Metadata: Jewish Community in Lwów
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 312/119
- Title:
- Jewish Community in Lwów
- Title (official language):
- Zbiór dokumentów Gminy Żydowskiej miasta Lwowa. 1609 - 1801, 1902
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Community in Lwów
- Date(s):
- 1609/1902
- Date note:
- 1609/1801, 1902
- Language:
- Latin
- Polish
- German
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 0.4 linear metre; 53 archival units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of records from the years 1609-1801, mostly in Latin, sometimes also in Polish. There are copies of royal decrees granting or confirming privileges for Jews, for example:
ref. no. 1: Decree of Baltazar Stanisławski, the Crown Treasurer, exempting Jews from taxes in 1609.
ref. no. 2: King Zygmunt III Vasa's decree on the sale of meat by Jews in Lwów, 1616.
ref. no. 3:. Entry of a decree by Zygmunt III Vasa in the town court register of Lwów on ensuring free trade for the Jews of Lwów and prohibiting any punishments against them, 1627.
ref. no. 6: Agreement between the Lwów municipality and the Jewish community in Lwów, the resulting regulations on the construction of houses and the use of houses and shops by Jews. An agreement concluded between representatives of the town hall, townspeople and the assembly of 40, on the one hand, and the seniors of the synagogue and the Jewish community on the other. Financial commitments on the part of the Jews, 1647.
ref. no. 7: King Władysław IV's decree approving the letter of Andrzej Mniszek, the crown accountant in Lwów, regarding the ban on erection of a building on the Krakowskie Przedmieście at the request of its inhabitants, 1648.
ref. no. 8: Charter regarding Jewish loans to Christians. Entry of the privileges granted by Kings Władysław IV (1633) and Jan Kazimierz (1658) in 1664.
ref. no. 9: Publication of the proclamation of the Lublin Tribunal of 1661. The act prohibited incitement assaults against and the seizure of property of the Jewish population living in cities, towns and villages.
ref. 17: General privileges granted by King Kazimierz Jagiellończyk in 1453, defining the privileges of Jews living in Polish lands and related conditions. Privileges approved by the Kings: Zygmunt August, Stefan Batory, Zygmunt III Waza, Władysław IV, Jan Kazimierz and Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki.
ref. no. 19. Act issued by King Augustus II, which guaranteed the safety of Lwów synagogues, protected Jews from all kinds of violence and harm, and recommended that city councillors not prevent Jews from engaging in trade and crafts. The Act was promulgated in Warsaw on 7 September 1713.
ref. no. 24: Entry of a royal decision in the town court register confirming the privilege granted to the Lwów Jewish community in 1690. Permission to maintain one synagogue in the city, two synagogues and a cemetery in the suburbs, 1723.
There are also records relating to disputes and court cases, agreements between the city council of Lwów and the municipal and suburban Jewish community, protests and complaints, letters. One of the documents (119/32) has the original signature of King Augustus III.
- Archival history:
-
The fate of the archives of the Jewish community in Lwów after the entry of the Wehrmacht in July 1941 is unknown. Individual documents from 1609-1801 are the oldest in the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute as a successor of the Central Jewish Historical Commission in 1947. Other records produced by the Lwów community (from 1901), were acquired in 1993.
The location in Poland of other documents pertaining to the Jewish community of Lwów is not known. The collection of records of the Jewish community in Lwów, including documents from 1785-1942, is in the Central State Historical Archives in Lviv (fonds 701).
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
In the 14th century, Lwów had two separate Jewish communities. One was composed of Jews living within the city walls, the other were Jewish residents of the so-called Kraków suburb. This division continued until 1830. Each Lwów community had their own separate board, but they shared a joint cemetery which was closed in 1855. The management of the communities, as in the whole of the First Polish Republic, combined ancient traditions with elements of Magdeburg law. The community leadership consisted of elders (from three to five) as assessors of a provincial or community court, and community heads of committees and brotherhoods. The community mayor represented the community authorities beyond the community itself. The community board represented the Jewish community before the authorities, had administrative and fiscal powers, and collected both local taxes and tributes from the Jewish population. It was an organ of the judiciary, established courts and rabbinical tribunals. The community was responsible for housing, health and social care institutions, burials, safety, public morality, trade and defence. The leadership of the Lwów community took part in diets and meetings of the Council of Four Lands; community mayors acted as heads of provincial diets, and sometimes also the Council.
The Jews of the Lwów community lived around the Old Market Square and the Low and High Castle. The first synagogue in Lwów was built of wood. After a fire in 1624, a new masonry one was erected in the area of today's Sańska Street. The most famous was the private masonry synagogue of the Golden Rose of 1582.
The legal situation of Lwów Jews was regulated by royal charters, the ordinances of the town council and the statutes of the synods of the Catholic Church. Royal privileges guaranteed Jews the freedom to engage in trade and some crafts. It is worth noting that twice, in 1648 and 1655, the burghers of Lwów refused to hand over their Jewish co-inhabitants to the Cossack army besieging the town. The Lwów community gained significant standing among other communities of the Republic of Poland, both in the field of religious life and in finance and banking.
After the first partition of Poland in 1772, Lwów became part of Austria as the capital of Galicia province. The capital status of the town contributed to its development and also to the growth of the Jewish community. 18,000 Jews lived there in 1800, by 1910, there were 57,000. In the interwar period, the town was inhabited by about 77,000 Jews, but the Lwów community also included 52 neighbouring communities, which is why in 1939 the number of its members amounted to almost 110,000. From the end of the 18th century, the city was an important centre of Hasidism; from the middle of the 19th century of Reform Judaism; and from the end of the 19th century of Zionism. In the Second Republic of Poland, Lwów had the third largest Jewish population, which was also very diverse. The community was extremely active in the field of religious and secular education (including crafts); it financed the activities of societies helping the poorest and supported the Jewish hospital, which was one of the best institutions of its type in the town.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged in chronological order.
- Access, restrictions:
- Scanned documents are accessible in the Jewish Historical Institute reading room and archive.
- Finding aids:
- A digital catalogue is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Agnieszka Reszka; The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute; November 2019
