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Delegates to the 1st Jewish Socialists Convention in Galicia, Lemberg, 1905
Delegates to the 1st Jewish Socialists Convention in Galicia, Lemberg, 1905

The Jewish Community of Lvov

Lvov

Quick Facts:
• Lviv in Ukranian, Lwow in Polish, Lemberg in Yiddish and German
• Lvov is a district town located in what is now known as Western Ukraine and which was, until World War Two, was known as Eastern Galicea, Poland.

EARLY HISTORY
It is generally believed that the first Jews arrived in Lvov in 1340 after the conquest of Cazimir III, the King of Poland. The Jews of Lvov played an important role in trade between the east and the west and Lvov became an important transit center.

During the second half of the 16th century, the commercial agents of Don Joseph Nasi were active in Lvov. Nonetheless, the number of Jews who engaged in international trade and large companies was very limited; the majority of Jews in Lvov worked as shopkeepers, peddlers, and craftsmen. There were two separate synagogues, ritual baths (mikva'ot) and charitable institutions. The two communities shared the cemetery, which was also used to bury Karaites.

Lvov's community leaders represented the entire region at the Councils of the Four Lands.

During the Chmielnicki Massacres of 1648-1649, and the successive wars of the second half of the 17th and early 18th centuries, the Jews of Lvov, particularly those who lived outside of the city, suffered great losses to life and property. The efforts of the townspeople to restrict the Jews geographically and economically were in vain since the nobility generally supported the Jews. At this time, the Jews also opened shops in the center of town. When Sabbateanism began to spread in Russia, David Halevi (d. 1667), the Av Beit Din ("Court Chief") of the congregation outside the walls, sent his son and stepson supporters. After Shabbetai Tzvi's apostasy, his adherents in Lvov were excommunicated (1772). In 1754, Leib Krisse (Kriss), the second-in-command to the false messiah Jacob Frank, came to Lvov in order to spread Frankism. Frank himself arrived in Lvov in December, 1755, but he was forced out. A disputation with the Frankists was held in 1759; Rabbi Chayyim Kohen Rapoport, the Av Beit Din of the town and region, spoke on behalf of the Jews.

During the 18th century, the Lvov community declined in stature and its authority was reduced. The limits of the provincial council's authority were also restricted after the annexation of Podolia to Turkey in 1772. Conflicts within the community over the distribution of taxes, the election of rabbis, and other affairs resulted in the secular authorities intervening more than they had in the past.

From the beginning of the 19th century, only the wealthy and educated merchants who had Germanized were authorized to live outside of the Jewish quarter. In 1848, the Jews were allowed to participate in municipal council elections. In spite of the religious equality granted by the Austrian Empire in 1849, the municipality continued to evict the Jews from commercial trade, and the Christian artisans' guilds came into conflict with Jewish artisans.

Chassidism became popular in Lvov at the end of the 18th century. 1792 and 1798 saw open clashes between Chasidim and their opponents (Misnagdim) . As the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) reached Lvov, an anonymous cherem (excommunication) was proclaimed in 1816 against a group of maskilim. In 1844 a Reform Temple was dedicated, led by Rabbi Abraham Kohn of Hohenems. The Orthodox community was violently opposed to him; in 1847 Rabbi Kohn and his family were poisoned, and Rabbi Kohn subsequently died. This crime is widely believed to have been carried out by Orthodox fanatics.

The assimilationist intelligentsia circles within Lvov identified with German culture and in 1868 they founded Shomer Israel, with its ideological organ Israelit. This movement was opposed by the Doresh Shalom Society, which was founded in 1878, only to be disbanded shortly thereafter to be replaced by Agudat Achim in 1883. Agudat Achim called for Jews to assimilate into Polish culture, and published the journal Ojczyzna (Fatherland).

Lvov was also the home of Hertz Homberg. As a result of his educational activities, seven schools were founded, four for boys and three for girls, in addition to a teacher's seminary, which was headed by Aaron Friedenthal. During the Austrian period the two congregations in Lvov merged and became a single community, which was led by moderate assimilationists starting in the 1830s. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, assimilationist ideology declined, while National Zionism began to become influential. The first Zionist societies, Mikra Kodesh and Zion were formed in 1883 and 1888, respectively, and they became the centerpiece of the All-Galician Zionist Organization.

With the outbreak of World War I, thousands of refugees arrived in Lvov from regions that bordered Russia. When the Austrians returned in June 1915, Jewish life normalized, organized assistance was offered to the refugees, and public institutions were reopened. In November 1918 in the midst of fighting between the Poles and the Ukranians over control of Eastern Galicia, pogroms broke out in Lvov; 70 Jews were killed, and many more were wounded. Throughout the struggles between the Poles and Ukranians, each side accused the Jews of supporting the enemy side. The rise of anti-Semitism and the difficult economic situation were reflected in every sphere of Jewish life.

During the period of Polish independence, 1918-1939, Lvov was the third largest Jewish community in Poland, and one of its most important centers. In 1939, there were 100,000 Jews living in Lvov.

THE HOLOCAUST

In September 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, Poland was partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union. Lvov became part of Soviet Ukraine. After the Germans attacked the Soviet Union on June 22nd, 1941, the Germans captured the city at the beginning of July 1941. At that point, Lvov had a population of approximately 150,000, including thousands of refugees fleeing the Nazi occupation in Western Poland.

The local Ukranian population welcomed the German troops, while Stephen Bandera's units joined with the invading forces and played a major role in stirring up hatred of the Jews and their murder. During July, a mob attacked the Jews for three days. Thousands of Jews were jailed, where they were tortured and murdered, and several hundred Jewish public figures and youth were killed. On July 15th the Jews were ordered to wear the yellow star; days later, between July 25th and 27th, over 2,000 Jews were shot in "Aktion Petliura." In August, a fine of 20,000,000 rubles (approximately $600,000,000 in today's US dollars) was imposed on the Jewish community. Jewish property was confiscated and looted, and synagogues and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated and destroyed. A Judenrat was appointed and led by Joseph Parnes; Parnes was killed shortly thereafter after refusing to supply the Nazis with men for forced labor. Two of his three successors met the same fate.

Labor camps were set up in the city itself and the surrounding areas, where many Jews were either killed immediately or died as a result of the inhuman conditions in the camps. In November, 1941, the Jews of Lvov were concentrated in a ghetto and subjected to starvation. In March 1942, approximately 15,000 Jews were deported from Lvov to the death camp Belzec. The major deportation of the Jews, however, took place August 10-23 of the same year, when 40,000 Jews were sent to their deaths. Subsequent deportations in November 1942 and January 1943 resulted in the murder of another 15,000 Jews, some in Belzec, and others in the Janowska road camp.

During the last deportation of June 1943, which resulted in the deaths of most of the surviving Jews, the Jews of Lvov offered armed resistance. When the Nazis encountered gunfire and hand grenades, they poured gasoline on the Jewish houses and lit them on fire. The 7,000 Jews who survived the massacre were sent to the Janowska road camp. At that point, Lvov and the surrounding area were made Judenrein (clear of Jews).

Because of the particularly set of circumstances that citizens of Lvov faced, including a hostile population of Ukrainians, the lack of forests that could provide shelter, and the absence of a local partisan movement, there was little organized Jewish resistance, though a few sporadic and isolated attempts were made. For example, during the liquidation of the ghetto and the Jadowska road camp, a group of prisoners who were charged with the disposal and cremation of corpses attacked and killed several of the German guards. A few dozen Jews escaped, but most were ultimately caught and killed. Some Jews fled to remote forests, though in most cases they were handed over to the Nazis once they were discovered by the local Ukrainian peasants.

When Soviet forces entered and occupied Ukraine in July 1945, a Jewish committee was established in order to aid survivors. Of the 3,400 Jewish survivors who registered with the community by the end of 1945, only 820 had been in the Lvov Ghetto. Most of the survivors left Ukraine and settled in Israel.

A monument to the memory of Jewish victims of the Nazis, with inscriptions in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian, was erected shortly after the end of World War II.

In a census taken in 1959, 29,701 Jews were registered in the Lvov province, 5,011 of whom declared that Yiddish was their mother tongue. Two years prior, in 1957, several Jewish students were arrested for "Zionist activities." Organized matza-baking was prohibited in 1959; that same year mohels (those who perform ritual circumcisions) were pressured to sign a declaration promising to abandon circumcision. In 1962, several hundred Jews were arrested for "economic crimes;" that same year the synagogue was closed on the pretext that it served as a meeting place for speculators and other criminals.

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The Jewish Community of Lvov

Lvov

Quick Facts:
• Lviv in Ukranian, Lwow in Polish, Lemberg in Yiddish and German
• Lvov is a district town located in what is now known as Western Ukraine and which was, until World War Two, was known as Eastern Galicea, Poland.

EARLY HISTORY
It is generally believed that the first Jews arrived in Lvov in 1340 after the conquest of Cazimir III, the King of Poland. The Jews of Lvov played an important role in trade between the east and the west and Lvov became an important transit center.

During the second half of the 16th century, the commercial agents of Don Joseph Nasi were active in Lvov. Nonetheless, the number of Jews who engaged in international trade and large companies was very limited; the majority of Jews in Lvov worked as shopkeepers, peddlers, and craftsmen. There were two separate synagogues, ritual baths (mikva'ot) and charitable institutions. The two communities shared the cemetery, which was also used to bury Karaites.

Lvov's community leaders represented the entire region at the Councils of the Four Lands.

During the Chmielnicki Massacres of 1648-1649, and the successive wars of the second half of the 17th and early 18th centuries, the Jews of Lvov, particularly those who lived outside of the city, suffered great losses to life and property. The efforts of the townspeople to restrict the Jews geographically and economically were in vain since the nobility generally supported the Jews. At this time, the Jews also opened shops in the center of town. When Sabbateanism began to spread in Russia, David Halevi (d. 1667), the Av Beit Din ("Court Chief") of the congregation outside the walls, sent his son and stepson supporters. After Shabbetai Tzvi's apostasy, his adherents in Lvov were excommunicated (1772). In 1754, Leib Krisse (Kriss), the second-in-command to the false messiah Jacob Frank, came to Lvov in order to spread Frankism. Frank himself arrived in Lvov in December, 1755, but he was forced out. A disputation with the Frankists was held in 1759; Rabbi Chayyim Kohen Rapoport, the Av Beit Din of the town and region, spoke on behalf of the Jews.

During the 18th century, the Lvov community declined in stature and its authority was reduced. The limits of the provincial council's authority were also restricted after the annexation of Podolia to Turkey in 1772. Conflicts within the community over the distribution of taxes, the election of rabbis, and other affairs resulted in the secular authorities intervening more than they had in the past.

From the beginning of the 19th century, only the wealthy and educated merchants who had Germanized were authorized to live outside of the Jewish quarter. In 1848, the Jews were allowed to participate in municipal council elections. In spite of the religious equality granted by the Austrian Empire in 1849, the municipality continued to evict the Jews from commercial trade, and the Christian artisans' guilds came into conflict with Jewish artisans.

Chassidism became popular in Lvov at the end of the 18th century. 1792 and 1798 saw open clashes between Chasidim and their opponents (Misnagdim) . As the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) reached Lvov, an anonymous cherem (excommunication) was proclaimed in 1816 against a group of maskilim. In 1844 a Reform Temple was dedicated, led by Rabbi Abraham Kohn of Hohenems. The Orthodox community was violently opposed to him; in 1847 Rabbi Kohn and his family were poisoned, and Rabbi Kohn subsequently died. This crime is widely believed to have been carried out by Orthodox fanatics.

The assimilationist intelligentsia circles within Lvov identified with German culture and in 1868 they founded Shomer Israel, with its ideological organ Israelit. This movement was opposed by the Doresh Shalom Society, which was founded in 1878, only to be disbanded shortly thereafter to be replaced by Agudat Achim in 1883. Agudat Achim called for Jews to assimilate into Polish culture, and published the journal Ojczyzna (Fatherland).

Lvov was also the home of Hertz Homberg. As a result of his educational activities, seven schools were founded, four for boys and three for girls, in addition to a teacher's seminary, which was headed by Aaron Friedenthal. During the Austrian period the two congregations in Lvov merged and became a single community, which was led by moderate assimilationists starting in the 1830s. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, assimilationist ideology declined, while National Zionism began to become influential. The first Zionist societies, Mikra Kodesh and Zion were formed in 1883 and 1888, respectively, and they became the centerpiece of the All-Galician Zionist Organization.

With the outbreak of World War I, thousands of refugees arrived in Lvov from regions that bordered Russia. When the Austrians returned in June 1915, Jewish life normalized, organized assistance was offered to the refugees, and public institutions were reopened. In November 1918 in the midst of fighting between the Poles and the Ukranians over control of Eastern Galicia, pogroms broke out in Lvov; 70 Jews were killed, and many more were wounded. Throughout the struggles between the Poles and Ukranians, each side accused the Jews of supporting the enemy side. The rise of anti-Semitism and the difficult economic situation were reflected in every sphere of Jewish life.

During the period of Polish independence, 1918-1939, Lvov was the third largest Jewish community in Poland, and one of its most important centers. In 1939, there were 100,000 Jews living in Lvov.

THE HOLOCAUST

In September 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, Poland was partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union. Lvov became part of Soviet Ukraine. After the Germans attacked the Soviet Union on June 22nd, 1941, the Germans captured the city at the beginning of July 1941. At that point, Lvov had a population of approximately 150,000, including thousands of refugees fleeing the Nazi occupation in Western Poland.

The local Ukranian population welcomed the German troops, while Stephen Bandera's units joined with the invading forces and played a major role in stirring up hatred of the Jews and their murder. During July, a mob attacked the Jews for three days. Thousands of Jews were jailed, where they were tortured and murdered, and several hundred Jewish public figures and youth were killed. On July 15th the Jews were ordered to wear the yellow star; days later, between July 25th and 27th, over 2,000 Jews were shot in "Aktion Petliura." In August, a fine of 20,000,000 rubles (approximately $600,000,000 in today's US dollars) was imposed on the Jewish community. Jewish property was confiscated and looted, and synagogues and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated and destroyed. A Judenrat was appointed and led by Joseph Parnes; Parnes was killed shortly thereafter after refusing to supply the Nazis with men for forced labor. Two of his three successors met the same fate.

Labor camps were set up in the city itself and the surrounding areas, where many Jews were either killed immediately or died as a result of the inhuman conditions in the camps. In November, 1941, the Jews of Lvov were concentrated in a ghetto and subjected to starvation. In March 1942, approximately 15,000 Jews were deported from Lvov to the death camp Belzec. The major deportation of the Jews, however, took place August 10-23 of the same year, when 40,000 Jews were sent to their deaths. Subsequent deportations in November 1942 and January 1943 resulted in the murder of another 15,000 Jews, some in Belzec, and others in the Janowska road camp.

During the last deportation of June 1943, which resulted in the deaths of most of the surviving Jews, the Jews of Lvov offered armed resistance. When the Nazis encountered gunfire and hand grenades, they poured gasoline on the Jewish houses and lit them on fire. The 7,000 Jews who survived the massacre were sent to the Janowska road camp. At that point, Lvov and the surrounding area were made Judenrein (clear of Jews).

Because of the particularly set of circumstances that citizens of Lvov faced, including a hostile population of Ukrainians, the lack of forests that could provide shelter, and the absence of a local partisan movement, there was little organized Jewish resistance, though a few sporadic and isolated attempts were made. For example, during the liquidation of the ghetto and the Jadowska road camp, a group of prisoners who were charged with the disposal and cremation of corpses attacked and killed several of the German guards. A few dozen Jews escaped, but most were ultimately caught and killed. Some Jews fled to remote forests, though in most cases they were handed over to the Nazis once they were discovered by the local Ukrainian peasants.

When Soviet forces entered and occupied Ukraine in July 1945, a Jewish committee was established in order to aid survivors. Of the 3,400 Jewish survivors who registered with the community by the end of 1945, only 820 had been in the Lvov Ghetto. Most of the survivors left Ukraine and settled in Israel.

A monument to the memory of Jewish victims of the Nazis, with inscriptions in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian, was erected shortly after the end of World War II.

In a census taken in 1959, 29,701 Jews were registered in the Lvov province, 5,011 of whom declared that Yiddish was their mother tongue. Two years prior, in 1957, several Jewish students were arrested for "Zionist activities." Organized matza-baking was prohibited in 1959; that same year mohels (those who perform ritual circumcisions) were pressured to sign a declaration promising to abandon circumcision. In 1962, several hundred Jews were arrested for "economic crimes;" that same year the synagogue was closed on the pretext that it served as a meeting place for speculators and other criminals.

Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People