Articles with keyword "Jewish community"

Biłgoraj – the shtetl

The beginnings of Jewish settlement in the Biłgoraj region date back to the 16th century. The Ashkenazi Jews who settled here at that time were primarily engaged in trade and crafts.

Turobin is one of the oldest towns in the Chełm district, developing at least since the 12th century as a market and defensive settlement along the so-called Ruthenian route leading from Cracow to Kiev via Zawichost. The town was first mentioned in 1389, in a deed whereby king Ladislaus Jagiello granted the royal village of Turobin to Dmitriy of Goraj. In 1399 the village was incorporated pursuant to the Magdeburg Law, under a charter issued by the new owner of Turobin.

Tyszowce – the shtetl

The shtetl in Tyszowce occupied the entire Ostrów district, the oldest part of the town, located between two wide arms of the River Huczwa.

Bełżyce – the shtetl

The earliest mention of the settlement of Bełżyce is found in a document from 1349, in which King Casimir III the Great, at the request of the then owner Rafał of Tarnów of the Leliwa coat of arms, subjected the village to the Magdeburg law (previously it had been governed according to the local Polish law). The town of Bełżyce was incorporated pursuant to the Magdeburg Law in 1417 by Jan Tarnowski. Initially, the town’s government and judiciary were to be modelled on those in Lublin.

Almost from the very beginning, the town was multi-ethnic and multi-denominational. Perhaps as early as in the 1420s, and certainly since the first half of the 16th century, Jews began to settle in Bełżyce alongside the Catholic and Christian Orthodox population.