[Page 375]

Front of the City Synagogue

1. People from the same town Back

[Page 376]

After a thousand years on God's eternal earth, Neither you, nor he, nor I will remain, And, perhaps, not the language and not the poem Only our martyrs will remain in our memory. And nations and generations will read from a parchment manuscript, That in 5693 [1933], animal-like people arose; They were named Hitler, Himmler, Göring and Goebbels And they ignited the world with sword and sulfur Across all nations, in every country and on every ocean. Such a scroll of lamentation of our great kiddush-haShem;[1] On Poland's soil – they erected gallows and ghettos; On Romania's soil – threw Jews on bonfires; On Russian soil – mothers and daughters were defiled, And in Dachau – the fathers and sons were burned. Thus they slaughtered Jews in Warsaw, in Vienna; In Kiev, in Vilna – and in German Berlin. Synagogues with Torah scrolls were burned, Our inheritance destroyed in their flames. Lost and swollen children cried; With Jewish patches and with dying faces. On the soil of no one – on the roads of the world, And on ships in the middle of the ocean – they called to God! It will be written even only after a thousand years, That our scroll is greater than Jeramiah's Lamentations, Because the Jews were hung on ropes like calves; Naked mothers stretched out on gallows. Oh, it is not Warsaw, not Lodz and not Brod, But the slaughtered blood of our cherished Jews, Who were named Avraham, Shlomo, Moshe or Zvulin. It is not Amsterdam, not Prague, not Brno, But our pure daughters from the God of Abraham. God, their quiet shouting to You for mercy, Remained in the glaze of their dead eyes, And their children, God, dug their graves. After a thousand years on God's eternal earth, Neither you, nor he, nor I will remain, And, perhaps, not the language and not the poem Remaining will be the Tanakh,[2] the world and God And saddest of all – our present scroll Even after a thousand years.

Translator's footnotes:

1. Sanctification of God's name; martyrdom Back
2. Torah, Prophets and Writings Back

[Page 377]

On the History of the Jews in Rzeszów

Reisha [Rzeszów] became a private city at the beginning of the 14^th century, whose owner changed from time to time. One after another family, Rzeszowski, Ligenza, Ostrogski and Lubomirski, ruled there. Either alone through their representatives, the Jewish residents in Reisha, like the other residents, were subjugated by the city owner, dependent on him and they found themselves under his protection which was desired because of the hostile relationship of the Christian population. The Jews were permitted to settle near the palace, which was surrounded by pools of water, of which one extended to the suburb of Kłapówka, near the Mikoszki River with the help of canals and lakes; the Jewish gate was located there.

One could reach the Jewish quarter through a passage over the Mikoszki River where there were two synagogues – the new one and the old one – standing parallel to the Jewish cemetery on the other side of the river. The cemetery was located behind a wall in a location settled by Jews. The main square where Jews were concentrated was in Plata Juriorum, the Jewish street in the city, and here also was the community office, the residence of the rabbi, the old synagogue and starting in 1708 – (Wolya) the new synagogue. Until the middle of the 17^th century, the space in the Reisher ghetto was probably crowded, so that the city did not even have room for a cemetery. Therefore, the deceased were hidden near the old synagogue. Today, this space is surrounded by a protective wall on two sides; on the third side by the wall of the synagogue, while the fourth side mainly had no wall. Later, when there already was a new cemetery on “the other side of the wall,” rabbis, scholars, gabbaim [synagogue officials], representatives of Council of the Four Lands and their families were brought to burial at the old cemetery. We find the grave of Ezrial ben [son of] Yehuda, one of the first council chairmen of the Council of the Four Lands and the head of the kehila [organized Jewish community] who died in 1585, and near him, Shmuel ben [son of] Tzvi Hirsh, also the head of the Council of the Four Lands^[2].

Part of the New Cemetery (July 1939)

[Page 424] and head of the kehila, who died in 1636, and also the grave of the Reisher Rabbi Shneur ben [son of] Khenokh, who died in 1699 and near him the grave of his daughter, Bune (1725). Among the other graves of the representatives, particularly clear is the grave of Yehoshua ben [son of] Mordekhai of Tismenic [Tyśmienica], an influential person at the Jewish kehila and its representative for many years, the right hand of Prince Lubomirski, a rich man and influential man who was mentioned in the Pinkas [registry book] with the name Hazie Markowicz or Rabinowicz (died in 1715). The remaining graves are of the Rabbi, Reb Hershko ben [son of] Yehuda of Radimna (died 1770), Arya Leib Mastownitsh ben the Rabbi, Reb Shmuel of Dubno (died 1725), Yitzhak ben [son of] Moshe, the grandson of the Shakh [Shabbatai ben [son of] Meir Hakohen] and the grave of the old rabbi of Reisha, Shmuel haLevi. Among the graves of the above-mentioned are spread the graves of their deceased families, among them the interesting personage of Rayzl, the daughter of the parnes [elected member of the organized Jewish community], Yehiel Mikhl, who spent a large sum for the construction of the old synagogue that burned in the year 1739.

It seems that the old cemetery, or a part of it, served as a Jewish Parthenon where esteemed rabbis and heads of the kehila from various eras were brought for burial. The number of sunken graves from the beginning of the 16^th century to the end of the 18^th century that are located in the open area of the old cemetery give witness that here was the first cemetery of the kehila.

The Jewish population increased during the middle of the 17^th century because of the wave of war refugees who were drawn to the west from the east, chased by Chmielnicki and his bands, and for other reasons. The Prince Dominik Ostrokski [spelled “Ostrogski” on previous page] did not willingly welcome such refugees to his city because they did not bring anything with them, leaving all of their possessions in Ukraine. The prince issued an order based on an old, forgotten ban that prohibited the transfer of property to Jews.

Reb Efroim Zalman, the head of the kehila, acquired a third of the area from Bertlomai Szczigl's fruit garden in 1658 for the value of 170 florin on the explicit condition that “the area was acquired to bury corpses from the Jewish kehila.”

This was the beginning of a new cemetery that in time was enlarged because of the increase in the population and in the number of corpses. In 1689, there already was no room in the new cemetery and when the Jews turned to the village mayor, Paul Zaglombinski, to sell them a new area for a cemetery, the new Prince of Reisha, Hieronim Lubomirski, forbid the sale of the land to Jews. But when Zaglombinski committed himself to acquiring a new place for the price and to build on it, the transaction was then permitted. The published agreement [was for the] “Hospital for the Jewish Elders or Society for the Jewish Hospital of Rzeszow,” meaning the hospital society or Khevre Kadishe [burial society] headed by Abush (Avaham) Lewkowicz.

A Khevre Kadishe existed in Rzeszow at that time in the 17^th century, which supervised the Jewish hospital as well as the cemetery. The society was a legal administrative body independent of the kehila. It possessed a significant sum of money. The Khevre Kadishe paid Zaglombinski 3,200 zlotes for the burial ground, for the cemetery. The city council was against the transaction. The city council demanded that at least “all of the taxes that were justified on the land up to the above-mentioned transaction be placed on the Khevre Kadishe, so the burden would not fall on the city.” From then on, the society tried to acquire the gardens, places that extended along the wall on one side and at the shore of the river on the other side; in the meantime, the neighboring Zaglombinski plots were transformed into a cemetery.

And, actually, the transaction between the Khevre Kadishe and the village mayor, Nabrucki, was concluded in 1691, which transferred the building plot that bordered on the cemetery, post walom tsillolem (behind the wall), for the price of 580 florin. The above-mentioned Abush Lewkowicz and Meir Doktorowicz, Shlomo Pinkhasowicz and Efroimowicz [participated in the purchase] in the name of the Khevre Kadishe. This was a proportionally smaller transaction in comparison with the one from 1689. However, it did not take long and the Khevre Kadishe again intervened to increase the area of the cemetery. It appears that Zaglombinski, from whom they had bought the land in 1689, had a larger garden that bordered on the cemetery. The Khevre Kadishe turned to him and again purchased a similar piece of land as in the year 1689.

The Jewish kehila in Reisha kept growing and it was necessary to increase the area of the cemetery. The synagogue of the Khevre Kadishe in Reisha bought an area to enlarge the cemetery. The area was bought by Shmuel Kalmanowicz, Avraham Doktorowicz, Ahron Izrailowicz, Yosf Izrailowicz

[Page 425]

and Hirshko Moszkowicz. They bought additional gardens in 1705 as a continuation of the cemetery.^[3]

Thus everything was carried out against the will of the Christian residents. The Khevre Kadishe would have certainly purchased more plots at this spot, but they encountered interference; a sculpture of the Holy Mikolai [Michael] stood in that area or perhaps it was especially placed there to prevent the Jews from acquiring additional plots. From that time on and beyond, we do not find any documents for the purchase of land for a cemetery.^[4] They began to make use of every bit of terrain. They buried the respected deceased near the synagogue. And when there was no longer any place there, they began to bury leaders of the kehila in specials places near the wall, close to today's Sobiedkii Street. Here lies the Reisher Rabbi, Reb Yitzhak Chaim Blumenfeld (died 1811), near him, his grandson, Yehoshua Mordekhai, the grandson of the Reisher Rabbi, Reb Yekhezkel Tzvi Blumenfeld. Near him – Yehuda Leib ben [son of] Rabbi Reb Avraham Shabtai of Stryszów (the grandfather of Reb Yehoshua Heshil Walersztajn, the rabbi of Reisha (died in year 1904). Near him – Zalman parnes and his family (died 1789, a well-known community worker at the Reisher kehila). Here, nearby, are buried the family of Yehoshua Rabinowicz, the son-in-law of Reb Shmuel Shmelka Horowicz, the famous rabbi from Nikolsburg.

The headstones that stand next to each other give witness to the thriftiness with the land. Today, the headstones are almost completely sunken in the ground, but here and there parts of headstones jut out in the area. Several headstones remain in good condition and the engravings on them can be easily read, thanks to the intense work of Reb Yehezkiel Kraut, of blessed memory, who died not long after everything he did to keep the cemetery in good condition.

Yet the cemetery is full of sunken headstones that give a harsh impression. The cemetery extends from the synagogue to the “statue” (sculpture). Here, it is cut in two by Sobeiski Street, so that it remains divided into two large squares. In the territory of the squares, the heads of the kehila have found their honored rest; in the second half of the 17^th century, among the gardens of fruit trees as well as the wild grass that covers the area. Dear historical memories of the Jewish community in Reisha, is being lost, memorials whose importance cannot be presumed.

Headstones from the destroyed cemetery

Original footnotes:

1. The article was published in Nowi Dziennik [New Journal] no, 87, page 10, March 29, 1931. Back
2. When the headstone was repaired, an error was made in the dates – instead of 5346, they wrote 5315. The date 5315, which is 1555; the Council of the Four Lands came together for the first time in 1581. Back
3. The grandfather of the author of the second Pnei Yehoshua [commentary] (died in 1718) and the Rabbi Reb Shmuel haLevi was his father. Back
4. Municipal Archive, volume 2, page 370; pages 316-320, 618-619, 622-624, pages 126-127, 821-825, part 191. Back

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