It is believed that they started to constitute an official community in 1763 (at that time, the town had 268 Jewish residents). The local Jews ran inns or made a living from petty trade and crafts. Several people traded in cereals and forest products or ran distilleries and beer breweries. Tailoring and shoemaking were the most popular professions among the Jewish craftsmen, but there were also many blacksmiths in the town.

The economic and social standing of Jews in Mszczonów improved in the late 1770s, when they received the status of burghers. The declining town granted municipal citizenship to the Jews in exchange for performing the duties of townsmen. However, some restrictions remained in force – they were not allowed to freely settle in all parts of the town and were banned from producing alcoholic beverages and leasing propination rights. Mszczonów experienced large influxes of Jewish settlers when the area came under Prussian rule and in the period of the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland). This resulted in a rapid increase in the share of Jews in the local population – from 34% in 1797 to 51% three decades later. In the 1890s, there were 3,000 Jews living in Mszczonów, making up 63% of all residents.

The 19th century saw a slow but steady development of local industrial production and processing. In the 1870s, Mszczonów boasted two breweries, a distillery, three tanneries, a vinegar factory, a tile factory, and a match factory. The town received an additional development boost after it became home to Yaakov Dovid Kalish – the progenitor of the Hasidic dynasty of Amshinov. His presence in Mszczonów, as well as the continuation of the line by his successors, resulted in the development of accommodation facilities for pilgrims coming from Masovia, Kuyavia, and eastern Greater Poland. The followers of the tzaddik flocking into the town were also a source of livelihood for porters and carriage drivers, with both professions enjoying great popularity among the Jews of Mszczonów at the turn of the 20th century.

In the interwar period, most of Jewish residents of the town were involved in petty trade and crafts. The most numerous representatives of artisan professions were tailors, hat makers, shoemakers, tinsmiths, watchmakers, and bakers. There were also two Jewish tanneries in Mszczonów. The first census in reborn Poland, carried out in 1921, showed a decrease in the number of Jewish residents to 2,200 people (43% of the total population).

In the Second Polish Republic, the most popular Jewish political groups in Mszczonów were the Orthodox Agudath and the Zionists, with the latter organised in the cells of the Zionist Organisation, the “Mizrachi” Organisation of Orthodox Zionists, and Poale Zion. The local Zionist youth flocked to the branches of Torah V’Avodah and Dror. There was also a cell of the leftist All-Jewish Workers’ Bund.

Jewish children from Mszczonów attended traditional chadarim and Talmud Torah schools supervised by the community. Girls could enrol in the Beit Yaakov school founded by the activists of Agudath. The local Polish primary school accepted pupils of all faiths. The “Tarbut” Jewish Cultural and Educational Association organised evening Hebrew courses. There was also a library with a literary and drama club and a reading room. Jews interested in sports could join the local branch of the “Hakoah” Jewish Gymnastic Society.

In September 1939, shortly after taking control of the town, the Germans shot 13 Jews and burnt another group alive in the synagogue. The events took place on the eve of Yom Kippur. At the end of 1940, all local Jews were forced to move to an open ghetto administered by the Judenrat (Jewish Council). Some people were sent to work in German factories and on nearby farms, others were deported to the German labour camp in Płaszów. In February 1941, the Germans liquidated the ghetto. Almost all Jews were deported to the Warsaw Ghetto, only a few dozen people employed in German factories were left in the town until July. Over 2,000 Mszczonów Jews were exterminated in the Nazi German death camp in Treblinka.

The cemetery

The Jewish cemetery in Mszczonów is located in the northern part of the town, beyond expressway S8 and opposite Poniatowskiego Street. The local community received a written permission to establish the burial site in a document issued in Mszczonów in 1763. The necropolis was to be located outside the town, by the road to Słabomierz, on a plot of land owned by the aldermanship. Alderman Aleksander Ossoliński also agreed to the construction of a synagogue in the town. The last burial at the cemetery took place in 1942. It was formally closed in 1964 by the decision of the provincial administrative authorities. It was only in the early 21st century that the necropolis was restored. The works were financed by Renata Singer (daughter of a Jew from Mszczonów) and Rabbi Singer, a descendant of the Mszczonów rabbis. They were carried out with the support of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland. The area of the cemetery was surrounded with a fence with a solid decorative gate. An information board presenting the history of Mszczonów Jews in three languages was placed on the gate. A reconstructed ohel now stands over the grave of Tzaddik Yaakov Dovid Kalish, founder of the local Hasidic dynasty.

Despite the damages suffered at the hands of the Germans during World War II and further post-war devastation, the cemetery still holds ca. 150–200 matzevot, all facing east. The internal layout of the necropolis, with the graves arranged in rows, is still clearly visible on the cemetery plot, which today covers an area of 1.2774 ha (diverging slightly from its pre-war size). The epitaphs on all tombstones were most likely engraved in Hebrew, no Polish inscriptions have been found on the preserved matzevot. This points to a low level of assimilation of the local Jews, strongly attached to tradition due to the existence of a powerful Hasidic dynasty in the town. There are also some tombstones without any inscriptions, made from simple granite stones. A group of matzevot from the second half of the 18th century (1772–1791) has been identified in the northern section of the cemetery. They are the oldest Jewish tombstones in this part of Masovia.

Description copyright owner: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews