The Jewish district was located in the northern part of the town, at Rynek II, where a synagogue was built. The main source of income for Jews was trade and crafts. The city was famous for its fairs, as well as the cattle and horse trade. The economic growth was influenced by the location on the trade route leading from the Bug River to Lublin.

In the 17th century, the local Jewish community became one of the largest and most influential in the Kingdom of Poland. The city was the meeting place of delegates taking part in the proceedings of the Parliament of the Four Lands, Waad Arba Aratzot. Also under the Partitions of Poland, in the first half of the 19th century, the commune in Łęczna was one of the most important centers of Hasidism. The famous local tzadik was Szlomo Jehuda Lejb Łęczner, a disciple of the Seer from Lublin.

In 1840, 1,754 Jews lived in the city. In 1846, almost the entire Jewish quarter burned down, but was soon rebuilt. In the years 1879-1902, Łęczna was the property of the Jewish financier and industrialist Jan Gotlib Bloch.

In the interwar period, the commune in Łęczna had a synagogue, a house of prayer, a bathhouse, pre-burial home, a cemetery, and a general store. Jewish political parties and organizations were active in the city, there were also many private cheders, a communal Talmud-Torah school, an Orthodox Beth Yaakov school for girls, a library, and Zionist youth organisations. In 1935, there were 2,273 Jews living in the town.

After 1939, Łęczna came under the German occupation. At the end of that year, the Germans issued, among others, ordinances regarding the obligation to wear an armband with the Star of David. In 1940, a Judenrat and an open, unfenced ghetto were established in the area of Rynek III and the synagogue area. Apart from the locals, there were also Jews from Slovakia, Bohemia and Moravia, and Germany. Those who were young and able to work were placed in the camp in Milejów, where they worked on the construction of the Milejów-Łęczna road.

In 1942, the ghetto was liquidated. The Germans took most of the prisoners to the German Nazi extermination camp in Sobibór and shot the remaining ones.

The Description

The Jewish cemetery in Łęczna was probably founded in the second half of the 16th century, when an independent community was established. It has been first mentioned in 1639. The necropolis was located southwest of the town, at a significant distance from the center, on the road leading from Lublin to Włodawa. The site is currently on Pasternik street, next to the Górnik Łęczna football stadium.

Originally, in one of the corners of the cemetery, there was a caretaker's house and a tool shed, built in 1858. The area of the necropolis was expanded many times and was surrounded by a brick wall on three sides. The tombstones were made of sandstone, granite and concrete and alternating rows of graves of men and women.

During the German occupation, the cemetery was a place of executions and burials of people who died or were killed within the town. After 1945, the existing tombstones were stolen and then used to build walls, stairs, curbs and foundations. In the 1950s and 1960s, in the southern part of the cemetery, two residential houses and cells were built, and the area was plowed and planted with trees.

In 1984, the Society of Friends of the Łęczyńska Land began activities aimed at recovering the tombstones. Thanks to his efforts and the help of the then Regional Museum (located in the synagogue), two complete tombstones and nearly 40 relics were found. However, they were located not in the cemetery, but on the fenced lawn next to the synagogue. In 2005, thanks to the initiative of Rabbi Mejer Izrael Gabay, a new ohel of the mentioned tzadik Szlomo Jehuda Lejb Łęczner was built. It is currently the only facility in the cemetery, and the remaining area is completely overgrown.

Author of the note: Magda Lucima

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