Tsevi Prylucki 

Kremenets

Кременець; in Polish: Krzemieniec

A town in Volyn Oblas, Ukraine.

Under Lithuania until 1569; in Poland until 1793; under Russia (after the partition of Poland) until 1918, and in independent Poland until 1939, between the two world wars.

Jews are first mentioned there in 1438, when they were granted a charter by the Lithuanian grand duke. They were expelled in 1495 along with all other Jews in Lithuania, returning in 1503. The number of Jews in the town rose from 240 (10.6% of the total population) in 1552 to 500 in 1578 and 845 (15% of the total) in 1629. The community developed and prospered during the 16th and 17th centuries, up to 1648. It was a center of arenda activity and the related trade.

Among the rabbis of that period were Mordecai B. Abraham Jaffe and Samson B. Bezalel, brother of Judah Loew B. Bezalel of Prague. The community participated in the work of the councils of the lands. Outstanding among the scholars of the yeshivah at the beginning of the 17th century was Joseph B. Moses of Kremenets. In the Chmielnicki Massacres (1648-1649) and the Russian and Swedish Wars soon after, many Jews were savagely murdered and many others fled. Subsequently the community was unable to regain its former importance.

In 1765 only 649 Jews lived there. The Jews were prohibited from rebuilding the houses burned down in the frequent fires that broke out in the town. At the beginning of Russian rule, Kremenets was an impoverished community of petty traders and craftsmen.

Kremenets was within the range of 50 versts from the Russian border, which was prohibited to Jews, but the authorities did not apply this prohibition to the town. The number of Jews increased from 3,791 in 1847 to 6,539 (37% of the total population) in 1897. At the end of the 19th century they played an important role in the economy of the town, in particular the paper industry, and the Jewish carpenters and cobblers of Kremenets exported their goods to other towns in Poland and Russia. There was an active cultural life in the community with the Haskalah and Chasidism competing for influence. The Haskalah writer Isaac Baer Levinsohn lived there, as did the Chasid R. Mordecai, father-in-law of Nahum Twersky of Chernobyl. In 1918-1920 Kremenets suffered from the attacks of marauding bands in the Ukraine.

In 1921, 6,619 Jews lived there. In modern Poland the Jews faced both the need for reorganization of their markets, as they were cut off from Russia, and the anti-Jewish policies of polish society and state. Cultural life continued, influenced mostly by Zionism. Two periodicals in Yiddish, which appeared at the beginning of the 1930s, merged in 1933 into one weekly newspaper, "Kremenitser Lebn".

After the outbreak of World War II (September 1, 1939) the Soviet authorities took over the town on September 22, 1939. In the spring of 1940 the refugees from western Poland were obliged to register with the authorities and to declare whether they wished to take up Soviet citizenship or return to their former homes, now under German occupation. For family reasons, many refugees declared that they preferred to return; that summer they were exiled to the Soviet interior. All Jewish communal life was forbidden, and Zionist leaders moved to other cities to keep their past activities from the knowledge of the authorities. By 1941 the Jewish population had increased to over 15,000, including over 4,000 refugees.

A few days after the German-Soviet war broke out (June 22, 1941) the Germans reached the area. Hundreds of young Jews managed to flee to the Soviet Union. A pogrom broke out early in July 1941, when Ukrainians, aided by Germans, killed 800 men, women, and children. In August 1941 the gestapo ordered all Jews with academic status to report for registration. All those who did so were murdered, and thus the Jewish community's leadership was destroyed. That month the Germans set fire to the main synagogue and exacted a fine of 11 kg. of gold from the community. They also imposed a Judenrat, headed by Benjamin Katz, but he was murdered for his refusal to collaborate with the Nazis.

Eventually the Judenrat was comprised of a number of people whose influence was detrimental. At the end of January 1942 a ghetto was imposed and on March 1st was closed off from the rest of the city. The inmates endured great hardship and there was a serious shortage of water. On Aug. 10, 1942, the Germans initiated a two-week long Aktion to annihilate the inmates, and at last set the ghetto ablaze to drive out those in hiding. Fifteen hundred able-bodied persons were dispatched to slave labor in Bialokrynica, where they later met their death. The vast majority of the ghetto inhabitants rounded up in the Aktion were taken in groups and murdered over trenches dug near the railway station, near a former army camp. The local Zionist leader Benjamin Landsberg committed suicide at this time. Only 14 of the Kremenets community survived the Holocaust.

Societies of former residents of Kremenets function in Israel, the U.S. and Argentina.

Kiev

In Ukrainian: Київ / Kyiv

Capital of Ukraine.

Jewish merchants settled in Kiev, the important commercial crossroads of west Europe and the orient, from the 8th century. Chronicles relate that Jews from Khazaria tried to convert Vladimir, the prince of Kiev (10th century). A letter in Hebrew of the year 930 (found in the Cairo Genizah) approached the Jews of other communities to assist in the release of a Jew from Kiev who had been arrested for a debt.

Both Benjamin of Tudela and Petathiah of Regensburg mention Kiev in the 12th century. Rabbi Moses of Kiev corresponded with Jacob Ben Meir Tam in the west and with the Gaon Samuel Ben Ali in Baghdad. Under Tartar rule (1240-1320) the Jews were protected, earning them the hatred of the Christian population, and with the annexation of Kiev to Lithuania, the Jews were granted privileges ensuring the safety of their lives and property. Some of them leased the collection of taxes. The community grew in size and scholarship. In the 15th century rabbi Moses of Kiev wrote commentaries on the Sefer Yetzirah and on the commentaries of Abraham Ibn Ezra, and held disputations with the Karaites. In the Tartar raid (1482), many Jews were captured and in 1495 the community was expelled to Lithuania.

The community was reestablished when the decree was revoked (1503), but 100 years later the citizens obtained a prohibition from the king of Poland (who had united Kiev and Lithuania in 1569) forbidding Jewish settlement and acquisition of real estate (1619) Kiev. The few who remained were killed in the Chmielnicki massacres (1648-49) and with the annexation of the city to Russia in 1667 the prohibition on Jewish settlement was renewed.

The community was reestablished in 1793 with the second partition of Poland and the conflict with the Christian citizenry resurged. By 1815 there were 1,500 Jews and two synagogues and communal institutions. In 1827 Czar Nicholas I acceded to the citizens' demands and Jewish residence in Kiev was once again forbidden. In 1861 two suburbs were assigned to those Jews permitted to reside in Kiev - merchants, wealthy industrialists, their employees, members of the liberal professions, and craftsmen. Despite the prohibition, hundreds of Jews attended the annual fairs and lodged at two municipal inns - leased by Christians. Within ten years the Jewish population grew to 13,000 (12% of the population).

In May 1881 anti-Semitic pogroms broke out. Many Jews were wounded, Jewish property was damaged, and about 800 families ruined. Until the 1917 Russian revolution, the city became notorious for police "hunt attacks" on illegal Jews. Despite this, the Jewish population grew from 50,000 in 1910 to over 81,000 in 1913, and probably even more evaded the census. Many Jews were employed in factories in and around Kiev. Some were wealthy, such as the sugar industry magnates Brodsky and Zaitsev. Most were engaged in the liberal professions and there were 888 Jewish students in Kiev University in 1911 - the largest concentration of Jewish students in a Russian university. Hebrew writers lived in the city, notably J. Kaminer, J.L. Levin (Yehalel), M. Kamionski. L.J. Weissberg, E. Schulman, and A.A. Friedman. Shalom Aleichem lived in Kiev for a while and described it in his account of "Yehupets". A harsh pogrom hit Kiev on October 18, 1905, but despite the increased impoverishment of the lower classes, the Jewish community continued to be one of the wealthiest in Russia. In 1910 there were 5,000 Jewish merchants (42% of the town's merchants), but one quarter of the community still had to apply for Passover alms that year. A general hospital was established in 1862, a surgical hospital, a clinic for eye diseases (under the direction of M. Mandelstamm), and other welfare institutions. In 1898 a magnificent synagogue was built by means of a donation from L. Brodsky. From 1906 to 1921 S. Aronson was rabbi, and among the "government appointed" rabbis were Joshua Zuckerman and S.Z. Luria. During World War I residence restrictions were lifted for Jewish refugees from battle areas. In 1917 all residence restrictions were abolished and by the end of that year there were 87,240 Jews in Kiev (19% of the population). A democratic community was set up by the Zionist Moses Nahoum Syrkin and meetings and conferences of Russian Jews were held in Kiev. Books and newspapers were published by the different parties, and cultural and educational activities began in Hebrew and Yiddish. In spring 1919 the Jewish population reached 114,524. With the first Russian conquest of the town (February-August 1919) the running of the community was handed to the yevsektsyia and the systematic destruction of public life began. With the retreat of the red army, a self-defense army was founded, and when Petlyvra's forces entered the city they arrested them and 36 were executed. Denikin's gangs killed and pillaged the Jews until driven out by the red army (December 1919). Jews suffered from famine and typhus. With the addition of refugees from the Ukrainian pogroms the Jewish population swelled. In 1923 Kiev had 128,000 Jews - and by 1939 there were 175,000 (20% of the population). In the 20 years of Russian rule Kiev became the center of Yiddish culture, officially fostered by Moscow with a network of schools and higher education institutions for thousands of students. At its head was the department of Jewish culture of the Ukrainian academy of sciences which in 1930 became the institute of proletarian Jewish culture directed by Joseph Lieberberg. Valuable research work was published there and a group of intellectuals went to Birobidjhan to organize cultural and educational activities there. With the liquidation of Jewish institutions at the end of the 1930s, one of the most important centers of Soviet-Yiddish culture ceased to exist.

The Holocaust Period
The Germans occupied Kiev on September 21, 1941, and on the 29th and 30th of that month, aided by Ukrainian militia, killed tens of thousands of Jews at the ravine Babi Yar near the Jewish cemetery. After the liberation, a Soviet investigation committee reported that 195,000 citizens and prisoners of war were executed in Kiev in mobile gas vans or by shooting - more than 100,000 of them at Babi Yar. In May 1943 the bodies were burned in ovens dug into the mountainside. Attempts to found a memorial to those who perished in Babi Yar were thwarted by the authorities, and the place became a symbol in the argument against anti- Semitism in Russia, aided by intellectuals like Yevgeni Yevtushenko and Victor Nekrasov. Thousands of Jews who returned to liberated Kiev were confronted by the hatred of the residents, for many of them were survivors of the great massacre, but within 15 years the number of Jews grew to 200,000. About 15% said that Yiddish was their mother-tongue, as did 33% of the
Jews in the towns around Kiev. A synagogue was founded for 1,000 worshipers, and beside it a mikveh, a place for the ritual slaughter of poultry, and a Matzot bakery. Private "minyanim" were abolished. Rabbi Panets, the last rabbi of Kiev, officiated in 1960. During the leadership of Bardakh as chairman of the synagogue board, the atmosphere was relaxed and visitors from abroad were cordially received. In 1961 the situation worsened when Gendelman became chairman, and he was forced to resign six years later.

In 1957 four Jews were imprisoned for "Zionist activity". One of them, Baruch Mordekhai Weissman, kept a Hebrew diary which was smuggled out and published in Israel. In the same year the municipality closed the old cemetery near Babi Yar, permitting the Jews to transfer the remains to the new cemetery. Kiev continued to be a center for Yiddish writers, many of whom had been imprisoned by Stalin, among them Itzik Kipnis, Hirsch Polyanker, Nathan Zbara, Eli Schechtman, and Yehiel Falikman. The anniversary of Babi Yar became a rallying day. The engineer Boris Kochubiyevski was arrested in 1968 for "spreading slander about the Soviet regime" after he had applied for an exit permit to Israel for himself and his non-Jewish wife. In summer 1970 ten Jews from Kiev wrote an open letter and because of it renounced their Soviet citizenship and asked to become citizens of Israel. Traditional anti- Semitism flourished in the city with the appearance of T. Kitcho's book published by the academy of sciences of the Ukrainian republic.

In 1970 there were 152,000 Jews in Kiev (about 10% of the total population).

A religious awakening started among the Jews of Kiev' in spite of the decline in their number, following the collapse of the communist regime in the 1990's. Synagogue, Jewish schools and communal institutions were opened and expanded.

In 1997, following immigration to Israel, the Jewish population of Kiev numbered 110,000 people, being more than a third of the total number of Jews in the Ukraine.

Early 21st century

In the early 2000s, the Jewish population of Kiev was estimated at 100,000. Kiev was the center of Jewish life in Ukraine; the city hosts the main offices of all major Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Jewish Agency. The Federation of Ukrainian Jewish Communities (FUJC), the main umbrella organization of local Jewish organizations was established in Kiev in 1999. The Great Choral Synagogue of Kiev, also known as the Podil synagogue, is the oldest synagogue in Kiev, located in the historic district of Podil. Under the leadership of Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, the Podil synagogue serves as a community center and includes also a yeshiva, the Ohr Avner heder, the Or-Avner Perlyna kindergarten and school, a senior citizen home, an orphans home, a kosher restaurant, a funeral house, a social assistance center and a rabbinical court.

Additional synagogues in Kiev include the Brodsky Choral Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Kiev, and the Galitska Synagogue. The Center for Jewish Culture and History is located next to the Galitska synagogue and is responsible for various cultural activities for youth as well as for the general public. It also administrates the Jewish Museum. Additional Jewish organizations in Kiev include Conservative and Reform communities, the last one under the leadership of Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny.

Berlin

The capital and the largest city in Germany. The capital of Germany until 1945. After the Second World War and until 1990 the city was divided into West Berlin and East Berlin.

Jews are first mentioned in a letter from the Berlin local council of October 28, 1295, forbidding wool merchants to supply Jews with wool yarn. Jews lived primarily in a Jewish quarter, but a number of wealthier Jews lived outside this area. The Berlin Jews engaged mainly in commerce, handicrafts, money-changing, and money-lending. They paid taxes for the right to slaughter animals ritually, to sell meat, to marry, to circumcise their sons, to buy wine, to receive additional Jews as residents of their community, and to bury their dead. During the Black Death (1349-1350), the houses of the Jews were burned down and the Jewish inhabitants were killed or expelled from the town.

From 1354, Jews settled again in Berlin. In 1446 they were arrested with the rest of the Jews in Brandenburg, and their property was confiscated. A year later Jews again began to return there, and a few wealthy Jews were admitted into Brandenburg in 1509. In 1510 the Jews were accused of desecrating the host and stealing sacred vessels from a church in a village near Berlin. 111 Jews were arrested and subjected to examination, and 51 were sentenced to death; of these 38 were burned at the stake in the new market square together with the real culprit, a Christian, on July 10, 1510. All the accused were proved completely innocent at the diet of Frankfort in 1539 through the efforts of Joseph (Joselmann) b. Gershom of Rosheim and Philipp Melanchthon. In 1571, when the Jews were again expelled from Brandenburg, the Jews of Berlin were expelled "forever". For the next 100 years, a few individual Jews appeared there at widely scattered intervals. About 1663, the court Jew Israel Aaron, who was supplier to the army and the electoral court, was permitted to settle in Berlin. After the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna in 1670, the elector issued an edict on May 21, 1671, admitting 50 wealthy Jewish families from Austria into Brandenburg for 20 years. Frederick William I (1713-1740) limited (in a charter granted to the Jews on May 20, 1714) the number of tolerated Jews to 120 householders, but permitted in certain cases the extension of letters of protection to include the second and third child. The Jews of Berlin were permitted to engage in commerce almost without restriction, but were forbidden to trade in drugs and spices, in raw skins, and in imported woolen and fiber goods, and were forbidden to operate breweries or distilleries. Land ownership by Jews had been prohibited in 1697 and required a special license which could be obtained only with great difficulty.

The Jews in Berlin in the 18th century were primarily engaged as commercial bankers and traders in precious metals and stones. Some served as court Jews. Members of the Gomperz family were among the wealthiest in Berlin.

During the reign of Frederick the Great (1740-1786), the economic, cultural, and social position of the Jews in Berlin improved. During the seven years' war, many Jews became wealthy as purveyors to the army and the mint and the rights enjoyed by the Christian bankers were granted to a number of Jews. The number of Jewish manufacturers, bankers, and brokers increased. In 1791, the entire Itzig family received full civil rights, becoming the first German Jews to whom they were granted.

As a concomitant of economic prosperity, there appeared the first signs of cultural adaptation. Under the influence of Moses Mendelssohn, several reforms were introduced in the Berlin community, especially in the sphere of education. In 1778 a school, Juedische Freischule (Chinnukh Ne'arim), was founded, which was conducted along modern comprehensive principles and methods. Mendelssohn and David Friedlander composed the first German reader for children. The dissemination of general (non-Jewish) knowledge was also one of the aims of the Chevrat Doreshei Leshon Avar (association of friends of the Hebrew language), founded in 1783, whose organ Ha-me'assef began to appear in Berlin in 1788. The edict of 1812 finally bestowed Prussian citizenship upon the Jews; all restrictions on their residence rights in the state, as well as the special taxes they had to pay, were now abolished.

In the 1848 revolution the Jews played an active role as fighters on the barricades and members of the civic guard, as orators and journalists, and the like. About one-fifth of Berlin's newspapers were owned by Jews. Berlin Jews played an important role in literature, the theater, music, and art. Their successes aroused fierce reaction among the more conservative elements and Berlin became a center of anti-Semitism. The "Berlin movement" founded by Adolf Stoecker incited the masses against the Jews by alleging that they were the standrad-bearers of capitalism and controlled the press.

From 1840 to 1850 a teachers' seminary functioned under the direction of Leopold Zunz. A teachers' training institute was established in 1859 under the rectorship of Aaron Horowitz. Aaron Bernstein founded the reform society in 1845, and later the reform congregation, which introduced far-flung liturgical reforms, especially during the rabbinate of Samuel Holdheim (1847-1860). At first, divine worship was held both on Saturdays and Sundays and later only on Sundays. The reform congregation was unsuccessful in its attempt to secede from the official community. The Berlin community was again violently shaken when many of its members pressed for the introduction of an organ and modification of the liturgy in the new synagogue. The appointment of Abraham Geiger as rabbi of the Berlin community met with strong opposition from orthodox circles, and in 1869 Azriel (Israel) Hildesheimer and his adherents left the main community and established the Adass Yisroel congregation, which received official recognition in 1885. Geiger founded an institute for Jewish research while Hildesheimer opened a rabbinical seminary. For about 80 years the liberals were predominant in the Berlin community. But liberals and orthodox worked together in full harmony in the central organizations in which, at least for a period, the Zionists also participated. The Berlin rabbi S. Maybaum was among the leaders of the "protest rabbis" who opposed political Zionism.

After the murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in January 1919, anti-Semitic propaganda in Berlin increased. The Kapp putsch (March 1920) had blatant anti-Jewish undertones. Walter Rathenau, the German foreign minister, was assassinated by anti-Semitic nationalists on June 24, 1922. In 1926, after the appointment of joseph Goebbels as Gauleiter in Berlin, anti-Jewish rabble-rousing increased. At the time the Nazis seized power, Berlin's organized Jewish community numbered 172,000 persons. In 1933 the Nazi boycott (April 1) affected Jewish shop owners; legislation against non-Aryans led to dismissal of Jewish professionals, while "Aryanization" of Jewish firms and the dismissal of their Jewish employees was carried out by the exertion of steady economic pressure. The Jewish officials not affected by these measures were eventually ousted under the provisions of the Nuremberg Laws (1935). In these initial years, when the members of the Jewish community were being methodically deprived of their economic standing and civil rights, Jewish religious and cultural life in Berlin underwent a tremendous upsurge. Until November 1938 Jewish newspapers and books were published on an unprecedented scale. Notable among the newspapers was the Berliner Juedisches Gemeindeblatt, a voluminous weekly published by the community. Zionist work was in full swing, especially that of He-chalutz, and in February 1936, a German Zionist convention was held in Berlin (the last to meet there), still reflecting in its composition the vigorous party life of German Zionists.

In June 1938, mass arrests of Jews took place on the charge that they were "asocial", e.g. had a criminal record, including traffic violations, and they were imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On November 9-10, Kristallnacht marked a turning point in the affairs of Berlin Jewry: synagogues were burned down, Jewish shops destroyed, and 10,000 Jews from Berlin and other places were arrested and imprisoned in Sachsenhausen. The "Bannmeile" was decreed, which restricted Jews to an area within a certain radius from their place of residence.

Jewish newspapers had to cease publication. The only paper was the new Das Medische Narchrichtenblatt which was required to publish Gestapo directives to the Jews.

After the outbreak of war, the living conditions and situation of the Jews worsened. Emigration was still permitted and even encouraged, and existing organizations and institutions (Kulturbund, Jewish schools) were able to continue functioning. However, Jews were drafted for forced labor at wages far below the prevailing rate and with no social benefits, but this at least provided them with a minimum income and delayed their deportation. In the spring of 1940 Heinrich Stahl was removed from his post in the Reichsvereinigung by the Nazi authorities and replaced by Moritz Henschel, a former attorney. In september 1941, a drastic turn for the worse came about. First the Judenstern ("Jewish star", i.e. yellow badge) was introduced. Two weeks later, on the day of atonement, in the middle of a sermon by Rabbi Leo Baeck, the president of the community was summoned to the Gestapo and told that the community would have to prepare for a partial evacuation from the city.

Between October 23 and the end of the year only 62 persons managed to leave, and in 1942 only nine Jews were permitted to go abroad. Then began five major phases in the process of deportation. Eventually, the deportations came to include groups of community employees, and from the fall of 1942, only those Jewish laborers who were employed in vital war production were still safe from deportation.

Those Jews who had gentile wives were taken to a special camp for onward deportation, but when their wives carried out violent street demonstrations, the Gestapo yielded and set their husbands free. On May 13, 1942, an anti-Jewish exhibition, "Soviet Paradise", was opened in Berlin, and was attacked by a group of Jewish communists, led by Herbert Baum. The group was caught and hardly any of them survived. Two hundred and fifty Jews – 50 for each German who had been killed in the attack – were shot, and another 250 were sent to Sachsenhausen and perished there. The community offices were closed down on June 10, 1943, and six days later the "full" Jews among the members of its executive council were deported to Theresienstadt.

At the beginning of 1946, the community had a registered membership of 7,070 people, of whom 4,121 (over 90% of all married members) had non-Jewish spouses, 1,321 had survived the war by hiding, and 1,628 had returned from concentration camps. The Jews were dispersed throughout Berlin, a third of them living in the Soviet sector. Several synagogues were opened, the Jewish hospital resumed its work (although most of its patients and staff were not Jews), and three homes for the aged and a children's home were established. There was no local rabbi or religious teachers, but American Jewish army chaplains volunteered their services.

There are four synagogues in Berlin. In 1959, the city of Berlin erected a large Jewish community center on Fasanenstrasse at the site of which one of Berlin's most magnificent synagogues had stood until 1938. In 1954 the Zionist organization and the Israel appeal renewed their activities in Berlin. There exists an active Jewish women's organization, a B'nai B'rith lodge, a Jewish students' organization, and a youth organization. In 1954 the community had a membership of about 5,000 and by January 1970 this figure had risen to 5,577. The demographic composition of the community is marked by relatively high average age (4,080 are above the age of 41), a low birthrate, and a great number of mixed marriages.

In 1997 there were 10,000 Jews living in Berlin, and it was the largest Jewish community in Germany.

St. Petersburg

Санкт-Петербург; also known as Petrograd 1914-1924, and Leningrad 1924-1991

Capital of Russia until 1918. An industrial city and major port on the Baltic Sea.

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

The Jewish community of St. Petersburg is the second-largest in Russia. Mass emigration reduced the Jewish population from 107,000 in 1989 to about 40,000 in 2002. A 2010 census revealed that these numbers did not change considerably and that the number of Jewish residents in St. Petersburg has remained at around 40,000 people. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union the Jews of St. Petersburg were in many ways disconnected from Jewish culture. However, since the end of communism in Russia, St. Petersburg has emerged as a vibrant Jewish community. While a significant segment of the community remains uncomfortable with, and not entirely open about, its Jewishness, an increasing number of the city's Jews identify as Jewish and have begun observing Jewish traditions and rituals.

Jews began arriving in St. Petersburg during the second half of the 19th century, primarily from the "Pale of Residence", which was made up of modern-day Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, and Lithuania. This time was marked by intense Russification, which included a high rate of mixed marriages and conversions to Christianity. Most of the Jews of St. Petersburg have lived in the city for generations, though there are many who have arrived more recently from other locations within Russia and the region, including the Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Georgia. Since the restriction on emigration was lifted in 1989, as many as 230,000 Jews left for Israel.

Two umbrella organizations serve both the community of St. Petersburg and Russian Jewry more generally: the Federation of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Russia, and The Russian-Jewish Congress. With the support of foreign Jewish philanthropy, several Jewish welfare programs, as well as a full range of religious and educational institutions, have been developed in St. Petersburg. Russia's network of Jewish educational institutions includes four Jewish universities, which are mainly located in St. Petersburg and Moscow. A number of smaller religious and social organizations have been established by young Jews in their twenties and thirties. Events such as the Jewish festival take place annually in the community. St. Petersburg has also been host to annual events and conferences organized by Limmud FSU, an organization which specializes in meeting the cultural needs of the Jewish communities of the former Soviet Union (FSU). Since 2011 these conferences have attracted hundreds of Jews from St. Petersburg, providing a safe environment for Jewish youth to learn more about their Jewish heritage. Jewish newspapers and Russian-language media have emerged in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other cities with smaller organized Jewish communities.

The vast majority of Russian Jewry, including the community of St. Petersburg, is secular and defines their Jewishness in cultural rather than religious terms. Of the religiously observant Jews in St. Petersburg, most are Orthodox. In an effort to support the resurgence in religious observance, many rabbis from outside Russia have been brought to St. Petersburg. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement has been very active in the community since the end of the 20th century, and the Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism have also been introduced.

The central hub of Jewish life in St. Petersburg is the Yesod Jewish Community Center (JCC). Opened in 2005, the facility houses six of the community's major Jewish organizations, including the Hesed Avraam Charity Center, Adain Lo Family Center, Hillel Student Center, the Granatik Children Center, ORT, and the Library & Eitan Jewish Education Center. Additionally, the JCC offers many cultural and educational programs. It holds lectures, sponsors events, and includes its own Sunday school.

The most notable synagogue in St. Petersburg is the Grand Choral Synagogue. Constructed in the Moorish Revival-Byzantine style between 1880 and 1888, and consecrated in 1893, the Grand Choral is the second-largest synagogue in Europe. Prior to its construction, a synagogue large enough to serve the entire Jewish community in Russia's then-capital did not exist. However, the synagogue could only be built after obtaining a building permit from Tsar Alexander II in 1869.

Located in the Russian Museum of Ethnography is an exhibit dedicated to Russian Jewry. The exhibit "History and Culture of the Jewish people of the Territory of Russia" is considered by many in the community to be the first step toward the development of a completely separate Jewish museum. As one of the city's important cultural institutions, the museum attracts visitors from all over Russia, including Jews from neighboring countries.

Another significant Jewish landmark is the Holocaust memorial, located in Tsarskoye Selo. The monument stands just 500 meters from Catherin's palace where the Jewish ghetto was located during the Second World War.

One of the oldest points of Jewish interest in the city is St. Petersburg's Jewish cemetery. Founded in 1875, the cemetery serves as the burial place for several historical figures such as the sculptor Mark Antokolsky, the 19th century scientist and Jewish community leader David Ginsburg, and Abraham Lubanov, who served as the head rabbi of the St. Petersburg Synagogue during World War II.

HISTORY

There is evidence that there were some Marranos who settled in St. Petersburg soon after it was in 1703 by Peter the Great. "The Portuguese Jew," Jan DaCosta (who was actually a converso), was one of the jesters at the royal court during the first half of the 18th century. The city's first police chief was also a converso from the Netherlands. Otherwise, Jews were not allowed to live in the city. Additionally, Czarina Elizabeth issued intolerant decrees against the Jews, and the few Jews who were living in St. Petersburg were forced to leave. Catherine II (Catherine the Great), on the other hand, was interested in attracting Jewish contractors, industrialists, and physicians to the city, and therefore issued instructions to the authorities to overlook the presence of the "useful" Jews living there with their families and assistants and had the protection of court officials. It was Catherine II who, after the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, created the Pale of Settlement, territories in which the Jews of the Russian Empire were permitted to settle permanently (unless they had special permission to settle elsewhere).

With the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century, St. Petersburg became a center for the millions of Jews who were incorporated into the Russian Empire. The city quickly became a destination for upper class Jews, both the "useful" Jews—the army veterans, artisans, and wealthy merchants who had official permission to live outside of the Pale—as well as the Jews who settled in St. Petersburg illegally. The leader of Chabad Chasidism, Shneur Zalman of Lyady, was imprisoned in St. Petersburg from 1798 until 1800/1801.

The situation of the Jews worsened with the accession of Czar Nicholas I. In 1827 he issued the Statute on Conscription Duty, which imposed a draft on the Jews of Russia and cancelled the earlier provision that allowed Jews to pay a monetary random instead of submitting to the draft. The draftees would have to serve 25 years, and would fall on Jewish boys and men between the ages of 12 and 25 (as opposed to the general population, in which men 18 to 35 were eligible for the draft). The idea was to modernize and Russify the Jewish population, and became a communal crisis, particularly for the more traditional Jewish communities.

The situation shifted again with the reign of Alexander II. "Useful" Jews, such as army veterans, university graduates, artisans, and upper-class merchants were once again allowed to legally settle in St. Petersburg. By the end of Alexander II's reign in 1881 there were 17,253 Jews in St. Petersburg, making up approximately 2% of the population. Upper class Jews, including the barons of the Guenzburg family became the de facto leaders and representatives before the Central Government.

Several figures held the position of Kazyonnyy Ravin (Government-Appointed Rabbi) in St. Petersburg, including the German-born Abraham Neiman, Avram Drabkin, and Moshe Eisenstadt. Other rabbis who were not officially appointed, yet who led the Jews of the community, were Yitshak Blaser, Yekutiel Zalman Landau, and David Tevel Katzenellenbogen. After 24 years of dealing with bureaucracy and construction, the magnificent Grand Choral Synagogue was completed and consecrated in 1893. It was built in the Moorish style, and contained 1,200 seats. In spite of this triumph, it is important to note that with the opening of the Grand Choral Synagogue, all of the other existing sanctuaries needed to be closed, and their congregants were compelled to pray only in the Grand Choral Synagogue.

The Yiddish, Russian, and Hebrew Jewish presses were centered in St. Petersburg from the 1870s until the revolution in 1905. The newspapers HaMelitz (1871-1873, 1878-1904), HaYom (1886-1888). Dos Yudishes Folksblat (1881-1890) and the first Russian daily newspaper in Yiddish, Der Fraynd (1903-1908), were all published out of St. Petersburg. The city was also the center of Russian-Jewish journalism and literature. One of the most outstanding publications was the Russian-Jewish encyclopedia, Yevreyskaya Entsiklopediya, which was published in 1908.

In spite of censorship, exclusions, and unremitting police persecutions, the community continued to grow, numbering 35,000 (1.8% of the city's population) in 1914.

Many national Jewish organizations located their headquarters in St. Petersburg. The oldest of these organizations was The Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews of Russia, which was founded in 1863. Others included ORT, the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA), the Chovevei Sefat Ever (renamed "Tarbut" after the 1917 Revolution), the Historical-Ethnographic Society, and the Society for Jewish Folk Music. Additionally, a number of institutions in the city housed various objects of Jewish interest. The city's Asian Museum housed a valuable Hebrew department. The Imperial Public Library contained one of the world's oldest and most important collections of Hebrew manuscripts. Under the initiative of Baron David Guenzburg, courses in Oriental Studies were opened in St. Petersburg in 1907. The concentration of public and cultural institutions in the city attracted Jewish authors and intellectuals, including A.A Harkavy, Judah Leib Katzenelson, Simon Dubnow, and father and son Michael and Eugene M. Kulisher.

World War I saw the Jewish population of Petrograd swell to more than 50,000 because of Jews fleeing from the battlefields within the Pale of Settlement, or Jews being expelled by the Russian army who accused them of collaborating with the Germans and Austrians. The influx of Jewish refugees was overwhelming to the city's Jewish residents, though they nonetheless attempted to accommodate them through organizations such as the Jewish Society for the Relief of War Victims.

After the February Revolution of 1917, all residence restrictions affecting the Jews of Petrograd were abolished. As a result, the city became a center for the activities of the diverse parties and factions within Russian Jewry. In June 1917, the Seventh Conference of the Zionist Organization of Russia was held in the city, and plans were also made to convene an All-Russian Jewish Congress in Petrograd. These improvements in Jewish life and national status were, however, short-lived. With the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917, all Jewish political parties (along with any other non-Bolshevik parties) were forced underground. The center of government moved from Petrograd to Moscow, leaving the city's Jews far from the nation's political center. The transfer of the capital from Petrograd to Moscow in 1918, as well as the shortages and famine that affected the city during the Russian Civil War, severely shook the Jewish community, and many Jews returned to the provincial towns. It was during this difficult period that Joseph Trumpeldor created a Jewish battalion for the purposes of Jewish self-defense. Additionally, he founded the youth organization He-Halutz, to prepare Jewish youth for emigration to Palestine.

By 1920 there were 25,453 Jews (3.5% of the total population) living in Petrograd. With the consolidation of the Soviet regime, the number of Jews rapidly increased, to 52,373 in 1923 (4.9% of the total population), and 84,505 in 1926 (5.2% of the population).

A small group of Russian-Jewish intellectuals attempted to continue their literary and scientific work under the new regime. They worked to sustain their former cultural societies, and continued to publish scientific and literary periodicals. By the end of the 1920s, when these projects were shut down by the Soviet regime, many of these intellectuals left Russia, including Simon Dubnow and Saul M. Ginzburg. Nearly a decade later, by the end of the 1930s, the remaining Communist Jewish organizations had also been suppressed, as had public expressions of Jewish identity.

On the eve of the Nazi invasion, the number of Jews in Leningrad was estimated at about 200,000 people. During World War II, the Jews shared in the suffering and starvation during the German siege of the city. The author, literary critic, and historian Lidiya Yakovlevna Ginzburg was among the survivors of the siege of Leningrad.

In the census of 1959, 162,344 Jews were registered as living in Leningrad, but the real number was probably closer to 200,000. 13,728 of these respondents declared Yiddish as their mother tongue. The city's only synagogue was the Grand Choral Synagogue, which was still standing in spite of having been bombed by the Nazis in 1941 and 1943. During the 1950s Gedalia Pecherski was the chairman of the synagogue's board. Pecherski was not only devoted to the religious needs of the congregation, he also sent petitions to the Soviet government and the municipal authorities asking to be allowed to organize courses in subjects such as Hebrew and Jewish history. These petitions were always summarily rejected. Pecherski was arrested in 1961 and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment, ostensibly for having "maintained contact with a foreign embassy [i.e Israel]." The rabbi of the synagogue, RabbiAbram Lubanov, who had been imprisoned in a forced labor camp during the Stalin era, was the dwindling congregation's spiritual leader.

In 1962-1964, as in other parts of the USSR, matzah-baking in the Leningrad synagogue was discontinued by the authorities. In 1962, on the eve of Simchat Torah, 25 Jewish youths were arrested while dancing in the street near the synagogue. In 1963 the authorities prohibited the use of the Jewish cemetery, which was ultimately closed in 1969.

In spite of the assimilation and population decline among Leningrad's Jews, they nonetheless took on an important role in the refusenik movement and the Jewish national revival that began to stir in the Soviet Union. After the Six Day War in 1967, Jewish youth more openly displayed their identification with Israel, in spite of the official Soviet anti-Israel campaign. Many began studying Hebrew in private underground groups, others protested publicly against the government's refusal to grant them exit permits for Israel. These protests were publicized abroad, and helped galvanize Jewish communities worldwide to help their Soviet brethren. Many of these activities led to the arrest and imprisonment of these young activists. Another group of young Jews, mostly from Riga, together with 2 non-Jews, were tried in Leningrad in December 1970 for allegedly planning to hijack a Soviet plane in order to land abroad and ultimately reach Israel. Two were sentenced to death, and the other to prison terms of 4-15 years. These sentences led to worldwide protests. On appeal in March, 1971, the Supreme Court of the Russian Republic commuted the death sentences to 15 years of hard labor, and some of the other sentences were reduced.

With the collapse of communism, St. Petersburg saw a Jewish communal revival. Chabad is particularly active in the city, and events such as Limmud FSU help St. Petersburg's Jews reconnect with their Jewish roots.

Warsaw

Warszawa; Yiddish: ווארשע (Varshe)

Warsaw was the capital of Poland between 1596 and 1794 and after 1918. It is located on the Vistula River.

JEWISH LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Poland as a whole has experienced a Jewish revival and an unprecedented interest, both by those with and without Jewish heritage, in Jewish life. Nowhere is this renewed interest in Jews and Judaism more apparent than in Warsaw. A number of organizations serve the religious, cultural, and educational needs of Warsaw's Jewish community, and the Jewish Community of Warsaw is responsible for the administration of Jewish communities throughout Poland.

The Jewish Community of Warsaw, the official organizing body of Warsaw's Jewish community and also has branches in the affiliated communities of Lublin, Bialystok, and Bydgoszcz, is one of seven members of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland. It is responsible for the administration and upkeep of heritage sites (including cemeteries and former synagogues), as well as coordinating a variety of social and cultural activities. The Jewish Community of Warsaw is run by a board of 7 members, who are elected by the community every four years; Anna Chipczynska served as the community's president in 2016. Anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, or who has undergone a Reform or Orthodox conversion, is eligible to become a member of the Jewish Community of Warsaw. As of 2014 the Community had 640 members, out of an estimated 3,500 Jews living in Warsaw.

In addition to the Jewish Community of Warsaw, the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Warsaw hosts events and social activities for those interested in Jewish culture. Programs offered by the JCC include breakfasts, children's activities, family workshops, and lectures. Another cultural touchstone is the Ester Rachel Kaminska and Ida Kaminska State Jewish Theater, named in honor of two of the most famous Yiddish stage actresses, performs plays in Yiddish and Polish. It is the country's only remaining Jewish theater.

Polish Jews interested in news about the Jewish community of Poland, or in Jewish stories from around the world, can subscribe to Midrasz (pronounced "Midrash"), a monthly magazine based out of the Jewish Community of Warsaw. As a publication serving a minority community in Poland, Midrasz is subsidized by the government. Another publication serving the Jewish community is the Yiddish-Polish newsletter Slawozidowske/Dos Yiddishe Vort.

Religious life in Warsaw is small but vibrant. Before World War II there were over 400 synagogues in Warsaw alone; of these, the Nozyk Family Synagogue, which was originally built in 1902, is the only synagogue in Warsaw to have survived World War II. In addition to the Orthodox services held at the Nozyk Synagogue, progressive services are offered on Shabbat and Jewish holidays at Ec Chaim, located on 53 Aleje Jerozolimskie Street, and Beit Warszawa, located on 113 Wiertnicza Street.

The Jewish cemetery on Okopowa Street, which was originally opened in 1806, has remained open and functioning. The cemetery contains approximately 250,000 tombstones, making it the second-largest Jewish cemetery in Poland. Another Jewish cemetery in the Brodno district was founded in 1780 and is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Warsaw. Though it was heavily damaged by the Nazis, it has undergone extensive renovations so that it can be reopened to the public.

The Lauder-Morasha school, which was originally established in 1989, offers a Jewish and secular education for students ages three to sixteen (another branch of the school is located in Wroclaw). Many of the school's students are not Jewish, but whose parents were drawn to the high-quality education. Additionally, the Polish Jewish Youth Organization offers activities for youth and young adults ages 16 through 35 who wish to explore and connect to Jewish history and traditions.

Another organization promoting Jewish culture and heritage is the Shalom Foundation, which focuses on Yiddish language and culture. The Shalom Foundation administers the Center of Yiddish Culture in Warsaw's Muranow District, as well as the Jewish Open University and the Third Age University. It also organizes the Singer's Warsaw Jewish Culture Festival, dedicated to Isaac Bashevis Singer and featuring the works of major Yiddish literary and cultural figures. Meanwhile, Hebraicists can learn Hebrew at the Professor Moses Schorr Foundation, the largest Hebrew language school in Poland.

In addition to offering activities and programming for the contemporary Jewish community, Warsaw has a number of institutions and monuments testifying to its place in Jewish history, and the destruction of its vibrant Jewish community during the Holocaust. Important archives can be found at the Jewish Historical Institute, located on 3 Tlomackie Street (including some of the Ringelblum Archives) as well as a Department of Geneology. The Institute hosts temporary exhibitions, and includes a library and reading rooms where visitors can conduct their own research. Another historical institution is the Museum of the History of Polish Jews-POLIN, located on 6 Anielewicz Street. The Museum opened on April 19, 2013, making it one of the newer places of Jewish interest in Warsaw. In addition to the exhibits detailing the history and richness of Jewish life in Poland, the museum also hosts educational and cultural events.

When the Warsaw Ghetto stood during World War II, a bridge ran over Chlodna Street (which was not part of the ghetto) that connected two sections of the Ghetto, in order to maintain a strict separation between the Ghetto and the Aryan part of the city. The site is marked by a memorial, "Footbridge of Memory." Additionally, a fragment of the Warsaw Ghetto wall can be found on 55 Sienna Street. The Umschlagplatz, where Jews were sent to wait before being deported to concentration and death camps, is also marked with a memorial. It is located on 10 Stawki Street.

Other Holocaust memorials in Warsaw include a memorial marking the location where the members of the Jewish Combat Organization, led by Mordechaj Anielewicz, were killed at the end of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The memorial was erected in 1946 and is located on what was originally 18 Mila Street, now 3 Mila Street. Another monument to those who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is located on 10 Ludwik Zamenhof Street. The Path of Remembrance includes 15 monuments that memorialize many of the major figures from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Both the Association of Children of the Holocaust and Second Generation-Children of the Holocaust Survivors work to connect those who were affected by the Holocaust to their heritage; the Association also cares for Polish Righteous Among the Nations. The Association of Children of the Holocaust works with people who survived the Holocaust as children, many of whom have never met their biological parents (who were killed during the war), and may be continuing to hide their Jewish identity, even from friends and family. Second Generation works with the children of these survivors, many of whom grew up never knowing about their Jewish heritage and who otherwise had to deal with the trauma their parents lived through. Meanwhile, the Association of Jewish Veterans and World War II Survivors, which was established in 1991, works on behalf of veterans and victims of the Second World War, and hosts yearly commemorations of the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage (FODZ) works to preserve remnants of Jewish life throughout Poland, with a focus on communities that are difficult to reach, or that are far from any existing Jewish communities. The FODZ focuses its efforts on marking, rehabilitating, and preserving cemeteries, but also works to refurbish former synagogue buildings and runs a variety of educational programs and conferences.

Many of the aforementioned organizations are supported by the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), an American organization that was founded in 1914 and has operated almost continuously in Poland since 1918.

HISTORY

The first documented evidence of a Jewish presence in Warsaw dates to 1414, though it is highly likely that they had been there long before. They were expelled, however, in 1455, 1483, and 1498, and in 1527 King Sigismund granted Warsaw a royal privilege that permitted the city to bar Jewish residence. Jews were permitted to return to Warsaw temporarily, and to stay in the city while the Sejm (Parliament) was in session. Jewish representatives (shtadlanim) of the Councils of the Four Lands, who were empowered to negotiate with royalty and the nobility, were also allowed to visit Warsaw, while a number of other Jews without official positions were also able to obtain authorization to enter the city temporarily even when the Sejm was not meeting.

Clearly the residence restrictions were largely ineffective, though it did serve to keep Warsaw's Jewish population relatively low. In 1792 there were 6,750 Jews living in Warsaw (9.7% of the total population).

In spite of the relatively small number of Jews living in Warsaw, the city's Christian residents were not happy about their presence; organized anti-Jewish riots took place in 1775 and 1790. At one point, on May 16, 1790 a major riot broke out when the Jews were accused of killing an anti-Semitic tailor named Fux; though the tailor was found shortly after his disappearance and the Jewish community paraded him through the streets to demonstrate that he was unharmed, it did not quell the violence and destruction. Generally speaking, anti-Semitism was rife during this period and Jews who lived in Warsaw, whether legally or illegally, were subject to anti-Jewish violence and restrictions.

PARTITIONS OF POLAND

After the First Partition of Poland in 1772 the Jews of Warsaw, particularly those from the lower socioeconomic classes, fought in the Polish struggle against the Russians and many joined the Jewish legion led by Berek Joselewicz. In retaliation, Russian troops massacred the Jewish civilian population. It was only after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 and the establishment of Prussian rule that the Jews of Warsaw experienced significant improvements to their quality of life. Though the Jews were still subject to a number of economic and residence restrictions, the Prussians recognized the authority of the Jewish community and granted it legal status in 1796. Beginning in 1802, residence restrictions against the Jews were repealed, and they could live in Warsaw freely and legally. This was met with resistance by the city's Christians; in response, Prussian authorities sought to implement an edict that would restrict where Jews could live in Warsaw for two years. However, Napoleon's defeat of Prussia shortly after this edict was proposed, and his establishment of the Duchy of Warsaw, rendered any proposed changes to the Jews' legal status moot.

DUCHY OF WARSAW (1807-1813)

A legal issue arose after the formation of the Duchy of Warsaw. While the duchy's constitution, which was based on the ideals of the French Revolution, should have granted the Jews equal citizenship rights, such a result would have been unacceptable to the Poles. As a result, in 1808 the "infamous decree" was issued, which postponed granting the Jews civil rights for ten years. In the meantime, the Jews of Warsaw were subject to paying heavy taxes. A Jewish Quarter was established, with restrictions on which Jews were permitted to reside there. Conditions for residence included wearing European-style clothing, the ability to read and write Polish, German, or French, and sending any children to general schools. Jews who were permitted to live in the Jewish Quarter also had to be of a certain economic class, and to be employed in one of a list of specific occupations. As a result of these restrictions the Jewish population of Warsaw declined, and in 1813 there were 8,000 Jews living in the city, mostly in the north, down from 14,600 in 1810.

In spite of these restrictions, the Warsaw kehilla (governing body of the official Jewish community) was able to expand its authority. From the time of Prussian rule until the establishment of the duchy the kehilla appointed a parnas to direct the administration f taxes, established prayer houses, and organized charitable association. During the period when it operated within the Duchy, the kehilla extended its power, becoming not just a local institution but a powerful and far-reaching organization.

It was during this period that a number of Jewish families were able to make significant economic advances and became major players in the world of banking. Prominent baking families included the Frankls, Epsteins, Laskis, and Kronenbergs.

KINGDOM OF POLAND (CONGRESS POLAND, 1815-1915)

Beginning in 1815 Warsaw became the capital of the Kingdom of Poland (informally known as the Congress of Poland), which was led by the Russian czar. Warsaw became a major political and cultural center, and both the Jewish and general population ballooned; the Jewish population rose from 15,600 in 1816 (12.2% of the total population) to 72,800 in 1864 (32.7%). In fact, during the period of the Kingdom of Poland the Jewish community of Warsaw became the largest Jewish community in Europe.

In addition to growing larger, during this period the Jewish community also became increasingly diverse. Chasidism spread to Warsaw during the second half of the 18th century, though many Jews remained opposed to the movement. Though the Misnagdim (those opposed to Chasidism) were in control of the kehilla at the beginning of the 19th century, the balance of power shifted to the Chasidim in 1847, and by 1880 the vast majority of Warsaw's 300 synagogues were Chasidic. The Chasidim, however, were balanced by the influx of Litvak Jews (Jews from greater historical Lithuania), many of whom were Misnagdim, who arrived in Warsaw from the Pale of Settlement after 1868.

Additionally, maskilim (proponents of the Haskalah, Jewish Enlightenment) were a small but visible presence within Warsaw's Jewish community. Many of these maskilim attended services in the synagogue on Danilowiczowska Street (which was given the—not quite affectionate—nickname of "Di Daytshe Shul," "The German Synagogue"), which was established in 1802 by Isaac Flatau, a Jewish immigrant from Berlin. The synagogue distinguished itself in that the rabbi delivered his sermons in German (and, beginning in the 1850s, in Polish). The maskilim also established the Warsaw Rabbinic Seminary in 1826, which was led by the maskil Anton Eisenbaum and which sought to ordain maskilic rabbis who would spread the ideals and values of the Haskalah throughout the country. The seminary was affiliated with another progressive synagogue located on Nalewski Street (founded in 1852), was affiliated with the school. The Great Synagogue joined the group of maskilic synagogues when it was consecrated in 1878.

In addition to the Chasidim, Misnagdim, Polish Jews, Litvaks, and maskilim, other Jews, particularly those from the highest socioeconomic classes, were in favor of assimilation, and some even converted. Ultimately, however, the vast majority of Jews living in Warsaw, were religiously observant and spoke Yiddish; at the turn of the 20th century 87.3% of Warsaw's Jews spoke Yiddish.

Warsaw's Jewish schools attested both to the community's traditionalism, as well as its diversity. In the middle of the 19th century 90% of school-age Jewish children of school age attended a traditional cheder. Individuals associated with the Chovevei Zion movement established Warsaw's first cheder metukkan in 1885. There were three state schools for Jewish children that were running 1820, but this educational format ran into Orthodox opposition, which curbed its further development.

A number of religious, cultural, and social organizations were established in Warsaw during this period, also reflecting the diversity of the city's Jewish population. Zionism began to become popular, and many of the organizations that were active in Warsaw became instrumental in establishing what would later become major cities in the State of Israel. A number of socialist and workers' organizations were also active, and many merged at the end of the 19th century to become the Bund movement.

Jews continued to play an important role in the financial, commercial, and industrial sectors of the city. Seventeen of the 20 bankers in Warsaw in 1847 were Jews. Jewish bankers helped develop various industries, and worked on important national projects such as the construction of railroads; they also held the monopoly on the sale of salt and alcohol. Jews were also major players in the textile, clothing, and tobacco industries, and made up the majority of Warsaw's artisans.

Culturally, Warsaw became a publishing hub, and following are only a few examples of the numerous daily and weekly newspapers published in various languages and representing the wide variety of religious and ideological viewpoints. The first Yiddish-Polish weekly was Der Beobakhter an der Weykhsel, which was published from 1823 to 1824 by Anton Eisenbaum. The weekly Izraelita, an assimilationist paper, was published from 1866 until 1915. Another population niche was served by the cantor Jona Simces, who edited the Yiddish newspaper The World of Hazanim, in addition to working as a Hebrew teacher, school principal, and the vice chairman of the Association of Cantors and Conductors. Another notable literary development was the establishment of a circle of Yiddish writers in the 1890s, led by the writer Y.L Peretz.

WORLD WAR I AND POLISH INDEPENDENCE (1914-1939)

Thousands of refugees arrived in Warsaw during World War I; as a result, by 1917 there were 343,000 Jews living in the city (41% of the total population). Though the influx of refugees and the chaos unleashed by the war strained the local population, the German occupation of Warsaw from August 1915 until November 1918 actually improved the social and political conditions of the city's Jews.

During the German occupation a Jewish private school system was created that would later form the foundation of the Zionist, Bundist, and Orthodox school networks that sprung up after the First World War. A number of Jewish newspapers that had previously been banned were reestablished. Poles and Jews proved more willing than they had previously to work together politically.

After the war, during the period of renewed Polish independence (1918-39) the Jewish population of Warsaw continued to grow. Warsaw was once again appointed as the state capital, and attracted people from around the country seeking various opportunities, particularly in the wake of the economic depression that set in after the end of the war. In 1921 the Jewish population of Warsaw was 310,000. Ten years later that number had grown to 352,000. On the eve of World War II there were 375,000 Jews living in Warsaw.

During the interwar period Yiddish and Polish writing flourished, and Warsaw became home to prominent writers, including Israel Joshua Singer (the older brother of Isaac Bashevis Singer, who also began his literary career in Warsaw), Sholem Asch, and Julian Tuwim. The Association of Yiddish Writers and Journalists was established in 1916, a year after the death of Y.L Peretz. It functioned as a trade union and offered the city's Yiddish writers a place to meet and engage in literary discussions.

Jewish arts also flourished. Ida Kaminska, the daughter of the famous Yiddish actress Esther Rokhl Kaminska, founded the Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater with Zygmunt Turkow, and Michal Weichert founded the Yung-teater (Young Theater). Both theaters staged Yiddish plays, as well as works by playwrights such as Shakespeare, Moliere, and Eugene O'Neill in Yiddish translation. A number of Jewish actors also worked in the Polish theater, and Jews participated in both the Polish and Yiddish cabaret culture.

Nonetheless, life became increasingly difficult for the Jews of Warsaw after the death of Josef Pilsudski in 1935. Official and informal anti-Semitism rose significantly. Jewish shops were boycotted, and anti-Jewish riots broke out. Poland was suffering economically during this period, and with rampant anti-Semitism, the number of economic opportunities open to Polish Jews was small; indeed, the number of Jewish unemployed reached 34.4% in 1931. Sensing they had no future in Poland, many Jews began immigrating.

THE HOLOCAUST

When German forces entered the city on September 29, 1939, there were 393,950 Jews living in Warsaw, comprising about one-third of the city's population. Between October 1939 and January 1940 the German authorities issued a series of anti-Jewish measures against the Jewish population, culminating in the establishment of a ghetto in 1940 to segregate the Jews of Warsaw as well as those from the surrounding areas.

Approximately 500,000 Jews lived in the Ghetto, sealed off from the rest of the city by a wall. A Judenrat, led by Adam Czerniakow, was established to coordinate the Ghetto's activities. The Jewish Self-Help Organization was another administrative organization that was established in the Ghetto; it was loosely affiliated with the Judenrat, but was mostly able to function independently. The Self-Help Organization was funded in large part by the JDC, and aided those segments of the population (such as refugees and children) were considered to be less desirable by the Nazis, and so could not be helped by the organizations that worked more closely with the Nazis. The Self-Help Organization also helped fund the activities of Oyneg Shabes, an underground archive led by Emanuel Ringelblum that gathered materials and conducted interviews for the purpose of chronicling life in the Ghetto. The archive ultimately collected and buried their materials in tin containers and milk cans in various locations; after the war all but one of these caches were found.
It is estimated that by the summer of 1942 over 100,000 Jews died in the Ghetto as a result of overcrowding, starvation, and disease. Nonetheless, the Ghetto's residents attempted to retain a sense of normalcy. A network of schools, both religious and secular, as well as trade schools functioned in the Ghetto; yeshivas tended to operate secretly as a result of the prohibition against public worship. Religious Jews met for underground religious services and cultural activities such as reading groups, lectures, and musical performances were organized.

Cultural organizations could also function as resistance groups. The activities of Oyneg Shabes and the secret archive they established was a form of quiet resistance to the Nazi attempt to destroy Jewish life. Zionist and socialist organizations were often more direct in the forms of their resistance. Groups such as Po'alei Zion, Ha-Shomer ha-Tza'ir, Dror, Betar, Gordonia, as well as the Bund and the communist-inspired Spartakus organization formed much of the ghetto's political underground. They engaged in activities such as disseminating information, collecting documents that evidenced German crimes, sabotaging German factories, and preparing for armed resistance. The first Jewish military underground organization, Swit, was formed in December 1939 by Jewish veterans of the Polish Army, many of whom identified as Revisionist Zionists. A series of illegal newspapers were published in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Polish.

Deportations began on July 22, 1942; three days later Adam Czerniakow, committed suicide rather than cooperate with the Nazis in the deportations. For the next seven weeks between 2,000 and 10,000 Jews were rounded up daily and taken from the Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp. Some reported voluntarily to the Umschlagplatz for deportation, lured by the sight of food which the Germans offered to the volunteers, and the hope that their transfer "east" meant that they could regain some semblance of a normal life. In total, nearly 350,000 Jews died in the three deportation waves of July-September 1942, January 1943, and April-May 1943. Additionally, more than 10,000 were shot or otherwise killed during the roundups, 12,000 were sent to work as slave laborers, and 20,000 escaped to the Aryan side of the city.

In response to the first round of deportations, the leaders of the underground movements created the Jewish Combat Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ZOB) and managed to secure some weapons from the Polish underground; the Revisionist Zionists, meanwhile, created the Jewish Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy, ZZW). On January 18, 1943, when the second round of deportations began, the ZOB began a campaign of armed resistance against the Nazis, which turned into four days of street fighting. Deportations were halted until April 1943.

In the meantime, the underground organizations regrouped and prepared for armed resistance in response to any further attempts to liquidate the ghetto. Mordecai Anielewicz became the leader of the ZOB. On April 19, 1943 a German force, equipped with tanks and artillery, entered the ghetto in order to resume the deportations and met with stiff resistance from the Jewish fighters. Despite overwhelmingly superior forces, the Germans were forced to retreat and suffered heavy losses. The street fighting lasted for several days, at which point the Germans began systematically burning down the houses. The Jewish fighting groups continued their attacks until May 8, 1943, when the ZOB headquarters fell to the Germans. Over a hundred fighters, including Anielewicz, died during this final battle. On May 16, 1943 the Nazis reported the complete liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. To mark this victory the Nazis blew up the synagogue on Tlomacka Street. Over the following months, the Germans came into the empty Ghetto and hunted down those who remained hiding in the ruins, often using fire to overcome the sporadic resistance that continued until August 1943. After the Ghetto's liquidation, the surviving members of the resistance continued their underground work on the Aryan side of Warsaw, mostly assisting Jews living on the Aryan side, either by helping them live in hiding, or providing them with forged documents.

When the Polish Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944 over 1,000 Jews in hiding immediately volunteered to fight against the Germans. Later, about 6,000 Jewish soldiers participated in the battle for the liberation of Warsaw. Warsaw's eastern suburb, Praga, was liberated in September 1944, and the main part of the city was liberated on January 17, 1945.

POSTWAR

After the war, by the end of 1945 there were about 5,000 Jews living in Warsaw, a number that more than doubled when Polish Jews who had survived the war in the Soviet Union returned to the city. Many attempted to reestablish Jewish life; among the institutions and organizations that were reestablished right after the war were a Yiddish communist newspaper, Folks-shtime, the Kaminska Theater, the Jewish Historical Institute, and the Jewish Social and Cultural Society. However, many Jews began leaving Poland after a series of anti-Semitic pogroms and events, including the pogrom in Kielce in 1946, the pogroms of 1956, and after 1968 when the Polish government launched an official campaign of anti-Semitism. The vast majority of Jewish institutions ceased functioning, and by 1969 there were an estimated 5,000 Jews remaining in Warsaw.

On April 19, 1948, the fifth anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a monument was unveiled commemorating those who fought in the uprising. Years later, in 1988 a memorial was unveiled in the Umschlagplatz, where the Jews were taken to wait before being put on cattle cars to concentration and death camps.

Beginning in 1989 Jewish life began to experience a revival. A Sunday School was organized at the Jewish Theater to provide Jewish children with a formal supplementary Jewish education. Programs and activities were also organized during the summers in order to introduce Polish Jewish children to Jewish life and culture, as well as to Jews from around the world. As time went on, Polish society began to become more open to, and interested in, Jews and Judaism, and Jews who remained in Poland sometimes became more willing to admit to their Jewishness.

In 1997 there were 8,000 Jews living in Poland, most of them in Warsaw. The Jewish Community of Warsaw was reestablished that year.