A Thousand Years of Jewish History in Poland

According to Thaddeus Taube, the recently-appointed Honorary Consul for the Republic of Poland and Chairman of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture, Poland was the home to almost 3.3 million Jews prior to World War II. As a matter of fact, prior to World War II Poland was considered the guiding light of world Jewry for almost a thousand years and represented 10 percent of the world’s Jewish population. Today, at least 70 percent of American Jews and 60 percent of Israelis are of Polish descent.

Economist Magazine mentions that The Nazi Holocaust, followed by a later emigration encouraged by Communist anti-Semitism, only left Poland with some 10 to 20,000 Polish Jews. Now before the last generation of Holocaust survivors dies out, The Polish-Jewish world is showing signs of coming back to life. In recognition of the growing Polish Jewish population and renewed culture, the Polish government is encouraging Jewish tourism.

Just a decade ago, Warsaw’s Nozyk synagogue had a mainly elderly congregation, most of whom were educated before the war. Today, its services are dominated by young Poles with a keen interest in their roots. The city of Krakow also has a full-time rabbi for the first time since the war. From war veterans to students, Jews of all generations are producing newspapers, running societies and affirming their heritage and forming minyans (10 Jewish men) — the quorum required for communal prayer.

Actually, the history of Jews in Poland dates back to the Golden Age from 966-1572 and was the center of the Jewish world. The first Jews arrived in the territory of modern Poland in the 10th century. They traveled the trade routes eastward to Kiev and Bukhara. The first permanent Jewish community was noted in 1085 by a Jewish scholar Juda ha-Kohen and the first extensive Jewish emigration from Western Europe to Poland occurred at the time of the First Crusade in 1098. The tolerant ruler Boleslaus III encourage the Jews to settle throughout Poland to the Lithuanian territory as far as Kiev and saw benefits when the Jews formed the backbone of the Polish economy. Therefore, he granted them freedom to worship, trade and travel.

From the founding of the Kingdom of Poland in 1025, through the early years of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth created in 1569, Poland was one of the most tolerant countries in Europe. In fact, many German Jews fled to the friendlier Poland. Poland became known as the Jewish Paradise and was a unique shelter for expelled European and Jewish communities and a home to the world’s largest and most vibrant communities. According to some sources about three-quarters of the Jews lived in Poland by the middle of the 16th century.

Unfortunately with weakening of the Commonwealth and growing strife due the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, Poland’s traditional tolerance began to wane from the 17th century onward. After the portioning of Poland in 1795 and the destruction of Poland as a sovereign state, Polish Jews were subject to the partitioning powers, primarily the increasingly anti-Semitic Russian Empire, but also Austro-Hungary and the Kingdom of Prussia (later known as the German Empire). Still, as Poland regained independence in the aftermath of World War I, it was the center of the European Jewish world of over 3 million.

However, anti-Semitism from the general population and the political establishment was a growing problem. The first pogrom took place in Poznan and then in Krakow and in other cities along the German frontier. It is estimated that 10,000 Jews were killed. At the start of World War II, Poland was partitioned between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The war resulted in the death of one-fifth of the Polish population, with 90 percent or about 3 million Polish Jews killed along with almost 3 million Polish Gentiles. Although the genocide occurred mostly in German occupied Poland, there was little evidence of Polish collaboration with the Germans who made almost no attempt to establish a collaborationist government in Poland. The ensuing Holocaust nearly wiped whatever was left of the Jewish population in Poland.

In the post-war period, many of the approximately 200,000 Polish Jewish survivors from the Communist People’s Republic of Poland emigrated to the State of Israel and North or South America. Their departure coincided with the destruction of most Jewish institutions, post-war pogroms and the hostility of the Communist party to both religion and private enterprise. However, after 1989 the situation of Polish Jews was normalized and those who were Polish citizens before World War II are allowed to renew their citizenship. Religious institutions were, and are being, revived largely through Jewish foundations like the Ronald Lauder and Taub Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture.

Now that the Polish Jewish community is coming back to life, the Polish Government is encouraging Jewish tourism. Contact your travel professional for more information.