A small group of Jews resided in Zambrów in the 18th century, likely having arrived to the town from nearby Jabłonka. They belonged to the Jew ish kehilla in Tykocin. The records of the Tykocin community include references confirming the presence of Jews in Zambrów in the early 18th century.

The Jewish community in Zambrów buried their dead in the cemetery in Jabłonka, located about 10 kilometres away from the town. In the early stages of the development of Zambrów’s community, its members would transport the dead to Jabłonka and hand them over to the local Chevra Kadisha (Holy Brotherhood), which performed ritual cleansing of the body and then took care of the burial. With the growing number of Jews living in Zambrów, the community decided to set up its own burial society. It was officially established on the 17th day of the month of Kislev in 5501 according to the Jewish calendar (6 December 1740). From that moment on, the Zambrów Chevra Kadisha was responsible for ritual washing of the bodies of the deceased and transporting them to Jabłonka.

In 1765, Zambrów had 12 Jewish inhabitants, with the number growing to 32 three decades later (ca. 6% of the population). The years 1827–1858 marked a mass influx of Jews to the town. As a result, in 1859 they constituted as much as 65% of all inhabitants of Zambrów.

The Description

In the early 19th century, the growing Jewish community of Zambrów still did not have its own cemetery, synagogue, mikveh, or cheder. It was only in 1828 that the subkehilla decided to establish a separate burial place, doing so in cooperation with the community of Pruszki. They received official permission from the municipal authorities of Zambrów and the Chevra Kadisha from Jabłonka. The necropolis was founded on a plot of land owned by Lejb of Chojna, located north of the Market Square, on a hill near the road to Łomża (current Łomżyńska Street, corner of Żytnia Street). A pre-burial house was erected at the site the same year. Shortly afterwards, the Zambrów community became independent from the Tykocin kehilla. The following years, it founded a synagogue, two batei midrash, and a mikveh. The synagogue was replaced with a new brick building in 1895.

The cemetery filled up in 1890. The community decided to enlarge it by purchasing a neighbouring plot of land. The expanded necropolis had an area of about 2.6 hectares.

During World War II, the cemetery suffered considerable damage. The pre-burial house was demolished, with no trace of its existence preserved to the present day. Several Jews accused of collaborating with the Soviet authorities were probably executed by the Germans at the site in the summer of 1941, right after the beginning of the Nazi occupation of Zambrów. Over the following years, matzevot would be plundered from the cemetery on German orders and used to pave roads, as was the case in many other localities.

The cemetery continued to fall into decline after the war. In the 1960s, the municipal authorities were planning to create a park on the site, but the project was never implemented. The premises were fenced in the late 1980s and most of the thicket overgrowing the site was removed. The cemetery was then entered into the register of monuments by a decision of the Provincial Monuments Conservator under the number A-372, dated 29 July 1988. The cleaning works helped uncover about 200 tombstones in various states of preservation. Unfortunately, their number soon decreased due to looting and destruction at the hands of the local population. The majority of matzevot still standing in the cemetery are located in its most inaccessible part.

The matzevot from the cemetery in Zambrów were made of erratic boulders and bore rich original decorations. According to iconographic sources, most of them were adorned with polychrome paintings.

In the 21st century, cleaning and documenting works at the cemetery were carried out on the initiative of the Matzevah Foundation and the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage. They received support from students of the local School Boarding House No. 1. Inscriptions from 169 tombstones were recorded and made available in the database of the Foundation for Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries: https://cemetery.jewish.org.pl/list/c_62 [accessed: 13 September 2020]. According to the data collected, the oldest identified matzeva at the cemetery stands over the grave of Yehuda Leib, son of Moshe Segal, and dates back to 1829.

In 2012, a plaque mounted on a granite stone was unveiled at the entrance to the cemetery on the side of Łomżyńska Street. It commemorates the Jews who lived in Zambrów since the 18th century until World War II and the Jewish Holocaust victims murdered in the Zambrów Ghetto and the Treblinka death camp in the years 1941–1943. As stated by Tzvi Zamir (Nightingale) in the preface to Sefer Zambrow, writing on behalf of the Zambrower Landsmanshaft in Israel: “The few faded matzevot remaining in the cemetery are the only surviving testament to the vibrant Jewish life and the Jewish town which once existed here.”

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