In 1785, 150 Jews lived here, this number increased significantly in the next century. In the second half of the 19th century, the community had a synagogue and cemetery. The Credit Society operated from 1897. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the population of the commune decreased, probably due to migration to larger cities and emigration to the United States.

In 1907, Błażowa was destroyed by a great fire, during which both synagogues, 189 Jewish houses and 27 Christian ones were burned. At that time, the city was a famous center of Hasidism; Tzadik Tzvi Elimelech Shapiro, grandson of Tzvi Elimelech, the founder of the Dynowska dynasty of tzadiks, resided here. In 1914, the Błażów farm was bought by a Jew, Jakub Blum, who soon sold it to Isaac Silber from Rzeszów. There was a private bank in the town at that time, owned by Salomon and Chaim Najs.

There were peasant strikes in Błażowa in the interwar period. In 1918, the peasants plundered 200 Jewish houses, and a year later they organized a witch hunt during which they did not sell food to the Jews.

In the interwar period, there was an Association of Jewish Merchants in the city, the president of which was Salomon Neiss. In 1939, there were 2,030 Jews living in the Jewish religious community in Błażowa.

After the outbreak of World War II, Błażowa was occupied by German troops, while German authorities created a Judenrat and a ghetto. The latter existed until 1942. The prisoners, including 139 Jews resettled from Łódź and Kalisz, were then moved to the ghetto in Rzeszów. Most of them died in the German Nazi extermination camp in Bełżec.

The Description

The Jewish cemetery in Błażowa was established in the 19th century, on a hill, outside the built-up area. The necropolis was devastated during World War II and after the war. During the occupation, German authorities buried the bodies of murdered Jews here.

In the 1980s, the Commune Office in Błażowa put up fallen matzevas. Further clean-up works took place in the early 21st century. As part of the 'Gidonim' project, a group of students from the Reut school carried out an inventory of matzevas. 75 tombstones were identified.

In 2011, around Błażowa, several tombstones were found at the bottom of a stream. In 2013, a student of the Faculty of History of the Jagiellonian University, Katarzyna Dudek, under the supervision of Leszek Hońdo's, PhD hab., wrote a master's thesis devoted to the cemetery.

Currently, there are approximately 100 tombstones in the Jewish cemetery in Błażowa, in various states of preservation. The oldest identified tombstone commemorates Perel, daughter of Menis, who died in 1848 or 1849. The cemetery boundaries are marked by a partially preserved fence, and there are old trees within the area.

Author of the note: Magda Lucima

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