Ostrów and the entire Nur Land were only incorporated into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland in 1526, along with all lands of Masovia. The nobility and the clergy had long been seeking to prevent Jews from settling in the region. An official ban on Jewish settlement was issued by Janusz III, the last Duke of Masovia, and confirmed by King Sigismund I the Old after the annexation of the area by the Crown. For centuries, it was considered binding in the whole province of Masovia. It was only in the 18th century that Jews managed to permanently settle in Ostrów. Being migrants from central Poland and Lithuania, the Jewish newcomers created a cultural and linguistic melting pot which gave rise to a local Yiddish dialect combining typical Polish and Lithuanian elements.

The first Jews to settle in today's Ostrów District were farmers. With time, larger groups of Jewish people started to arrive in urban settlements, where they were involved in trade and crafts. In 1765, there were 20 Jewish families paying taxes in Ostrów, and around a dozen more lived in nearby villages. In 1795, the Jewish population of the town was organised into an official community which initially also had jurisdiction over several smaller localities, including Brok and Wyszków. At that time, Jews made up 15% of Ostrów’s nearly 1,000-strong population.

In the 19th century, the Jewish community of Ostrów was steadily growing in size despite the settlement ban, which formally remained in force until 1862. In the period of the Duchy of Warsaw (1808), there were over 380 Jews living in the town, making up 34% of all residents. After the abolishment of all restrictions on Jewish settlement, they came to constitute the majority in Ostrów’s population of over 5,000 (64%). At that time, the local Jews were primarily involved in retail and door-to-door trade, tailoring, and transportation services. Several wealthy Jewish families traded in cereals and wood. In 1897, Jewish people constituted 53% of all 10,500 inhabitants of Ostrów. The beginning of the 20th century marked the emergence of the local timber industry based on the large supplies of wood available in the nearby forests. The town also came to boast several steam mills and a beer brewery. The development of the Jewish community, however, came to a halt. This was due to the migration of many young people to bigger cities, mainly Łódź or Warsaw. In the second half of the 19th century, a conflict arose between the Litvak community and the influential local Hasidim (supporters of the dynasties from Góra Kalwaria [Ger] and Warka [Vurka]). The most prominent Hasidic figure active in the town was Tzaddik Benzion Rabinovich.

In reborn Poland, the share of Jews in the population of Ostrów was systematically decreasing – from 51% in 1921 to 38% in the 1930s. The Jewish community inhabited the predominantly wooden houses in the Market Square and adjacent streets (Warszawska, 3 Maja, Solna, Jatkowa). In the interwar period, Jews were the dominant force among the local craftsmen, especially bakers, tailors, butchers, and meat cutters, as well as shoemakers, carpenters, and coachmen. Only a fifth of all 250 craftsmen from Ostrów were gentiles. The situation was similar in trade, with Jews owning 88 out of the 107 shops in the town.

Local Jewish boys attended chadarim and Talmud-Torah schools, while girls were mostly educated in common schools. The Maccabi sports club was active in Ostrów. Four different Zionist newspapers were published in the town. This bore evidence to the strong position of Zionists in the local community, though the Orthodox Agudath and the left-wing Bund also enjoyed considerable support among the local Jews. In the 1920s, the Jewish population of Ostrów was well-represented in the Municipal Council. However, the following decade saw a surge of anti-Semitism in the town, which resulted in an exodus of local Jews, especially young people.

On 10 September 1939, Ostrów was invaded by the Germans. Over the following few days, the occupier killed ca. 300 Jews and plundered and devastated the synagogue. In October, the Jews were ordered to leave the town and move beyond the nearby cordon, to the territories occupied by the Soviet Union. However, a large number of people disobeyed the instruction and remained in Ostrów. In November 1939, German soldiers set fire to buildings at 3 Maja Street. The occupation authorities later accused the Jews of starting the fire and used it as a pretext to kill a group of some 500–800 people, mainly refugees or elderly people who had not managed to leave the city. The execution was carried out in the courtyard of Tejtel’s brewery.

Some Jews managed to escape to Soviet-occupied territories. They shared the fate of the local Jewish communities after the area was captured by Germany in 1941. The Germans never established a ghetto in Ostrów Mazowiecka. It is believed that most of the local Jewish residents perished in the massacre of November 1939 or fled the town.

The Description

The first Jewish cemetery in Ostrów was located on a plot of land between today’s Broniewskiego Street and Targowa Street. No information has been preserved on the exact date of its establishment – it may have happened at the end of the 17th century or, more likely, in the last decades of the following century, together with the formation of an official community in the town. Due to the wartime damages suffered by the cemetery and its dilapidation after 1945, not a single tombstone has survived at the site. The premises came to be used as a market square.

The old cemetery was nearing full capacity in the beginning of the 20th century, which made it necessary to establish a new burial site. It was founded to the south of the town, on a triangular plot covering over 2 hectares, located at today’s Wołodyjowskiego Street, near the junction with Piaskowa Street. Cartographic sources show that a pre-burial house once stood in the corner of the cemetery from the side of Podstoczysko Street. During the German occupation, the necropolis was almost completely destroyed. Its grounds became overgrown with a pine forest. Completely unused and neglected, the cemetery was officially closed in 1964 by the decision of the administrative authorities. Detached houses have since been erected around the site, but its original boundaries are still distinguishable. Only a handful of free-standing matzevot have been preserved in the north-eastern part of the necropolis, as well as some several dozen graves with visible copings. Archival photographs show that quite a lot of matzevot used to stand in the cemetery, most decorated with polychrome paintings typical for small-town Jewish sepulchral art. In the recent years, several tombstones have been discovered in various parts of Ostrów Mazowiecka – some of them still bear traces of their original decorations.

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