Metadata: Records of Jewish Religious, Educational, Professional, Aid and Sports Associations in Kraków Province, [1812] 1914-1939
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma
- Postal address:
- ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- +48 22 827 92 21
- Email:
- secretary@jhi.pl
- Reference number:
- PL 312/108
- Title:
- Records of Jewish Religious, Educational, Professional, Aid and Sports Associations in Kraków Province, [1812] 1914-1939
- Title (official language):
- Akta żydowskich stowarzyszeń religijnych, pomocowych, oświatowych, zawodowych, sportowych województwa krakowskiego, [1812] 1914-1939
- Date(s):
- 1812/1939
- Date note:
- [1812] 1914/1939
- Language:
- Polish
- German
- Yiddish
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 139 archival units; 3.5 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes records of Jewish religious, aid, educational, professional and sports associations from the years 1914-1939. Among them are documents of the following organisations:
Israelitische Allianz Rescue Committee (1914-1918), headquartered in Vienna: reports, correspondence, lists of people who received aid;
Union of Disabled Jews, Widows and War Orphans in Kraków (1912-1936) – statutes, correspondence with the administrative authorities and the Jewish Community in Kraków;
the Union of Jewish Participants in the Fight for the Independence of Poland (1933-1939);
Association of Progressive Israelites in Kraków (1912-1938) – statute, excerpts from minutes of meetings, cash reports, payrolls, employment contracts;
Association of Jewish Women "Anyim Nistarim" (1934-1938) – minutes of general meetings, minutes of association meetings, book of revenues and expenses;
Merchants' Association (1935-1939) – cash book;
Association of Small Merchants (1937-1939) – statute, correspondence, cash book;
Jewish Aid Committee (1931-1936), including: questionnaires of charges;
Committee for Aid to German Refugees (1933-1939), including: questionnaires of German refugees (1933);
Central Rescue Committee;
Gemilut Chasadim interest-free loans (1926-1939) – circulars, correspondence with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, reports on visits to local rescue committees, cash flow reports from individual towns in Western Małopolska;
Gemilut Chasadim Association in Kraków (1926-1939) – minutes of board meetings, correspondence, cash books;
Health Care Society for the Jewish Population in Poland, Kraków branch of TOZ (1932-1939) – correspondence, summer campaign, name lists of food donors, registration cards for children in need of nourishment, reports from the nourishment centre, circulars, appeals, financial matters;
the Union of Doctors of the Republic of Poland of the Kraków Region (1938-1939) – statute, minutes of the circuit board meetings, correspondence;
Society of Holiday Camps for Jewish children of Kraków schools "Jordanów" (1929-1939) – statute, cash flow books, activity reports, budget estimates, correspondence, lists of camp participants, various camp documents;
Jewish Council of Physical Education (1928-1939) – correspondence;
Jewish Sports Society "Hagibor" (1937-1939) – book of minutes from the Board meeting, correspondence with sports associations;
Hashomer – Jewish Gymnastics Section (1914-1915) – correspondence with the headquarters of the Kraków fortress;
Kraków Region Ping-Pong Association (1937-1938) – correspondence;
Kraków Regional Football Association (1937-1938) – announcements, correspondence with the "Hagibor" society;
The Józef Dominik Kraków Society of Chess Lovers (1928-1939) – correspondence, administrative matters.
In addition to official materials, the collection also includes an album with photos from the ceremony of laying the ground of the grave of Col. Berek Joselewicz on the Marshal Józef Piłsudski Mound in Sowiniec (1935), which can be found under ref. no. 109 (Association of Jewish Participants in the Fight for Poland's Independence).
- Archival history:
- Before the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish community in Kraków was one of the few communities in Poland that had an archive that was well organised, for the most part. Cataloguing was done by Dr. Judyta Freilich. In 1942, the partially incomplete archive was transferred, by order of the Germans, from the building of the former Jewish community to the Municipal Archives in Krakow. In 1948, it was taken over by the Jewish Historical Institute in the form of a deposit from the collections of the State Archives (now National Archives) in Kraków. It has not been determined when and on whose order the "Kraków Associations" records were separated from the rest of the archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Permanent Jewish settlement in Krakow dates back to the 12th century; the community was probably formed in the 13th century. In 1304 there was a Jewish street (later St. Anne Street), next to which there were two synagogues and a cemetery. In 1334, King Casimir the Great issued a privilege to the Jews of Lesser Poland. In 1494, most of the Jewish buildings burned down and the fire spread to other parts of the town. The Jews were expelled and gradually moved to the then separate town of Kazimierz (now a neighbourhood of Kraków), where a Jewish settlement had existed from the end of the 14th century, and where the development of the Krakow community has continued since then. From 1407 at the latest, there was a synagogue (today called the Old Synagogue). Refugees from Germany, Bohemia and Moravia also settled in Kazimierz. In 1519, the Kraków community was divided into separate Polish and Czech communities, each headed by a rabbi, two elders and a Jewish school teacher.
Over time, these two communities merged into one. In 1578, over 2,000 Jews lived in the walled “Jewish town". In the first half of the 17th century, there were about 4,500 Jews. In 1608 the "Jewish town" was expanded. The oldest known statute of the community dates back to 1595. From the mid-16th century, authority in the community was exercised by 4 elders (different every month), 5 lay judges and 14 eminent men (members of commissions or departments), 3 judicial senates (9 judges) and 3 accountants to assist the jurors, 5 main synagogue administrators, orphan guardians, alcohol tax comptrollers. The community had following offices: charity (including the burial society), kosher butchers and bath houses; each synagogue had its board over time; market and sanitation in the town oversaw kosher issues; treasury; moral supervision, anti-luxury supervision, inspection of education in public schools, etc . More offices were established with time, e.g., for the rehabilitation of prisoners or for collecting money for the Holy Land. The community played an important role in the Diet (Sejm) of Four Lands. It was also a centre of Talmudic scholarship that had international standing. Famous rabbis taught here: Jakub Polak, Shalom Szachna, Moshe Isserles, Yomtov Lipman Heller and others. The community was wealthy, traded on a large scale and craftsmanship developed here but it was hindered in the 17th century by fires, plagues, Swedish wars, famine, and anti-Jewish incidents.
In 1802 Kazimierz was incorporated into Kraków, together with the new Jewish cemetery established in 1800 (expanded in 1836). In 1867, restrictions on residence ceased to apply, and the organiaation of the Jewish population adopted the name of the Israelite Religious Community, which had no judicial and tax competences. The community built a hospital and a network of schools. In the 19th century, the share of Jews in Kraków's economy and culture gradually increased. The number of Krakow's Jews grew from 13,500 in 1850, to 32,000 in 1910, 45,000 in 1921 and 56,600 in 1931 (26% of the city's population). Before the outbreak of World War II, the Kraków community was the fourth largest in Poland. It is estimated that approximately 3,000 people survived the Holocaust, or about 5% Kraków Jews. The present Jewish community in Kraków is the only one in Poland that preserves organisational continuity from before the Second World War.
- Access points: locations:
- Krakow
- Finding aids:
- A digital version of the card catalogue (2013) is available in Polish.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Monika Taras; The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute; October 2019
