1780 the Jewish community of Dunajska Streda was the second largest in the Hungarian Kingdom, after Pressburg (Bratislava).

In the eighteenth century Jews were innkeepers, artisans, merchants in agricultural produce and distillers of spirits. Later they were allowed to engage in general commerce and crafts, and at the beginning of the 19th century the local Jews made their living as merchants (mainly in wines, cattle, poultry and clothing) and as peddlers. Among the craftsmen were furriers, tailors, cobblers, and goldsmiths. The relationship with the non-Jewish population was usually good and this helped the congregation grow and flourish. There was also one Jewish surgeon in the town. In the 1850s the Jewish merchants  joined the local union of merchants and contributed to the development of the economy of the town. In the 1860s Jews were allowed to purchase real estate and they bought or leased agricultural estates, built flour mills and an ice factory, and in 1873 established the well-known starch factory of Herzog & Dukes. On Saturdays and Jewish holidays, when the Jewish businesses were closed so was the local trade.

 In 1828 there were 928 Jews in the four quarters of the town. In the quarter of Szerdahely the Jews constituted the majority of inhabitants and this situation continued until 1938. In 1835, there were 1,175 members in the community and in 1900 - 2,150. The community was registered in 1872 as an Orthodox community, to which smaller communities of the neighborhood, at first 42 and later 63, were affiliated. The community became one of the important centers in Hungary for the study of the Torah and was referred to also as Little Jerusalem.

The first rabbi of Dunajska Streda, Rabbi Shimon David, officiated until 1761. Among the rabbis of the community were Rabbi Alexander Meislish (1784- 1800), Rabbi Menachem Mendel Deutsch (1800-1810) and Rabbi Aharon Szuditz (1816-1828), who was also the head of the yeshiva. He was followed by Rav Eliezer Lipman Stein (1840-1851) who wrote Ir Shushan (Town of Shushan) and Ohel Moshe (Moshe's Tent) and was one of the most well known students of the Chatam Sofer. During his time, probably in 1848, the congregation opened an elementary school, its curriculum including both religious and secular studies.  In 1892 the school had 6 classes for boys and girls

During the years 1852-1866, Rav Yehuda Aszad, who wrote Yehuda Naale was the rabbi. He was one of the most appreciated spiritual leaders of the Hungarian Jewry and was admired by both Jews and non-Jews. During his time the congregation prospered. Rabbi Yehuda Aszad established the by-laws for the congregation and crystallized its special character, the way it will remain for generations later. During his time the synagogue became too small and in 1865 a new, elegant synagogue was built in the market square. It had about 800 seats and was named by members of the community The Big Synagogue. Next to it a mikveh was set up, and a public bath that served the non-Jewish population as well. After him, his son Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Aszad took over for 40 years, until 1905. During his time the congregation of Dunajska Streda was one of the centers of the orthodox Hungarian Jewry, and during the split of 1869 was notorious for its uncompromising attitude towards any changes and revisions.

The congregation of Dunajska Streda was famous for its yeshiva. According to the local tradition the first biggest and most known yeshiva was established in the beginning of the 19th century, during the days of Rabbi David Deutch, but according to written documents it was founded by Rabbi Aharon Bichler, in 1825. During that time there were many students. The days of Rabbi Aszad were its best times. It had 150-200 students and the congregation helped with the expenses.

In 1912 David Silberstein started an Agudat Israel group that in time became one of the biggest in the country. Also the Hovevei Zion organization was established at that time.


Rabbi Yehuda Aszad was followed by his son Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Aszad (until 1905), and his grandson Jacob Meir Aszad, a dayan (judge, until 1908).  Rabbi Shmuel Levy Weinberger served until 1925 and was followed by his son Rabbi Hillel Weinberger, who perished in the Holocaust. Rabbi Asher Ansel Katz was head of the rabbinical court and was also a victim of the Holocaust.

In the 1880s there was an outburst of severe antisemitism. In 1887 the Jewish quarter of Dunajska Streda was set on fire and 79 families were left destitute. The fire was a consequence of antisemitic instigation by the deputy Szabo, the candidate of the Catholic church in the regional elections. As a result, the elections were annulled and after repeated elections Megyeri Krausz  (a Jew) was elected to the regional council.

In World War I 220 men of the community were called up to the army. 46 of them were killed in battle. In the course of the war the Jewish Self Defense Committee frustrated attempts by bands of hooligans to harass the Jews.

Between the Wars

Dunajska Streda was now part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia which recognized the Jews as a national minority with appropriate rights. In 1921, 1,471 out of the 3,029 Jews of the district of Dunajska Streda declared their nationality as Jewish. In the census of 1930 2,634 out of the then 3,222 Jews of the district declared themselves likewise.

During these years the involvement of the Jews in the town affairs grew. Half of those elected to the local council were Jews - some were representatives of the Jewish parties, others were candidates of the Jewish Orthodox list or the general lists. There were two Jewish political parties, the Jewish Party and Agudas Yisroel.  During the 1920s there were 10 Jews in the local council, one of them Leopold Weiss who was the town treasurer.  Sometimes sessions of the council were adjourned to enable the Jewish members to hold their prayers in a minyan. Among the Jews who occupied important positions were the head of the land registry office, the head of the town collection agency, the head district Judge Hugo Greiner, the town Judge Meir Wuzner.

Between the Wars, the Jewish community prospered economically and politically. The first bank of Dunajska Satreda, Hitelintezet Csallokozi, and the General Saving Fund were founded by Jews. At that time, many money matters, medicine, legal counselling, and painting, were in the hands of Jews. But commerce was still their main source of living. A few Jews held public posts. In 1935 the agricultural society, The Jewish Union, was established to assist young Jews in finding a living.

During this period, there were 3 synagogues in Dunajska Streda, several prayer houses, two beth midrash, talmud torah, home for the elderly, mikveh, soup kitchen, a butchery and a bakery for matzo. Aside from the chevra kadisha there were several other welfare organizations: the Jewish Women organization, torat chesed, malbish arumim (supplying clothing for the needy), bikur cholim [help for the sick] help for orphans, gemilut hassadim [charity], linat orchim [lodging], poalei zedek, and a guardianship association. The leaders of the congregation during the 1920s and 1930s were Yosef Eliezer Bishitz, Meir Wuzner, Yehuda Leib Hibsh and Shlomo Yehuda Weiss.

In the 1920s a group of Jews headed by Rabbi Ashel Katz, the head of the rabbinical court of the whole community in the years 1925-1944, withdrew from the community following a controversy over the appointment of a new chief rabbi . They formed a new congregation by the name of Adat Israel (Some things never change!). They built their own synagogue but otherwise received all their religious needs from the mother-community.

The Jewish elementary school at that time had 8 classes where boys and girls studied together and the language of instruction was Hungarian. By the end of the 1930s the school had 450 students. One yeshiva, led by Rabbi Hillel Weinberger, had 90 students by the end of 1920. Another yeshiva, led by Rabbi Asher Anshel Katz had 120 students.  During the 1930s there were a total of 350 students in both yeshivas and they were among the biggest ones in Slovakia. Adjacent to the yeshivas were the associations of Shas (Talmud study) and Machzikei Torah, who were active in teaching religious subjects to the community at large. There was also a Bais Yakkov school for girls established in 1920.
Zionist activity grew in the 1920s despite the disapproval of the rabbis with the establishment of Hashomer. A small group of Hamizrachi had also existed at that time. Some individuals belonged to the General Zionists. In 1929 the youth movement Betar opened a branch in the town. This branch was one of the strongest in Slovakia and its members began to emigrate to Eretz Israel in 1932. Hashomer Hazair was established in 1931. In 1937, 34 members of the community participated in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress.  Hundreds of the youth in town belonged to the sport organization Maccabi.  The womens’ Zionist  organization Wizo was also active in Dunajska Streda . At the end of the 1930s some 40 young Jews of all the political parties made Aliyah to Eretz Israel through the Betar movement.

The Orthodox weekly newspaper Herold der Judischer was published at Dunajska Streda in Hebrew, German and Hungarian. The traveler and orientalist Arminius Vamberi and the author Gyula Csermely were born at Dunajska Streda.

On the eve of World War II 2,645 Jews were living at Dunajska Streda, 41% of the town’s total population. They were a vibrant well integrated community.

The Holocaust Period

Following the Vienna Agreement of November 1938, about a year before the outbreak of World War II, a part of Slovakia, including Dunajska Streda, was annexed to Hungary, then an ally of Nazi Germany. The town returned to its Hungarian name Dunaszerdahely. On November 5th, before the Hungarian army entered the town, hundreds of Jews of small settlements which remained in Slovakia, were expelled to Dunajska Streda on the initiative of the Slovakian police and the Hlinka Guard. The refugees were absorbed by the community. When the Hungarian troops entered the town, a delegation of Jewish soldiers in World War I came out to welcome them, but the gesture was rudely rejected. Upon seeing the Hungarian attitude to the Jews, local villagers broke into Jewish shops and ransacked them. A few days later, hundreds of Jews who were not Hungarian citizens were expelled to the area of the new border with Slovakia, where they lived in tents in severe hardship.

The 1938 discriminatory laws of Hungary were applied to the annexed territory only in 1940. Jews were deprived of their rights and property and Jewish men were drafted into forced labor in a military framework. The local Jews were sent to a concentration camp near the town of Komarom, where they were assigned to work places. At the town itself a transit camp was set up for Jews from other localities. Jews who were regarded as stateless were deported in 1941 to the Ukrainian town, Kamenets Podolski, where the Germans murdered thousands of Jews from Hungary at a site outside the town.

In the spring of 1942, in the course of the expulsion of the Jews of Slovakia to camps in Poland, many Jews managed to escape to Hungary via Dunajska Streda. During the years 1942–44 Dunajska Streda was one of the centers for smuggling Slovakian and Polish Jews into Hungary.  The mutual aid organization Omzsa, which was active in Hungary in those years, assisted the refugees. At that point, since they were not yet under Nazi occupation, the situation for Jews was not as deadly.

The Germans occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. The devastation and destruction came in quick succession. A few days later, German SS men and their Hungarian supporters, broke into Jewish houses and looted them. The Jewish leadership was dispersed and replaced by a Judenrat, headed by Joseph Wetzlar. On the 29th of March all Jewish property and money was confiscated. On the 5th of April the Jews were ordered to wear a Yellow Shield of David and on the 7th of April movement restrictions were imposed. By the end of April all Jewish educational institutions were closed and business places, shops and apartments were confiscated. Some young people were given permission to work for Hungarian farmers until the beginning of May, when all the Jews were concentrated in a ghetto that was set up in three streets near the synagogue. Jews of neighboring small settlements were also brought to that ghetto. On the 10th of May Jewish men up to the age of 48 were mobilized for forced labor.

On the 8th of June some 3,000 Jews of the ghetto were assembled in the synagogue and on the 15th of June they were all deported by train to the extermination camp of Auschwitz. A few hundred were deported to other places. On the same day about 8,000 additional Jews from the local transit camp were also deported to Auschwitz. In four short months, a vibrant Jewish community was destroyed and almost eliminated.

Postwar

After the war some 600 survivors of Dunajska Streda and the neighborhood returned to their pre-war residence. They were met with hostility and found it difficult to repossess their property.

The synagogue and the community house had been damaged in the course of the war. With the help of the Joint, the community was revived and Jewish life centered around the house of Wetzlar.  The Dunajska Streda congregation set an example for other congregations in Slovakia in the rapid way it reconstructed its religious life. On the 27th of the month of Sivan 5706 (18 June 1946), the date when the Jews of the town were deported, a symbolic funeral was held with many participants from all sections of Slovakia. Damaged torah scrolls and sacred books were buried and a monument was established. This day was declared as a day of fast for generations to come. That same year (1946), the yeshiva reopened under the leadership of Rabbi Moshe Neuschloss and 30 students attended. The yeshiva, one of two in Slovakia after World War II, operated for the coming two years until the emigration of the Rabbi and many of the students to the US in 1948. The yeshiva building served as a place for public prayers and accommodation. A soup kitchen was also opened. The synagogue of Adat Israel was repaired. Joseph Weiss was then the head of the community.

The Zionist activity was renewed and the local Zionist Chapter was headed by William Steiner. Most young people joined Zionist youth groups like Hashomer Hatzair and Bnei Akiva. In 1947 135.000 Kronas were donated to the JNF in Israel to plant a forest to commemorate the martyrs of Czechoslovakia in the hills of Jerusalem.

However, the revival did not last long. The Jews were regarded by the Slovaks as Hungarian (In 1938 they were persecuted by the Hungarians because they were accused of being Slovaks!). There were antisemitic demonstrations and the Jewish merchants and shopkeepers were being oppressed. The hostile atmosphere paved the way for emigration to Eretz Israel. Some of the men were given military training in camps of the Czech army. Actual Aliyah began in 1947 and by 1949 turned into a mass exodus. Most of the members of the community emigrated to Israel, while others went to the USA, Canada, and Australia. Only a few dozen Jews remained at Dunajska Streda. In 1950 the authorities destroyed what had been left of the big synagogue. All Jewish religious installations, with the exception of a small synagogue, were pulled down by the Communist regime in 1950 and 1960.

At the end of the 1980s there were only a few Jewish families living in Dunajska Streda. A community of around 20 families established regular services in the small synagogue in the 1990s and the congregation organized social activities, including a yearly memorial service. In 1991 a Holocaust memorial was established at the site of the destroyed synagogue.

Rohatyn

Рогатин / Rohatyn; in Polish: Rohatyn

A town in Ivano-Frankovsk oblast, Ukraine. Formerly within Poland, it passed to Austria in 1772, and was incorporated within Stanislawow province, Poland, between the two World Wars.

One of Poland's oldest towns, Rogatin suffered severely from the depredations of the Tatars. A Jewish community apparently existed there from early times; in the 16th and 17th centuries Jews from other parts of Poland attended fairs which took place in Rogatin. Within the framework of the Council of Four Lands Rogatin was within the "Province of Russia." at the beginning of the 18th century there were a number of Shabbateans in Rogatin. Jacob Frank had many adherents there. The town was one of the three towns allocated to the Frankists by King Augustus III. A noted Frankist Elisha Schoor (Wolowski) lived in Rogatin. There were 797 Jews living in Rogatin in 1765. their number reached 3,192 (48.9% of the total population) in 1887; 3,217 (about 46%) in 1912; 1,294 (22.6%) in 1921; and 3,002 in 1931.

During World War I the town was in the battle zone, and did not recover during the period of the independent Polish republic. The Jews suffered from the discriminatory policy of the Polish government and the economic depression of the 1930's. Jews took part in the social and political life of the town, and their representatives were elected to the town council in 1927 and 1933. In the elections to the community council of 1933, the Zionists gained the most seats.

After the outbreak of World War II, during the period of Soviet rule (1939- 41), Jewish community institutions were dissolved, political activity was banned, and restrictions were placed on private enterprise. Some Jews were deported to the Soviet interior. During the German campaign against the Soviet Union, Rogatin was captured by the Germans on July 2, 1941. On July 6 Ukrainian police attacked the Jews, and by the end of 1941 a ghetto was established. Its inhabitants suffered from hunger and from a typhus epidemic in which 30 to 40 persons died daily. Shlomo Amarant was head of the Judenrat. On March 20, 1942, 2,000 persons were murdered near the town. On September 21, 1942, some 1,000 persons were deported to the Belzec death camp. In October Jews from Bukaczowce, Bursztyn, and bolszowce were brought to the Rogatin ghetto. On December 8, 1942 an "Aktion" took place in which 1250 persons, including the medical corps and patients from the Jewish hospital, were deported to Belzec. In January 1943 the ghetto area was reduced. The survivors in the community prepared bunkers and hideouts, and it was difficult for the Germans to search them out. On June 6, 1943 the Germans began to liquidate the ghetto. They surrounded it, set houses on fire, and threw hand grenades into them. Some Jews were able to escape reach the forests; the others were murdered and buried in mass graves near the new cemetery.

Kamenets-Podolski

Kamyanets-Podilsky (Ukr.), Kamieniec Podolski (Pol.), Komenets (Yiddish)

City in Podolia, Ukraine.

The city was under the rule of Lithuania from the 14th century, and after the union with Poland (1569) under Poland-Lithuania (but for the short though important and formative interval of Ottoman rule there, 1672--99); it passed to Russia in 1795, and from then until the 1917 revolution was capital of the province of Podolia.
For a long time the municipality of Kamenets-Podolski prevented attempts of Jews to settle in this important trading and communications center in southeast Poland-Lithuania. In 1447 Jews were prohibited from staying there for more than three days. In 1598 King Sigismund III prohibited Jews from settling in the city and suburbs and from engaging in trade there; their visits were again restricted to three days only. During the Chmielnicki uprising, many Jews sought refuge in the fortified city which withstood attacks by the Cossacks in 1648 and 1652.
Subsequently King John II Casimir permitted Jews to reside there, and they apparently continued to live in Kamenets-Podolski despite repeated prohibitions in 1654, 1665, and 1670. Under Ottoman rule Jewish settlement was permitted and grew to a considerable size.
After the city's return to Poland in 1699, the Christian citizens resumed their opposition to Jewish settlement. In 1737 the city council submitted a request to the state and church authorities to banish the Jews from the city, maintaining that they had no right to settle there, and were competing with the Christian inhabitants and impoverishing them. King Augustus III expelled the Jews from Kamenets-Podolski in 1750. Their houses passed to the town council and the synagogue was demolished. The expelled Jews settled in the suburbs and in villages around the city and developed extensive trading activity there which led to additional complaints on the part of the citizens.
In 1757 a public disputation was held by the church in Kamenets-Podolski - enjoined by the local bishop - between the representatives of Podolian Jewry and Jacob Frank and his supporters. After it took place the Talmud was publicly burned in the city on the bishop's orders.
After Kamenets-Podolski passed to Russia, Czar Paul I confirmed in 1797 the right of Jews to reside there. At that time 24 Jews belonging to merchant guilds and 1,367 Jewish inhabitants were registered in the tax-assessment books of the city. Two years later, in 1799, 29 merchants and 2,617 Jewish inhabitants were registered. In 1832 the Christians in Kamenets-Podolski petitioned the government to expel the Jews from the city, basing themselves upon their ancient privileges. The petition was rejected but in 1833 the government restricted the right of the Jews to build shops and new houses, or to acquire houses, to two suburbs of the city only in order to prevent them from residing in the city itself. The restriction was rescinded in 1859. The community numbered 4,629 in 1847, 16,211 (40% of the total population) in 1897, and 23,430 (47%) on the eve of World War I.
After 1918, during the civil war, the Jews in Kamenets-Podolski suffered severely and 52 Jews were killed in pogroms there in July 1919. After the establishment of the Soviet regime, many wealthy Jews fled across the frontier and the economy of the Jewish population was ruined. Jewish cultural and communal life was entirely suppressed after a protracted struggle with the Yevsektsiya. By 1929 only 12,774 Jews remained (29.9% of the total population).
During World War II, some time after the occupation of August 1941, the Jews who had not managed to escape were murdered. They numbered some 10,000 persons, together with about 6,000 others who had been brought there from other places.

The number of the Jewish population after World War II was not known. In 1970, there was no synagogue in Kamenets-Podolski .

The Jewish community in Kamenets- Podolski in the 2000s

According to Jewish organizations in Ukraine, in 2013 the Jewish population of Kamenets- Podolski numbered about 150 people. The town has a synagogue called "Artisan," and next to it there are a mikve and a Jewish restaurant. The Jewish community center is run by Moshe Gershovitz Lam. In addition, the Joint Distribution Committee administrates the "Hesed Besht" welfare center. The cultural activities of the community are centered at the "Shalom House".

Community Center Address: Street Grsbkogo 32/93

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Elisha Wolowski Schor

Elisha Wolowski Schor (1690-1757), Frankist. The Wolowski family joined the Frankists in 1755-56 and converted to Catholicism. Elisha is the first known member of this family and for many years held the position of maggid in Rohatyn. He was among the leading followers of Shabbetai Tsevi in south-eastern Poland. Regarding Jacob Frank as the successor of Shabbetai Tsevi he and his sons became adherents of the Frankist sect. He initiated the disputation between the Frankists and the Rabbinates in Kamenets Podolski, participating as an advocate of Frankism. When Bishop Dembowski, the patron of the Frankists, died, Elisha had to flee across the border to Turkey along with his followers. He died there during an outbreak against members of the sect.

Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People
SCHOR
SCHOR

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. Schor, which is Hebrew for "ox", is one of Yosef's biblical bynames. Yosef (in English, Joseph), son of Jacob and Rachel, was sold into Egypt by his brothers, and eventually became the pharaoh's chief administrator. In Deutoronomy 33.17, Moses compared him to a strong ox. Other surnames and titles of Joseph include Hamashbir (Hebrew for "the provider"), because "he it was that sold (grain) to all the people of Egypt" during the 7-year famine he had foretold (Genesis 42.6); and Porat, "a fruitful vine" (Genesis 49.22). The word Schor is also one of the most common examples mentioned in the biblical chapters discussing laws of property, ownership and taxes, for example in Exodus 21 (the Torah giving in Mount Sinai). The German spelling variant Schorr is recorded in 1708.

In some cases Shor is a Hebrew acronym (a name created from the initial letters of a Hebrew phrase, and which refers to a relative, lineage or occupation), and which refers to a relative, lineage or occupation, for 'Shochet VeRav' ("ritual slaughterer and rabbi"). Shor is documented as a Jewish family name with the 15th/16th century chancellor of the Moldavian (Romanian) ruling princes Stefan and Bogdan, Isaac Ben Benjamin Shor of Jassy. The German spelling variant Schorr is recorded with Loebel Schorr of Vienna who visited the Leipzig (Germany) fair in 1708.

Distinguished 20th century bearers of the Jewish family name Schor include the Polish-born American artist and silversmith Ilya Schor.
WOLOWSKI
WOLOWSKI

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a patronymic surname based on a male ancestor's personal name, in this case of biblical origin.

Literally "from/of the ox", the Polish Jewish family name Wolowski, in which the ending "-owski" stands for "son of", is based on the Hebrew S(h)or, which means "ox". Shor became a frequent 'kinnui' ("secular equivalent") of Joseph because he is described as a young bull in Deutoronomy. Polish Jews translated the 'kinnui' as Byk, which has the same meaning, or Wol, that is "ox" The German equivalent is Ochs. Shor is documented as a Jewish family name with the 15th/16th century chancellor of the Moldavian (Romanian) ruling princes Stefan and Bogdan, Isaac Ben Benjamin Shor of Jassy. The German spelling variant Schorr is recorded with Loebel Schorr of Vienna who visited the Leipzig (Germany) fair in 1708.

A well-known bearer of the name Wolowski was the 18th century Galician rabbi and follower of Jacob Frank, Elisha Wolowski, originally called Shor.

Dunajska Streda

Dunajska Streda

Hungarian: Dunaszerdahely; German: Schuett Szerdahely; Yiddish: סרדאהלי

A small town in south-west Slovakia. Until 1918 the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later, until 1993, part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia

21st Century

There are perhaps a few Jews left in Dunajska Streda.

History

Jews lived at the area where present day Dunajska Streda is situated at the time of the Roman Empire. In the 16th century the area belonged to the nobles of the House of Palffy and the settlement gradually became a marketing center for agricultural produce.

In 1728, there were 19 Jewish families living there. In 1739 Count Janus Palffy granted the towns' Jews privileges similar to those his family granted the Jews of Bratislava and Stupova earlier. In the document, the autonomic status of the community was established by defining the privileges and obligations of the Jews in relation to the authorities. The Jews of Dunajska Streda were allowed to conduct trade and engage in craftsmanship. The head of the congregation was titled The Jews’ Judge (Judenrichter) and was given the responsibility of collecting taxes and other fees. The count gave the community land to build a synagogue and a cemetery. In 1740, 16 additional families moved there from Moravia. Besides the rabbi, the congregation employed a butcher who was also the cantor in the synagogue and served the nearby villages as well. Both the royal treasury and the Palffy family burdened the Jews with heavy taxes.

The community developed rapidly and in a census of 1770, there were 53 Jewish families in the town itself, then called Dunaszerdahely. Another 60 Jewish families lived in nearby villages. They too were members of the community, which numbered at the time 600-700 persons. The earliest tombstones in the old cemetery were from 1755. In 1787 another synagogue was built.  In 1780 the Jewish community of Dunajska Streda was the second largest in the Hungarian Kingdom, after Pressburg (Bratislava).

In the eighteenth century Jews were innkeepers, artisans, merchants in agricultural produce and distillers of spirits. Later they were allowed to engage in general commerce and crafts, and at the beginning of the 19th century the local Jews made their living as merchants (mainly in wines, cattle, poultry and clothing) and as peddlers. Among the craftsmen were furriers, tailors, cobblers, and goldsmiths. The relationship with the non-Jewish population was usually good and this helped the congregation grow and flourish. There was also one Jewish surgeon in the town. In the 1850s the Jewish merchants  joined the local union of merchants and contributed to the development of the economy of the town. In the 1860s Jews were allowed to purchase real estate and they bought or leased agricultural estates, built flour mills and an ice factory, and in 1873 established the well-known starch factory of Herzog & Dukes. On Saturdays and Jewish holidays, when the Jewish businesses were closed so was the local trade.

 In 1828 there were 928 Jews in the four quarters of the town. In the quarter of Szerdahely the Jews constituted the majority of inhabitants and this situation continued until 1938. In 1835, there were 1,175 members in the community and in 1900 - 2,150. The community was registered in 1872 as an Orthodox community, to which smaller communities of the neighborhood, at first 42 and later 63, were affiliated. The community became one of the important centers in Hungary for the study of the Torah and was referred to also as Little Jerusalem.

The first rabbi of Dunajska Streda, Rabbi Shimon David, officiated until 1761. Among the rabbis of the community were Rabbi Alexander Meislish (1784- 1800), Rabbi Menachem Mendel Deutsch (1800-1810) and Rabbi Aharon Szuditz (1816-1828), who was also the head of the yeshiva. He was followed by Rav Eliezer Lipman Stein (1840-1851) who wrote Ir Shushan (Town of Shushan) and Ohel Moshe (Moshe's Tent) and was one of the most well known students of the Chatam Sofer. During his time, probably in 1848, the congregation opened an elementary school, its curriculum including both religious and secular studies.  In 1892 the school had 6 classes for boys and girls

During the years 1852-1866, Rav Yehuda Aszad, who wrote Yehuda Naale was the rabbi. He was one of the most appreciated spiritual leaders of the Hungarian Jewry and was admired by both Jews and non-Jews. During his time the congregation prospered. Rabbi Yehuda Aszad established the by-laws for the congregation and crystallized its special character, the way it will remain for generations later. During his time the synagogue became too small and in 1865 a new, elegant synagogue was built in the market square. It had about 800 seats and was named by members of the community The Big Synagogue. Next to it a mikveh was set up, and a public bath that served the non-Jewish population as well. After him, his son Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Aszad took over for 40 years, until 1905. During his time the congregation of Dunajska Streda was one of the centers of the orthodox Hungarian Jewry, and during the split of 1869 was notorious for its uncompromising attitude towards any changes and revisions.

The congregation of Dunajska Streda was famous for its yeshiva. According to the local tradition the first biggest and most known yeshiva was established in the beginning of the 19th century, during the days of Rabbi David Deutch, but according to written documents it was founded by Rabbi Aharon Bichler, in 1825. During that time there were many students. The days of Rabbi Aszad were its best times. It had 150-200 students and the congregation helped with the expenses.

In 1912 David Silberstein started an Agudat Israel group that in time became one of the biggest in the country. Also the Hovevei Zion organization was established at that time.


Rabbi Yehuda Aszad was followed by his son Rabbi Aharon Shmuel Aszad (until 1905), and his grandson Jacob Meir Aszad, a dayan (judge, until 1908).  Rabbi Shmuel Levy Weinberger served until 1925 and was followed by his son Rabbi Hillel Weinberger, who perished in the Holocaust. Rabbi Asher Ansel Katz was head of the rabbinical court and was also a victim of the Holocaust.

In the 1880s there was an outburst of severe antisemitism. In 1887 the Jewish quarter of Dunajska Streda was set on fire and 79 families were left destitute. The fire was a consequence of antisemitic instigation by the deputy Szabo, the candidate of the Catholic church in the regional elections. As a result, the elections were annulled and after repeated elections Megyeri Krausz  (a Jew) was elected to the regional council.

In World War I 220 men of the community were called up to the army. 46 of them were killed in battle. In the course of the war the Jewish Self Defense Committee frustrated attempts by bands of hooligans to harass the Jews.

Between the Wars

Dunajska Streda was now part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia which recognized the Jews as a national minority with appropriate rights. In 1921, 1,471 out of the 3,029 Jews of the district of Dunajska Streda declared their nationality as Jewish. In the census of 1930 2,634 out of the then 3,222 Jews of the district declared themselves likewise.

During these years the involvement of the Jews in the town affairs grew. Half of those elected to the local council were Jews - some were representatives of the Jewish parties, others were candidates of the Jewish Orthodox list or the general lists. There were two Jewish political parties, the Jewish Party and Agudas Yisroel.  During the 1920s there were 10 Jews in the local council, one of them Leopold Weiss who was the town treasurer.  Sometimes sessions of the council were adjourned to enable the Jewish members to hold their prayers in a minyan. Among the Jews who occupied important positions were the head of the land registry office, the head of the town collection agency, the head district Judge Hugo Greiner, the town Judge Meir Wuzner.

Between the Wars, the Jewish community prospered economically and politically. The first bank of Dunajska Satreda, Hitelintezet Csallokozi, and the General Saving Fund were founded by Jews. At that time, many money matters, medicine, legal counselling, and painting, were in the hands of Jews. But commerce was still their main source of living. A few Jews held public posts. In 1935 the agricultural society, The Jewish Union, was established to assist young Jews in finding a living.

During this period, there were 3 synagogues in Dunajska Streda, several prayer houses, two beth midrash, talmud torah, home for the elderly, mikveh, soup kitchen, a butchery and a bakery for matzo. Aside from the chevra kadisha there were several other welfare organizations: the Jewish Women organization, torat chesed, malbish arumim (supplying clothing for the needy), bikur cholim [help for the sick] help for orphans, gemilut hassadim [charity], linat orchim [lodging], poalei zedek, and a guardianship association. The leaders of the congregation during the 1920s and 1930s were Yosef Eliezer Bishitz, Meir Wuzner, Yehuda Leib Hibsh and Shlomo Yehuda Weiss.

In the 1920s a group of Jews headed by Rabbi Ashel Katz, the head of the rabbinical court of the whole community in the years 1925-1944, withdrew from the community following a controversy over the appointment of a new chief rabbi . They formed a new congregation by the name of Adat Israel (Some things never change!). They built their own synagogue but otherwise received all their religious needs from the mother-community.

The Jewish elementary school at that time had 8 classes where boys and girls studied together and the language of instruction was Hungarian. By the end of the 1930s the school had 450 students. One yeshiva, led by Rabbi Hillel Weinberger, had 90 students by the end of 1920. Another yeshiva, led by Rabbi Asher Anshel Katz had 120 students.  During the 1930s there were a total of 350 students in both yeshivas and they were among the biggest ones in Slovakia. Adjacent to the yeshivas were the associations of Shas (Talmud study) and Machzikei Torah, who were active in teaching religious subjects to the community at large. There was also a Bais Yakkov school for girls established in 1920.
Zionist activity grew in the 1920s despite the disapproval of the rabbis with the establishment of Hashomer. A small group of Hamizrachi had also existed at that time. Some individuals belonged to the General Zionists. In 1929 the youth movement Betar opened a branch in the town. This branch was one of the strongest in Slovakia and its members began to emigrate to Eretz Israel in 1932. Hashomer Hazair was established in 1931. In 1937, 34 members of the community participated in the elections to the 20th Zionist Congress.  Hundreds of the youth in town belonged to the sport organization Maccabi.  The womens’ Zionist  organization Wizo was also active in Dunajska Streda . At the end of the 1930s some 40 young Jews of all the political parties made Aliyah to Eretz Israel through the Betar movement.

The Orthodox weekly newspaper Herold der Judischer was published at Dunajska Streda in Hebrew, German and Hungarian. The traveler and orientalist Arminius Vamberi and the author Gyula Csermely were born at Dunajska Streda.

On the eve of World War II 2,645 Jews were living at Dunajska Streda, 41% of the town’s total population. They were a vibrant well integrated community.

The Holocaust Period

Following the Vienna Agreement of November 1938, about a year before the outbreak of World War II, a part of Slovakia, including Dunajska Streda, was annexed to Hungary, then an ally of Nazi Germany. The town returned to its Hungarian name Dunaszerdahely. On November 5th, before the Hungarian army entered the town, hundreds of Jews of small settlements which remained in Slovakia, were expelled to Dunajska Streda on the initiative of the Slovakian police and the Hlinka Guard. The refugees were absorbed by the community. When the Hungarian troops entered the town, a delegation of Jewish soldiers in World War I came out to welcome them, but the gesture was rudely rejected. Upon seeing the Hungarian attitude to the Jews, local villagers broke into Jewish shops and ransacked them. A few days later, hundreds of Jews who were not Hungarian citizens were expelled to the area of the new border with Slovakia, where they lived in tents in severe hardship.

The 1938 discriminatory laws of Hungary were applied to the annexed territory only in 1940. Jews were deprived of their rights and property and Jewish men were drafted into forced labor in a military framework. The local Jews were sent to a concentration camp near the town of Komarom, where they were assigned to work places. At the town itself a transit camp was set up for Jews from other localities. Jews who were regarded as stateless were deported in 1941 to the Ukrainian town, Kamenets Podolski, where the Germans murdered thousands of Jews from Hungary at a site outside the town.

In the spring of 1942, in the course of the expulsion of the Jews of Slovakia to camps in Poland, many Jews managed to escape to Hungary via Dunajska Streda. During the years 1942–44 Dunajska Streda was one of the centers for smuggling Slovakian and Polish Jews into Hungary.  The mutual aid organization Omzsa, which was active in Hungary in those years, assisted the refugees. At that point, since they were not yet under Nazi occupation, the situation for Jews was not as deadly.

The Germans occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. The devastation and destruction came in quick succession. A few days later, German SS men and their Hungarian supporters, broke into Jewish houses and looted them. The Jewish leadership was dispersed and replaced by a Judenrat, headed by Joseph Wetzlar. On the 29th of March all Jewish property and money was confiscated. On the 5th of April the Jews were ordered to wear a Yellow Shield of David and on the 7th of April movement restrictions were imposed. By the end of April all Jewish educational institutions were closed and business places, shops and apartments were confiscated. Some young people were given permission to work for Hungarian farmers until the beginning of May, when all the Jews were concentrated in a ghetto that was set up in three streets near the synagogue. Jews of neighboring small settlements were also brought to that ghetto. On the 10th of May Jewish men up to the age of 48 were mobilized for forced labor.

On the 8th of June some 3,000 Jews of the ghetto were assembled in the synagogue and on the 15th of June they were all deported by train to the extermination camp of Auschwitz. A few hundred were deported to other places. On the same day about 8,000 additional Jews from the local transit camp were also deported to Auschwitz. In four short months, a vibrant Jewish community was destroyed and almost eliminated.

Postwar

After the war some 600 survivors of Dunajska Streda and the neighborhood returned to their pre-war residence. They were met with hostility and found it difficult to repossess their property.

The synagogue and the community house had been damaged in the course of the war. With the help of the Joint, the community was revived and Jewish life centered around the house of Wetzlar.  The Dunajska Streda congregation set an example for other congregations in Slovakia in the rapid way it reconstructed its religious life. On the 27th of the month of Sivan 5706 (18 June 1946), the date when the Jews of the town were deported, a symbolic funeral was held with many participants from all sections of Slovakia. Damaged torah scrolls and sacred books were buried and a monument was established. This day was declared as a day of fast for generations to come. That same year (1946), the yeshiva reopened under the leadership of Rabbi Moshe Neuschloss and 30 students attended. The yeshiva, one of two in Slovakia after World War II, operated for the coming two years until the emigration of the Rabbi and many of the students to the US in 1948. The yeshiva building served as a place for public prayers and accommodation. A soup kitchen was also opened. The synagogue of Adat Israel was repaired. Joseph Weiss was then the head of the community.

The Zionist activity was renewed and the local Zionist Chapter was headed by William Steiner. Most young people joined Zionist youth groups like Hashomer Hatzair and Bnei Akiva. In 1947 135.000 Kronas were donated to the JNF in Israel to plant a forest to commemorate the martyrs of Czechoslovakia in the hills of Jerusalem.

However, the revival did not last long. The Jews were regarded by the Slovaks as Hungarian (In 1938 they were persecuted by the Hungarians because they were accused of being Slovaks!). There were antisemitic demonstrations and the Jewish merchants and shopkeepers were being oppressed. The hostile atmosphere paved the way for emigration to Eretz Israel. Some of the men were given military training in camps of the Czech army. Actual Aliyah began in 1947 and by 1949 turned into a mass exodus. Most of the members of the community emigrated to Israel, while others went to the USA, Canada, and Australia. Only a few dozen Jews remained at Dunajska Streda. In 1950 the authorities destroyed what had been left of the big synagogue. All Jewish religious installations, with the exception of a small synagogue, were pulled down by the Communist regime in 1950 and 1960.

At the end of the 1980s there were only a few Jewish families living in Dunajska Streda. A community of around 20 families established regular services in the small synagogue in the 1990s and the congregation organized social activities, including a yearly memorial service. In 1991 a Holocaust memorial was established at the site of the destroyed synagogue.

Rohatyn

Rohatyn

Рогатин / Rohatyn; in Polish: Rohatyn

A town in Ivano-Frankovsk oblast, Ukraine. Formerly within Poland, it passed to Austria in 1772, and was incorporated within Stanislawow province, Poland, between the two World Wars.

One of Poland's oldest towns, Rogatin suffered severely from the depredations of the Tatars. A Jewish community apparently existed there from early times; in the 16th and 17th centuries Jews from other parts of Poland attended fairs which took place in Rogatin. Within the framework of the Council of Four Lands Rogatin was within the "Province of Russia." at the beginning of the 18th century there were a number of Shabbateans in Rogatin. Jacob Frank had many adherents there. The town was one of the three towns allocated to the Frankists by King Augustus III. A noted Frankist Elisha Schoor (Wolowski) lived in Rogatin. There were 797 Jews living in Rogatin in 1765. their number reached 3,192 (48.9% of the total population) in 1887; 3,217 (about 46%) in 1912; 1,294 (22.6%) in 1921; and 3,002 in 1931.

During World War I the town was in the battle zone, and did not recover during the period of the independent Polish republic. The Jews suffered from the discriminatory policy of the Polish government and the economic depression of the 1930's. Jews took part in the social and political life of the town, and their representatives were elected to the town council in 1927 and 1933. In the elections to the community council of 1933, the Zionists gained the most seats.

After the outbreak of World War II, during the period of Soviet rule (1939- 41), Jewish community institutions were dissolved, political activity was banned, and restrictions were placed on private enterprise. Some Jews were deported to the Soviet interior. During the German campaign against the Soviet Union, Rogatin was captured by the Germans on July 2, 1941. On July 6 Ukrainian police attacked the Jews, and by the end of 1941 a ghetto was established. Its inhabitants suffered from hunger and from a typhus epidemic in which 30 to 40 persons died daily. Shlomo Amarant was head of the Judenrat. On March 20, 1942, 2,000 persons were murdered near the town. On September 21, 1942, some 1,000 persons were deported to the Belzec death camp. In October Jews from Bukaczowce, Bursztyn, and bolszowce were brought to the Rogatin ghetto. On December 8, 1942 an "Aktion" took place in which 1250 persons, including the medical corps and patients from the Jewish hospital, were deported to Belzec. In January 1943 the ghetto area was reduced. The survivors in the community prepared bunkers and hideouts, and it was difficult for the Germans to search them out. On June 6, 1943 the Germans began to liquidate the ghetto. They surrounded it, set houses on fire, and threw hand grenades into them. Some Jews were able to escape reach the forests; the others were murdered and buried in mass graves near the new cemetery.

Kamenets-Podolski

Kamenets-Podolski

Kamyanets-Podilsky (Ukr.), Kamieniec Podolski (Pol.), Komenets (Yiddish)

City in Podolia, Ukraine.

The city was under the rule of Lithuania from the 14th century, and after the union with Poland (1569) under Poland-Lithuania (but for the short though important and formative interval of Ottoman rule there, 1672--99); it passed to Russia in 1795, and from then until the 1917 revolution was capital of the province of Podolia.
For a long time the municipality of Kamenets-Podolski prevented attempts of Jews to settle in this important trading and communications center in southeast Poland-Lithuania. In 1447 Jews were prohibited from staying there for more than three days. In 1598 King Sigismund III prohibited Jews from settling in the city and suburbs and from engaging in trade there; their visits were again restricted to three days only. During the Chmielnicki uprising, many Jews sought refuge in the fortified city which withstood attacks by the Cossacks in 1648 and 1652.
Subsequently King John II Casimir permitted Jews to reside there, and they apparently continued to live in Kamenets-Podolski despite repeated prohibitions in 1654, 1665, and 1670. Under Ottoman rule Jewish settlement was permitted and grew to a considerable size.
After the city's return to Poland in 1699, the Christian citizens resumed their opposition to Jewish settlement. In 1737 the city council submitted a request to the state and church authorities to banish the Jews from the city, maintaining that they had no right to settle there, and were competing with the Christian inhabitants and impoverishing them. King Augustus III expelled the Jews from Kamenets-Podolski in 1750. Their houses passed to the town council and the synagogue was demolished. The expelled Jews settled in the suburbs and in villages around the city and developed extensive trading activity there which led to additional complaints on the part of the citizens.
In 1757 a public disputation was held by the church in Kamenets-Podolski - enjoined by the local bishop - between the representatives of Podolian Jewry and Jacob Frank and his supporters. After it took place the Talmud was publicly burned in the city on the bishop's orders.
After Kamenets-Podolski passed to Russia, Czar Paul I confirmed in 1797 the right of Jews to reside there. At that time 24 Jews belonging to merchant guilds and 1,367 Jewish inhabitants were registered in the tax-assessment books of the city. Two years later, in 1799, 29 merchants and 2,617 Jewish inhabitants were registered. In 1832 the Christians in Kamenets-Podolski petitioned the government to expel the Jews from the city, basing themselves upon their ancient privileges. The petition was rejected but in 1833 the government restricted the right of the Jews to build shops and new houses, or to acquire houses, to two suburbs of the city only in order to prevent them from residing in the city itself. The restriction was rescinded in 1859. The community numbered 4,629 in 1847, 16,211 (40% of the total population) in 1897, and 23,430 (47%) on the eve of World War I.
After 1918, during the civil war, the Jews in Kamenets-Podolski suffered severely and 52 Jews were killed in pogroms there in July 1919. After the establishment of the Soviet regime, many wealthy Jews fled across the frontier and the economy of the Jewish population was ruined. Jewish cultural and communal life was entirely suppressed after a protracted struggle with the Yevsektsiya. By 1929 only 12,774 Jews remained (29.9% of the total population).
During World War II, some time after the occupation of August 1941, the Jews who had not managed to escape were murdered. They numbered some 10,000 persons, together with about 6,000 others who had been brought there from other places.

The number of the Jewish population after World War II was not known. In 1970, there was no synagogue in Kamenets-Podolski .

The Jewish community in Kamenets- Podolski in the 2000s

According to Jewish organizations in Ukraine, in 2013 the Jewish population of Kamenets- Podolski numbered about 150 people. The town has a synagogue called "Artisan," and next to it there are a mikve and a Jewish restaurant. The Jewish community center is run by Moshe Gershovitz Lam. In addition, the Joint Distribution Committee administrates the "Hesed Besht" welfare center. The cultural activities of the community are centered at the "Shalom House".

Community Center Address: Street Grsbkogo 32/93