Culture of Judaic

community in my region

CZĘSTOCHOWA

From XVIII century Jews havelived in Częstochowa and thearea. In Częstochowa there was even a Jewish district. In houses there was no sewage system, so waste was poured through the windows. In many buildingsthere were long wooden balconies from the backyardside. At the front door of every Jewish housing there was a roll of parchment with hand-written prayer attached to a vertical frame part called „mezuzah”.

To commemorate the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem a piece of unpainted wall was left in each house. It was a symbol of the destruction of the temple in 1765. In those years, in Czestochowa therewere 51 Jewish families. Dailyactivities started with the sunrise. From many windows you could hear the rattling of sewing machines. A lot of Jewswere traders and sold goods on New and the Old Markets in thecity.

Jews not only lived in Czestochowa but also inLelów, Żarki, Janów, Koniecpol and in many other cities and towns.

JANÓW

Jewish community functioned in Janów perhaps as early as in the seventeenth century, which is much earlier than in Częstochowa.In the eighteenth century Janów was established Kehillah (Jewish community) for a significant area, including Częstochowa.

Jews in Koniecpol

KONIECPOLKoniecpol received city rights in 1443 . Jews were trading at that time

(including foreign), participated in the fair in Leipzig. In the eighteenth centurythere was a rich independent municipality, as with the synagogue, hospital, workhouse for the poor, kahalnym home, cemetery and a funeral home. In 1939 in Koniecpol there lived about 1,100 Jews. A ghetto was formed during the German occupation. Many Jews from the area moved there. In October 1942 many people were killed on the spot. About 1,600 Jews were deported to Treblinka.

An interesting thing is that Lelow Jews today aredressed like centuries ago: they wear large black hats, skullcaps ...

Every year, Jews arrive from different parts of the world: from Canada, the United States, Belgium, Holland, England, Australia and Israel, to pray and celebrate at the grave of the tzaddik David Biedermann.

Zadik David taught: „anyone, man or the people, shall not depart knowing one's own mistakes, not be saved. To the extent we can be saved in what we know ourselves”.

The place where until 1974 stood a dwelling house of the seventeenth century.

The place where the synagogue once was.

The Jewish community in ŻarkiŻarki has existed as a city since 1382. A Jewish

settlement is very old (as evidenced by the three cemeteries, of which one survived.) The

Jewish community has existed here since at least the early eighteenth century. In 1827 702Jews lived here (27.3% of the population), and from 1921 to 2536 (57.6%). Most of the Jewish

people dealt with the footwear industry, whose products were sold in Silesia,

Pomerania and Malopolska. Żarki is the birthplace of a famous patron of the Hebrew literature Abraham Josef Sztybla. The city has

offered a valuable library of 6,000 works.In the city the League of Jewish Women was

founded, aimed at feeding poor school children. Before the war, 3,000 Jews lived here.

In 1939 in Żarki lived about 600 Jewish families. In February 1941, the Nazis

established a ghetto there. There were about3000 people. On 6 October 1942 300 people

were shot, others were deported to the Treblinka death camp.

Jewish dishes

• Kugel - a very specific dish from Jewish cuisine, it is a baked cake with raw or cooked potatoes, pasta or rice. It can be served as a dessert.

• Czulent - is a midday meal on Shabbat. Since on that day, Jews do not cook, the food is prepared on Friday and kept up to 24 hours in a hot oven, formerly known as "szabaśnikiem”.

• Kreplach - dumplings of dough is cut into squares or circles filled with stuffing of cooked meat or chicken and folded in a triangle. They can be boiled or fried and served in soup, or separately. Usually served on the eve of Yom Kippur, Hoshanah Rabbah and Purim.

Ciulim or Czulent is a dish with a centuries-old tradition in Jewish cuisine as well as residents in Lelów cuisine. In Lelów it is prepared only at Easter and Christmas.

Jewish outfitMen’s fashion

An everyday outfit was a black robe [arab.chalit], called in Yiddish. kapote. Its form and style reminds a noble "zupan", modeled on the Turkish dress. In the eighteenth century chalat varied in colours, on

the southern borderlands it was sewn of small vertical stripes, in the nineteenth century it adopted the black color, to symbolize

mourning for the destruction of the Temple. Boys and adults Hasidim wore a shirt worn under a shirt or instead kutna tallis

[Hebrew talit tallis katan = small tallis] a type of a vest with a white cloth sewn on the sides, The front was decorated just like tallis,

with dark blue or black stripes attached to the corners tzitzis -Tassels That had to be let out on the top of the trousers. Under the influence of eighteenth-century Hasidic fashion trousers were short and to the knees. Men had black or white woolen socks and shoes -

many of the boots or the Turkish kapce shoes. Men covered their heads with a small cap, yarmulke, which is assumed to have a cap or

hat-shaped depending on local fashion. On holidays they wore sztrejml [Yid.], a wide brimmed hat with the fox or sable fur. During

prayers, men cover themselves with tallis and tefillin .

Women’s fashion

Women usually line with the current fashion, and depending on the wealth dressed like a peasant or townswomen. In religious families, married women wear scarves or wigs because a custom required that after marriage the bride wouldshave her head so as not to wake her husband sinful lust, as well as to protect them against evil spirits, szedim, entangle in the hair. On the dress, which should reach their necks and have long sleeves covering the elbows, were richly embroidered until the early nineteenth century