Rawitsch,
Posen, Prussia. 51:37n 16:52e
Town, Poznan province., Western Poland, 36 miles NNW of Breslau (Wroclaw).
Until 1939, it was a Polish frontier station near the German border.
The
first settlement of Jews in Rawicz took place around the time the town was
founded in 1639. In 1648 complaints
were lodged against Jewish merchants who were then expelled.
They returned soon thereafter, only to be expelled again in 1674.
By 1698 an organized community was in existence and in 1719 it received a
Freibrief (letter of privileges) regulating the rights and taxes of its
member. By then, the Jewish
community totaled 12 families.
Rawicz
Town Map: 1911 - Click picture for detail
Rawicz
Arial View -
Click picture for detail
Rawicz
Town Entrance
Rawicz
City Square
A hevra kaddisha was founded in 1728
and the first rabbi, Menachem Mendel Gradenwitz, was appointed in 1755.
Its bet din was headed by
learned talmudic authorities, including Rabbi Solomon b. Dov Baer (1786-93),
later to be the community's rabbi. In
1774 a bet midrash was founded.
Services were held in a private house until a synagogue was built in
1783. The community (35 families in
1739) flourished, and after a fire in Leszno (1790) absorbed many refugees,
including Rabbi Akiva Eger, who lived there for one year.
The local Jews were mainly shopkeepers, tailors, livestock merchants, and
artisans. In 1797 the community had
198 families, and by 1835 there were 401 families (a total of 1574 persons, or
about 50% of the total population). A
new synagogue was built in 1889 when the community was at its economic peak and
served by a long line of scholarly
rabbis, including its last one, the scholar John Cohn (1893-1920). The Jewish population subsequently declined to 363 in 1905.
The town suffered during World War I, and under Polish rule the community
was subjected to discrimination which induced many to leave for Germany; only 15
remained in 1933. The Jewish cemetery and synagogue were both destroyed by the
Nazis during World War II.
Rawicz
Synagogue (built 1889)
The
original Jewish cemetery for Rawitsch was located in Sierakowo - a small village
outside of town. It is located at ul. Podgorna on a hill and dated back from
the 16th century. The wealthiest of Jews were buried on the hill facing Rawitsch.
Following WW II, only the gate remained with the words of Samuel 2.7
written on it in Hebrew and German. Sometime
after 1960, the gate was destroyed. A
small heap of stones from a few tombstones still remain there (1994).
See Sierakowo for photographs of the cemetery.
Rawicz
Jewish Cemetery. The burial house was in the front, right corner of the
property
The newer Jewish cemetery is located in Rawicz, however, there are no noticeable
remains. The informant for the
Polish Survey of Jewish Cemeteries was Dariusz Czwojdrak, ul. Lipowa 22a/4
67-400 Wschowa, Poland.
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A
photograph of the gymnasium exists in the Rawicz Yizkor book.
The previous photographs are from the Yizkor book of the pre-Holocaust
gymnasium and the building as it exist today (1994).
Markus Brann, the historian, and Arthur Ruppin, the Zionist leader, were
both born in Rawicz.
Books:
Geschichte der judischen Gemeinde
Rawitsch (1915) John Cohn.
Rawicz Grod Przyjemskich (1938)
Warsaw.
The Annals of the Community of
Rawitsch (Hebrew and English, 1962).
Records
Urzad
Stanu Cywilnego (USC) - Civil Records Office
Urzad Miasta I Gminy w Rawiczu, ul. J. Krasickiego 21,
63-900 Rawicz
Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) less than 100 years old
1808 - Combined Jewish and other records
1826 - Separate Jewish records
