In the 17th century, Dubienka was destroyed by Tatars; in the 18th century there was a great fire during which 29 Jewish houses burned down.

In the second half of the 19th century there was a significant increase in the number of inhabitants. Dubienka was multicultural a town, inhabited by Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians. Its development was stopped only by the construction in 1877, which caused significant changes in the transport network and, as a result, the loss of the inhabitants' sources of income. Despite this, in 1899 there were 4,130 people of the Mosaic faith here.

During World War I and during the Polish-Bolshevik War (1919–1921), Dubienka suffered serious damage. At that time, the number of Jews also decreased and they gradually emigrated to other centers and abroad.

In the interwar period, six nearby towns were subordinated to the kahal in Dubienka. There was a synagogue, three private houses of prayer, as well as a mikvah and a cemetery. There were Jewish political parties and organizations, the 'Jawne' Cultural and Educational Association  and a Bet Yaakov orthodox religious school for girls, under the patronage of Aguda.

At the beginning of World War II, Dubienka lost its city rights and never regained them. The German occupation authorities then started exterminating the Jewish population. The Germans demolished the synagogue and established a ghetto in which they imprisoned approx. 3,000 Jews, including those from Kraków and Mielec.  In 1942, a significant number of ghetto prisoners were taken to the German Nazi extermination camp in Sobibór, and some were shot by the Germans in the Jewish cemetery in Dubienka. The only people left in the ghetto were craftsmen and a few working women. The Germans exterminated them in October 1942.

The Description

The Jewish cemetery in Dubienka was established at the end of the 16th century in the western part of the town; currently located at Piaski street. Its current boundaries cover a smaller area than the historic one; the remaining part of the area contains single-family houses. The first work on tidying up the cemetery in 2005–2006 was carried out by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland on behalf of the Heritage Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries. A dozen or so fragments of tombstones were then collected in the fenced area. Before 2018, a tombstone was placed at the alleged burial place of tzadik Uri Fajwl, son of Aharon. In 2019, a monument to the memory of the Jews from Dubienka was unveiled. Before 2023, an ohel of the same tzadik Uri Fajwel was built in the original 'openwork' style.

Author of the note: Magda Lucima

Właściciel praw autorskich do opisu: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN.