Єврейська Галичина та Буковина

Підтримка досліджень та збереження культурної спадщини

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In 1700, Lubomirski permitted anyone who wanted to come and live in Kolbuszowa, to build houses around the castle, and, to that end, to use the lands and woods of his estates. To develop the city economically, he also permitted the establishment of beer breweries and vodka distilleries, and he exempted settlers from certain taxes for a period of twelve years. In the same document, he permits the Jews to settle in the city and utilize the lands, on condition that they pay taxes like the Christians, do not purchase homes on the city square, and live within a defined area. Under Austrian rule, the status of the city declined, but its owners, the Tyszkiewicz family, managed to restore its status. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the city again experienced decline, inter alia, because of the decline in status of the nobility and in the demand for woodcraft and because of the attempt by the Austrian government to stifle competition to the decorative furniture factories in Vienna. Nevertheless, during that period, the city became a county capital and seat of the governor and courts. During World War I, the city was first conquered by the Russians on September 13, 1914, and the townspeople, especially the Jews, fled the city. They returned to their ruined, plundered houses only after the city was retaken by the Austrians in the summer of 1915.
 

The Jews

It is hard to ascertain when Jews began to live in Kolbuszowa. Some claim that Jews were active there in the first years of its settlement. As noted above, Jews began to live there officially toward the end of the seventeenth century. The Jewish community really consolidated during the eighteenth century, when Jews obtained more and more rights and privileges from the owners of the city, who were very friendly toward Jews. By 1713, all restrictions on Jews had been cancelled, and the relationships between Christian woodworkers and the Jewish middlemen who distributed their wares became good and positive. The Jewish and Christian communities in Kolbuszowa maintained separate organizational and administrative structures but, throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, shared a symbol, which contained a cross, a Star of David, and a handshake, with eagles’ wings above. This attests to the deep cooperation between the two communities. In 1736, the Jewish community was granted permission to erect its first synagogue, and the city had a Jewish cemetery by 1760. During this period, the community began to have representation at the Council of Four Lands, subordinate to the community of Apta (Opatów).
Among the rabbis of Kolbuszowa we know of R. Yeshaya, who was the town’s rabbi from c. 1740 to c. 1760, and who was known as a wonderworker and for his piety. He was succeeded by his son, R. Yitzḥak, who served until 1782, whereupon R. Yosef, who was a rabbinical court judge and teacher of halakhah in town, was appointed. R. Yosef was the uncle of R. Moshe Teitelbaum, the author of Yismaсḥ Moshe. Three years later, R. Avraham Yehoshua Heshel was appointed. He would go one to be the rabbi of Apta, Iasi, and other cities, and was an influential political figure as well as a prominent Galician Hasidic figure in the early nineteenth century. His writings were collected in a book of homilies called Ohev Yisrael. Next was Rabbi David ben Meir HaKohen, a disciple of Rabbi Levi Yitzḥak of Berdychiv. He was followed by Rabbi Yaakov (Yekkele) the son of Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz (Ropczyce), whose ḥasidim included many of the townspeople. After R. Yekkele moved to Melitz (Mielec), his nephew, Rabbi Yeḥiel, was appointed rabbi. Upon his death, his son-in-law, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Teitelbaum, was appointed temporarily, until R. Yeḥiel’s son, Asher Yeshaya, came of age and could assume his father’s mantle. However, a dispute between the local ḥasidim of Sanz (Nowy Sącz) and the local ḥasidim of Dzików led to the unofficial appointment of a wealthy and learned man named Rabbi Wolf Reischer. Ultimately, R. Avraham Aharon became the permanent rabbi of the city, while R. Asher Yeshaya returned to the city after several years and barely subsisted. R. Avraham Aharon died in 1901, having served as the city’s rabbi for almost half a century. He had designated his son, Yeḥiel, as his heir, but a dispute about the matter prevented his appointment, and divisiveness, quarrels, and fights plagued the city until 1912. When the Jews returned to the city after it was retaken by the Austrians in 1915, they appointed Rabbi Aryeh Leibush Teitelbaum, the son of the aforementioned R. Yeḥiel, as rabbi, but when he left for America in 1920, his father was appointed in his stead.
When the Austrians annexed Galicia in the late eighteenth century, they levied the same heavy taxes on the Jews of Kolbuszowa that they did on the rest of Galicia’s Jews, as part of their attempt to make the Jews “productive”. However, between 1795 and 1805, Kolbuszowa was governed by Count Tyszkiewicz, who encouraged the Jews to settle in the town, which was in a state of social and economic decline. He allowed the Jews to build houses and allocated building materials and plots of land to them. The Jews became providers of credit for Polish merchants and craftsmen, and the aristocratic governor sold a Jew the right to manufacture and sell liquor throughout his estate and manage a tavern. During this period, the city rolls mention a town rabbi, sexton, and supervisor, and there was a local mikveh. According to local legend, R. Avraham Yehoshua Heshel would immerse there. With the granting of equal rights to Jews, enabling them to be elected to the city council, Jews generally constituted about half of the city council, and a Jew served as its deputy head.
Between the World Wars
Upon the conclusion of World War I and the reconstitution of an independent Poland, there was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Kolbuszowa. Jewish property was plundered, and c. 20 men were injured in the incident. The economic condition of the Jews declined sharply due to the discriminatory policies of the new Polish regime toward the Jews. Kolbuszowa natives who had emigrated to the United States, including the family of the aforementioned R. Aryeh Leibush, came to the aid of the community financially. The Great Depression of 1929-1931 led to further economic decline of the local Jews, and a free loan society was established in town. In the 1920s, there were c. 67 family-owned businesses working in textiles, food production, leather goods, and workshops for making paper and metalworking. There were also societies to provide for the needy, take care of the sick, and bury the dead. The craftsmen were represented by the Yad Ḥarutzim association, which was the community’s largest and strongest political power base.
During this period, a Talmud Torah was established, called Etz Ḥayim, where c. 204 students studied. Throughout this period, there was also political and Zionist activity, and the youth groups Betar and HaNo’ar HaTziyoni operated. A small association for the preparation to move to Eretz Yisrael was established as well.
World War II
With the outbreak of the war, many refugees arrived in the city, many of whom remained. During the German conquest of Poland, there were several harsh battles in the area of the city. Polish soldiers and many Jews were killed, the city was shelled, and broad swathes of it were burned down. Residents fled and only returned once the battles died down. Some fled east, into the Soviet-occupied part of Galicia. When the Nazis entered the city in mid-September 1939, they took Jewish hostages until the Jewish community finished burying the Polish soldiers in the Christian cemetery. The corpses of the Jews who were killed in the same battles were permitted for burial only three weeks later. Throughout this period, Jewish residents were abducted for forced labor, where the Germans would abuse, hit, and degrade the laborers.
In March 1940, a Judenrat was established, headed by Dr. Leon Anderman, who hailed from an assimilated family and was an officer in the Polish army. The main function of the Judenrat was to organize work details for forced labor, thus putting an end to abductions on the street. The Judenrat also administered tax collection differentially, based on the financial capabilities of the residents. In addition, the Judenrat concerned itself with bringing food into the ghetto, in an attempt to release Jews who were arrested for the “crime” of smuggling food into the ghetto, supplemented by food parcels from the Joint Distribution Committee. A Yiddish-language elementary school was also set up in the ghetto, and the head of the Judenrat, Dr. Anderman, ran an eye clinic.
During the summer and fall of 1940, large groups of Jewish men were sent to labor camps in the area. The ghetto was erected in June 1941, apparently by German police that had been brought in from Rzeszów. Immediately after the erection of the ghetto, c. 26 people, including the members of the Judenrat, were arrested, and a new Judenrat was appointed in their stead. These new members made great efforts to release the rest, and indeed, c. 10 of them were released. The rest were sent to Auschwitz, where they perished.
In the fall of 1941, c. 20 families were expelled to Sokolow and Glogow, but many additional families were brought to the ghetto from the neighboring villages. In the winter of 1942, the Jews were required to turn over all the furs in their possession. Apparently, not all the Jews handed over their furs, but the matter was kept quiet because the head of the Judenrat paid a bribe. In the spring of 1942, the Judenrat set up workshops where people worked for the German army and its auxiliaries without pay, so they could have work papers. In May 1942, 200 men were selected to be sent to the camps, but at the last minute, due to the intervention of the Judenrat or other elements, the decree was rescinded. In June 1942, all the residents of Kolbuszowa were transferred to Rzeszów. Later, c. 100 Jews were sent to work in the Kolbuszowa ghetto, which had become a sort of labor camp. Conditions in this camp were somewhat reasonable, and the Jews there enjoyed relative freedom. There was no police or guards, so it was possible to trade easily with residents of the surrounding areas, use the post office, and more.
In September 1942, residents of the camp realized that the camp would be liquidated. Many of them began to hide in the forests or with Christian residents. Indeed, on November 14, 1942, German and Polish police trucks arrived to transfer the laborers to Rzeszów, where, the very next day, they were included in the deportation of all the city’s residents to the Belzec extermination camp. After the deportation, attempts were made to capture the few individuals who managed to escape. On May 25, 1943, c. 200 Poles, armed with spades and pitchforks, surrounded the local forests, captured, and murdered some eight Jews of the thirty who were hiding in those forests. Nevertheless, it must be noted that several Polish Christians helped Jews in different ways. At the end of the war, after Kolbuszowa was liberated on May 8, 1944, only nine Jewish residents remained in hiding.

(Roee Goldshmidt)

Sources:
Pinkas Kolbishov, edited by: I. M. Biderman, New York: 1971.
Pinkasei HaKehilot, vol. 3, Kolbuszowa, pp. 320-6.

Read more:

The Kolbuszowa Yizkor Book. (In Yiddish)

"Kolbuszowa From Its Beginnings" - A chapter of the Kolbuszowa Yizkor Book. (in English translation)

Kolbuszowa in the Kehilalinks project.

Kobluszowa in the Virtual Shtetel website.

Kolbuszowa is locaded 17 miles NW of Rzeszow in Western Ukraine. See a map.