The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin is a local government cultural institution. It works towards the preservation of cultural heritage and education. Its function is tied to the symbolic and historical meaning of the Centre’s location in the Grodzka Gate, which used to divide Lublin into its respective Christian and Jewish quarters, as well as to Lublin as a meeting place of cultures, traditions and religions.

Part of the Centre are the House of Words and the Lublin Underground Trail.

The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin is a local government cultural institution. It works towards the preservation of cultural heritage and education. Its function is tied to the symbolic and historical meaning of the Centre’s location in the Grodzka Gate, which used to divide Lublin into its respective Christian and Jewish quarters, as well as to Lublin as a meeting place of cultures, traditions and religions.

Part of the Centre are the House of Words and the Lublin Underground Trail.

Turobin – the shtetl

Turobin – the shtetl

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.

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Tomaszów Lubelski – the shtetl

Tomaszów Lubelski – the shtetl

Tomaszów Lubelski was granted its charter of incorporation in 1621, and was the second town, after Zamość, established by the Zamoyski family. From the very beginning, the town was inhabited by Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Jews; they all had the same rights, privileges and obligations towards the Ordynat of the Zamość Estate.

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Szczebrzeszyn – the shtetl

Szczebrzeszyn – the shtetl

We do not know exactly when Jews settled in Szczebrzeszyn, but the first mention of the Jewish community in the town can be found in a document dating back to 1507, which includes an entry concerning the kahal’s payment of 25 zloty towards coronation tax. The first mention of a synagogue dates back to 1584.

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Józefów Biłgorajski – the shtetl

Józefów Biłgorajski – the shtetl

Jews began to settle in Józefów soon after the town’s incorporation. The full name, Józefów Biłgorajski, serves to distinguish it from other localities called Józefów. In this article, however, it is often referred to as Józefów. The Jewish community was established after 1725.

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Tyszowce – the shtetl

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.

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Goraj – the shtetl

Goraj – the shtetl

It is unknown when the first Jews arrived in Goraj. According to statistical data, 517 Jews lived in Goraj in 1865, accounting for 26.8 percent of the total population of the town.

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Frampol – the shtetl

Frampol – the shtetl

The history of the Jewish community in Frampol begins between the first quarter and the middle of the 18th century. An independent kahal with its own cemetery existed here from 1735 or 1736.

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Biłgoraj – the shtetl

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.

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Bełżyce – the shtetl

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.

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Towns of the Lublin Region – shtetl

Towns of the Lublin Region – shtetl

A shtetl (Yiddish: small town) was a small, provincial Jewish community in prewar Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Lithuania, the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), a community with a peculiar social structure and mores.

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