Jewish community of Przedecz
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The Jewish community of Przedecz was a once flourishing Jewish settlement in Przedecz, Poland. Originating from what was probably the end of the 14th century, it ended with the Holocaust.
Przedecz is today situated west of Central Poland, midway between Chodecz and Klodawa at . It is about 75 km (45 miles) northwest of Łódź, 150 km (95 miles) west of Warsaw and 130 km (80 miles) east of Posen. The southwest side of Przedecz borders on Lake Przedecz.
In Yiddish the city was known as Pshaytsh.
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[edit] Early history
The earliest mention of Przedecz is in the 12th century and at that period it was in the possession of Archbishops. In the second half of the 14th century the king purchased Przedecz and the surrounding lands from the Archbishops. About that period it was a transit station for traders travelling from south to north and from east to west and was a centre for trade for the surrounding farms.
Przedecz was granted the right to be known as a city before the end of the 14th century. Although in today’s usage, Przedecz would be regarded as a “village”, we shall use its official status and refer to it as a “city”.
During the period when Przedecz was in the possession of the Archbishops, Jews were forbidden to live there and the beginning of Jewish settlement in Przedecz seems to have begun towards the end of the 14th century. The Jewish cemetery is about six hundred years old.
In 1538, there was a big fire in Przedecz and most of the houses were destroyed. Ten years later, the king gave the right to produce and market liqueurs without paying taxes and to have a market day each week.
In the middle of the 17th century, during the war with the Swedes, the city was destroyed and only forty houses remained. The financial situation of Przedecz flourished at the beginning of the 18th century when the king gave permission to have two market days each week and a fair six times a year.
[edit] Modern times
In a census taken in 1793 the population consisted of 355 persons, 139 of whom were Jews. By 1827 it had grown to 1,935 persons, 346 of whom were Jews. During the following thirty years the total population in Przedecz increased by only 2,000, whereas the Jewish population increased to 606. In other words, during these thirty years the percentage of Jews in this city radically increased. This occurred because Jews from the neighbouring villages moved to Przedecz. By 1921, the total population had increased to 3,040, of whom 840 were Jews.
Przedecz had only a few streets, but it had all the elements of a Jewish community: a synagogue, Bet Hamedrash, mikva, Jewish schools, a yeshiva, Jewish library, Jewish cemetery, eruv, welfare and cultural organisations. Przedecz had its own city rabbi and it also had its own shochet and mohel. At first the shechitah of animals took place in the courtyard of each butcher and the shechitah of fowl in the courtyard of the shochet; however, before the Second World War, a large abattoir was built under the auspices of the Local Council. In this new abattoir, the sanitary conditions were better and there was also a regular veterinary inspection by the Polish authorities.
Many of the Jews were artisans - tailors, hatmakers, cobblers, etc. They usually worked from their homes assisted by their children and other employees, and would then travel from city to city to sell their wares, in general, to the non-Jews. Some of the Jews were small traders.
Every place had its market day and for Przedecz it was Monday. On Mondays the non-Jews would come from the farms in the area and sell butter, eggs and chickens to the Jews and in turn these non-Jews would buy products such as salt, sugar, and tobacco from the grocery shops and clothes, shoes, hats, etc. from the market. From morning to evening on Mondays, the market was crowded with people.
Apart from the big synagogue of Przedecz, there was a Chevrat Tehillim. This served as a synagogue for the artisans of the city. Services were also held in the Bet Hamedrash. The Bet Hamedrash had its own library and on Fridays two boys aged 13-14 went around the houses collecting money to buy new books and to pay for the rebinding of the old ones.
The mikvah was situated very near to the lake and quite near to the Chevrat Tehillim. The city also had its own eruv, which enabled the Jewish residents to carry in the streets on Shabbat. On occasions when this eruv was broken, and this happened quite often, the children would carry the siddurim and tallitot to the synagogue and would also bring the cholent to the houses from the bakery.
The religious affairs of the community were controlled by a committee (Parnasai Ha’ir). Every year members of the community would meet in the Bet Hamedrash and elect eight members to this committee. The function of the committee was to fix the salary of the rabbi and other religious officials, the price for shechitah, the charge for the mikvah, etc. A tax was levied on the families in order to pay for these services.
In Przedecz, there was a state elementary school. There was no high school and thus pupils who wished to study in a high school had to go to neighbouring cities. The elementary school was attended by both Jewish and non-Jewish children of the city. The usual secular subjects taught in schools were taught here. At first it was situated in the same building as the town hall, the school being upstairs and the town hall downstairs, but later a new large building was built for the school in Stoldona Street. For their religious instruction there was a Bet Sefer Ivri, which would meet after regular school hours. Subjects such as Tanakh (Bible) and Dinim (Jewish law) were taught in this Bet Sefer Ivri. In the religious education of the children, particularly of the boys, a love for Eretz Israel was prominent. In addition there was a Bet Ya’acov school for the more religious girls, although in fact the overwhelming number of Jews in Przedecz were observant. In the courtyard of the Bet Hamedrash there was another more religiously orientated school. There was also a yeshivah, whose principal was Rabbi Yoseph Alexander Zemelman, the Rabbi of Przedecz. For those who wanted to learn a trade such as tailoring, hatmaking or cobblering, there were evening classes.
The city had a Jewish library but it was more than just a library; it functioned as a cultural centre. People would meet there in the evenings and read books, dance, listen to lectures, have theatre performances, etc. The more religiously observant, instead of going to the Jewish library would use the Agudah or the Mizrachi facilities instead.
There were also welfare organisations in Przedecz. A Bikur Cholim society would look after the poor sick. There was also a “Benevolent Fund” which would give loans without interest to needy Jews and this saved them from starvation.
In 1926, with the assistance of the “Joint” a Jewish bank was set up in Przedecz. The main purpose of this bank was the granting of loans. These loans were made according to usual banking procedures and required two guarantors who were acceptable to the bank. This bank closed in 1936 as a result of the difficult financial situation of the Jews at that period.
During the 20th century, various Zionist groups were established in Przedecz, including branches of the General Zionists, Poale Zion Yemin, Hashomer Hazair, the Mizrachi and the Revisionists. Money was collected in Przedecz for the J.N.F. There were also a few Bundists. In 1937 there were seventy people who had voting rights for delegates to the 20th Zionist Congress held in Zurich that year, of whom all but three utilised their rights. The establishment of these groups caused friction between those of the right and those of the left. As a result those of the left stopped coming to the Jewish library. For the younger people there was the Young Mizrachi and Betar. The programmes of these youth groups included activities on Shabbat afternoons.
Agudat Yisrael also had a branch in Przedecz, most of its members being Gerer Hassidim. One of the people active in this branch was the Rabbi of Przedecz, Rabbi Zemelman.
There was even Hachsharah (preparing people for aliyah to Eretz Israel) in Przedecz. This group had some fields in which young people planted and grew vegetables which they then sold in Przedecz.
The houses in Przedecz were mostly just one story high. Some were owned by the Jewish residents and others were rented from non-Jews. There was no running water in the houses. In the centre of Przedecz was a pump. Electricity was only installed in 1928 - until then people used gas lights. There were very few telephones in Przedecz and radio was a luxury found in very few houses.
[edit] German occupation
In September 1939, Germany entered Poland and the Second World War began. A few weeks later on the night of the Festival of Shemini Atzeret, 4 October 1939, the Germans set fire to the Przedecz synagogue. On the day after the Festival, the Germans summoned the Rabbi of the city together with some of the leaders of the community and they were forced to sign a statement that the Jews themselves had burnt down the synagogue and in addition they had to pay a fine for so doing!
The Germans changed the name of the city to Moosburg.
In 1940 there were 769 Jews in Przedecz and nearly half of them were sent to forced labour camps. The majority of them died there from hunger and disease. The Germans set up a ghetto in Przedecz which was situated in the Old Market. In early 1942, the Germans packed the remaining Jews into the local church, where they were left with no food or water for three days. Many of them died from lack of air. On 24 April 1942 - 7 Iyar 5702, the remaining Jews were sent to the Chelmno extermination camp and the Jewish community of Przedecz was thus finally liquidated. The 7th of Iyar has become the Memorial Day for this community.
The Rabbi of Przedecz managed to escape to Warsaw, where he took an active part in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
[edit] Today
In the mid-1960s, some former residents of Przedecz went to revisit the city. Where the synagogue had formerly stood, the Poles were building houses. All that remained in what had been the Jewish cemetery was a solitary tree. All the tombstones had disappeared. The Beth midrash and the adjoining house of the Rabbi had been demolished.
Today there are no Jews in Przedecz, nor even signs of a former Jewish community. However, a number of Przedecz survivors from the Holocaust rebuilt their lives in Israel, where today they and their descendants live.
