In 1779, there were 14 (8.9% of the total population), in 1793 - 35 (25.9%), in 1808 - 120 (34%), in 1820 - 215 (34.9%), in 1827 - 251 (35%), in 1857 - 410 (42.7%), in 1865 - 714 (46.7%), in 1897 - 661 (53.7%), in 1909 - 897 (52.3%), in 1921 - 797 (37.6%), in 1933 - 778 (34.7%), in 1939 - 700 (30,4%).

The Jewish Community Co-operative (synagogue supervision) of Lubień was established in the 19th century. Almost all members of the community lived in Lubien, with only isolated persons living in the neighbouring estates (Kobyla Łąka, Narty, Grabiny, Kaliska) and villages (Gagów, Modlibórz, Kłóbka Kamienna, Rutkowice, Kąty). The community infrastructure consisted of a wooden synagogue covered with sheet metal and a wooden prayer house covered with tar paper. Both of these buildings, standing in Bóżnicza Street (Polish: ul. Bóżnicza), was built in the first half of the 19th century. The prayer house also housed the rabbi's flat (until 1920), a nursery and a bathhouse. In today's 3 Maja Street (Polish: ul. 3 Maja), in turn, there was a wooden building covered with tar paper, housing a cheder and a prayer house. In 1917, the community bought a brick building where a shelter for poor Jewish travellers was located. Low attendance meant that it was liquidated in 1920 and converted into a flat for a rabbi. In its vicinity were stables and a garden. About 800 m outside the town, there was a 75 per cent cemetery with a brick building covered with tar paper, in which the caretaker lived.

When Poland regained its independence in 1918, the Jews of Lubień showed particular organizational activity, as if in response to the earlier partitioning, Russian authorities did not permit it. Numerous economic unions and associations were therefore established (the People's Bank, the Gemilus Chesed Interest-Free Loan Fund, the Union of Jewish Merchants, the Central Council of Small Merchants and Traders, the Central Union of Jewish Craftsmen, the Professional Union of Non-Factory Workers, the Association of Consumers "Wyzwolenie-Hachejrus", the Jewish Social Cooperative), charitable activities (the Union of Funeral Brotherhoods) and cultural and educational activities (the Union of Jewish Schools, the Zionist Library Association). Local branches had Jewish political parties: Aguda, Bund, folklorists, various Zionist factions. Political sympathies in the municipality in 1931 were distributed between Agudah Orthodox (50%), General Zionists (15%), Poale Zion (15%), Mizrachi (10%), Bund (5%) and non-partisans (5%). There were also party youth groups and the "Jutrznia" Physical Education Association. Jewish education was represented by the Bet Yaakov girls' school and two cheders.

The total value of the communal properties was in 1939 - 22,000 zlotys, while movables amounted to 3,079 zlotys. The latter were modest: 7 Torahs, 2 trumpets, 200 books in the nursery, an altar, 7 curtains, 10 lamps, 6 candlesticks, 2 tables, 5 benches, 3 seals. The municipal buildings were in need of significant renovation work in the 1930s. Lack of resources has meant that it has been undertaken on a limited basis.

The end of the Jewish community's existence in Lubień Kujawski came with the Second World War. Some Jews left the town just before the German army entered in September 1939. In the Warsaw ghetto in 1940, 99 Jews from Lubien, probably refugees, were registered with the Department of Landsmanship (Polish: Wydział Ziomkostw). on 7 November 1939, a group of young Jews were sent by the Germans to labour camps near Poznań. Other displaced persons were sent to Buk in the Grodzisk district and then to the General Government; in the spring of 1940, they stayed in Wiskitki, Skierniewice, Błonie, Żyrardów and Warsaw, among other places. On 16 September 1939, the Germans set fire to the synagogue and demolished the prayer house in 1940. An undetermined group remained in Lubień and vegetated until the summer of 1941 when further deportations to labour camps near Poznań took place. The last local Jews were sent in the spring of 1942 to the German Nazi extermination camp in Chelmno nad Nerem. After the war, in 1946, single Jews appeared in Lubień, who soon left the town.

The Description

The cemetery was probably established in the first half of the 19th century. It covers an area of 1 hectare. It lies in the immediate vicinity of the Catholic cemetery, in the woods by Lubienskie Lake, in the area called Stępka, situated on the plan of an elongated polygon, one of the sides of which is marked by the border of the lake. Before the war, it was surrounded by a brick wall, and there was a brick gravedigger's house covered with tar paper.

During the German occupation from 1939 to 1945, all tombstones were destroyed. After 1945 the cemetery area was paved. It was used as a car park and was partly overgrown with woodland.

References

• Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, American Joint Distribution Committee, ref. 210/15, sheet 36–39.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, vol. 27: Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna w Warszawie (1939–1943), ed. A. Bańkowska, M. Ferenc, Warsaw 2017.
• T. Kawski, Gminy żydowskie pogranicza Wielkopolski, Mazowsza i Pomorza w latach 1918–1942, Toruń 2007.
• T. Kawski, Inwentarze gmin żydowskich z Pomorza i Wielkopolski wschodniej w okresie międzywojennym (1918/20–1939), „Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej” 2006, no. 1.
• T. Kawski, Kujawsko-dobrzyńscy Żydzi w latach 1918–1950, Toruń 2006.
• T. Kawski, Żydzi z Kujaw, ziemi dobrzyńskiej i Bydgoszczy ocaleni z Shoah. Przyczynek do poznania struktury społeczno-zawodowej, zmian osadniczych oraz migracji ludności żydowskiej w Polsce po II wojnie światowej, [in:] Wrzesień 1939 roku i jego konsekwencje dla ziem zachodnich i północnych Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej, Toruń – Bydgoszcz 2001.
• A. Olejniczak, Żydzi w powiecie włocławskim (1918–1939), Włocławek 2000.

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