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The Jewish Community of Gdańsk (Danzig) dates back to the 15th century. Throughout history it was generally excluded from living and trading within the city by the city's burghers. Under pressure from Polish Kings, Jews acquired limited rights in the town in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 18th century the community expanded. Between the two world wars, during the period of the Free City of Danzig persecution of the Jews in the region intensified after the Nazis came to power. During World War II and the Holocaust the community was virtually eliminated. Today a small community remains and the city hosts and annual festival of Jewish culture.

History

Early History

A Jewish community in Danzig proper did not exist until the 15th century. The earliest records indicate that Jews were present in Gdańsk as early as 11th century. In 1308 Gdańsk was taken over by the Teutonic Knights and a year later, the Grand Master of the Order, Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, forbid Jews to settle or remain in the city in a edict of non-toleration ("de non tolerandis Judaeis"). The knights weakened the restriction in early 15th century under pressure from the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Witold, and as a result a limited number of Jewish merchants from Lithuania and Volhynia were allowed to come to Danzig. Around 1440 a "Judengasse" ("Jewish Lane", modern Spichrzowa) and around 1454 a Jewish settlement existed.

After the end of the Thirteen Years' War the city returned to Poland and Jewish merchants came to trade from all over Poland and Lithuania. Many of them received special privileges from the King of Poland in regards to both the internal (along the Vistula river) as well as trans-Baltic trade. Others acted as agents of the szlachta (Polish nobility) in commercial matters.

In 1476, on the initiative of the King of Poland, Casimir IV Jagiellon the city council allowed two Jewish merchants to have equal rights with other merchants. Danzig’s semi-autonomous status within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth however allowed the city to refuse citizenship and trading rights to outsiders, thus the rights of Jews in the Kingdom did not apply in Danzig (similar restrictions also applied to Scots and Mennonites, many of whom also settled around the city). On the insistence of local merchants, the Jews had to move to the Schottland suburb outside of the city's boundary in 1520, subsequently Jews also settled in other places outside of the jurisdiction of the city.

The city burghers continued to curtail the rights of Jews in the city throughout the 16th century, particularly in regards to trade. This was opposed by the Jewish merchants through a boycott of the Danzig owned banking house in Kowno (which had to be closed down) and through the intercession of the Polish Kings on behalf of the Council of the Four Lands.

In 1577, Danzig rebelled against the election of Stephen Báthory as King of Poland and an inconclusive siege of the city commenced. The negotiations which finally broke the stalemate included concessions by the Polish king in religious matters which also concerned Jews. Jewish religious services were not allowed in the city and in 1595 the city council again permitted sojourns only during the fair days. In the 1620s Jewish merchants were allowed to stay for the Domenic Fair and remain 4 days after its closure.

At the beginning of the 17th century, almost half a thousand Jews lived in the city and, in 1620, King Zygmunt III Waza enforced an edict which permitted the Jews to live within the city. A few years later, Jews were allowed to trade in grain and timber, first in one part of the city, then all of it.

In 1752 a city ordinance regulated a tax of 12 Florin per month for a Jewish merchant, 8 Florin for an assistant and a 4 Florin for a servant. 50 Jewish families received citizenship in 1773 and 160 Jews were allowed to reside in the city.

Kingdom of Prussia

The situation changed with the First partition of Poland in 1772 when the suburbs became Prussian while the city of Danzig remained part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1793. The 240 Jewish families (1,257 persons) of the Danzig suburbs received a General-Privilege in August 1773 which guaranteed their legal status. As Gershon C. Bacon states:

This was the beginning of the association of Danzig Jewry with Germany, the German economy and German culture which lasted until the dissolution of the community in the Nazi era.

Although the emancipation edict of 1812 improved the legal status of Jews in Prussia, anti-Jewish riots happened in 1819 and 1821 and the legal rights of Jews were often questioned by local officials.

In the 19th century the communities of Altschottland (modern Stary Szkoty), Weinberg (modern Winnicka), Langfuhr (modern Wrzeszcz), Danzig-Breitgasse (modern Szeroka) and Danzig-Mattenbuden (modern Szopy) were still independent and elected their own officers, built synagogues, ran charitable institutions and chose their own rabbis. The Altschottland community started an initiative to unify the Jews of Danzig in 1878. A committee was established in 1880 and in February 1883 elections were held for a unified Kehilla board. In 1887 the new founded Synagogen-Gemeinde (Synagogue-kehilla) opened the Great Synagogue. Danzig Jewry at that time was a liberal, German-Jewish community and most Danzig Jews considered themselves "Germans of the Mosaic persuasion" and spoke German.

Many Danzig Jews volunteered for military service in World War I, about 95 of them died in service, a memorial plaque was later displayed in the Great Synagogue and shipped to New York’s Jewish Museum in 1939.

Free City of Danzig

After World War I Danzig became a Free City under the protection of the League of Nations. The number of Jews in Danzig grew rapidly as visa restrictions did not exist and many Jews from the areas attached to Poland after World War I, the Second Polish Republic and refugees of the Russian Civil War settled here or were awaiting visas for the US or Canada.

Danzig Jewry, aided by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society took care for these refugees, which were housed in a transit camp in the port area. Between 1920 and 1925 some 60,000 Jews passed through Danzig. The influence of Eastern European Jews, often sympathizing with Zionism, caused tensions within the community. The native Jews tried to maintain their German-Liberal style community and their leadership made several attempts to restrict the participation of foreigners in the Synagogen-Gemeinde elections.

In 1920 the "Jung-Juedischer Bund-Danzig" (Young-Jewish Association Danzig) was founded, a newspaper, the Juedisches Wochenblatt (Jewish weekly), was published from 1929 to 1938 as well as the Zionist Danziger Echo (until 1936).

A new Synagogue was built in Langfuhr in 1927. In 1931 the first world conference of the Betar was organized in Danzig.

Persecution

In the 1920s and early ‘30s antisemitism grew and the local Nazi party took power in the parliament elections of 1933 and 1935. The Nazis took over the government in 1933 and as a result Jews were dismissed from public service and discriminated in public life. The presence of the League of Nations' High Commissioner however still guaranteed a minimum of legal certainty. In summer 1933 an “Association of Jewish Academics” was founded, which protested against the discrimination of Jews to the Senate and the League of Nations. Though the League declared several acts of the Nazi-government unconstitutional, this had no effect on the actual situation in the Free City. Following the example of the Jüdischer Kulturbund in Berlin a similar association existed since September 1933.

In October 1937 a Pogrom was initiated, which caused the flight of about the half of the Jewish community within a year. The Kristallnacht riots in Germany were followed by similar riots between 12 and 14 November 1938. The Synagogues in Langfuhr and Zoppot (modern Sopot) were destroyed and the Great Synagogue was only saved because Jewish war veterans guarded the building.

Following these riots the Nazi government introduced the racialist Nuremberg laws in November 1938 and the Jewish community decided to organize its emigration. All property, including the Synagogues and cemeteries, was sold to finance the emigration of the Danzig Jewry. The Great Synagogue was taken over by the municipal administration and teared down in May 1939. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee payed up to $ 50,000 for the ceremonial objects, books, scrolls, tapestries, textiles and all kind of memorabilia which arrived at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America on 26 July 1939.

Holocaust

In early 1939 about 3,500 Jews, most of them Danzig citizens, were still living in the city. In March 1939 a first transport to Palestine started and by September 1939 barely 1,700 mostly elderly Jews remained. In early 1941 just 600 Jews were still living in Danzig.

The last group left to Palestine in August 1940 with many of them facing the Patria disaster in Haifa port. Of those who remained, 395 were deported during February and March 1941 to Warsaw Ghetto and 200 from the Jewish old age home were sent to Theresienstadt.

At the end of World War II 22 Jewish partners of “mixed” marriages, who had remained in the city, survived.

Present day

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An annual festival, the Baltic Days of Jewish Culture (Bałtyckie Dni Kultury Żydowskiej), has been taking place in Gdańsk since 1999. It is organized by Social and Cultural Organization of Jews in Poland (Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów w Polsce) and Jakub Szadaj, a native of Gdańsk and a prominent member of the democratic anti-communist opposition in Poland under communist rule.

The Independent Gmina of the Mosaic Faith (Niezależna Gmina Wyznania Mojżeszowego) represents about 100 Jews in the city, mostly from Progressive Judaism. In addition to helping with the organization of the Baltic Days of Jewish Culture, it offers Hebrew lessons and keeps contact with the Beit Warszawa congregation in Warsaw.

Demographics

Notable members

• Max Abraham
• Salomon Adler
• Ike Aronowicz
• Aaron Bernstein
• Avraham Danzig
• Samuel Echt
• Alfred Flatow
• Levin Goldschmidt
• Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch
• Theodor Hirsch
• Maximilian Kaminsky, father of Mel Brooks
• Bernhard Kamnitzer
• Isaac Landau, father of Moshe Landau
• Israel Lipschutz
• Hugo Münsterberg
• Meir Shamgar, President of the Israeli Supreme Court
• Paul Simson

References

1. ^ Danzig Jewry: A Short History by Gershon C. Bacon
2. ^ Grass, Günther; Mann, Vivian B.; Gutmann, Joseph (1980). "Danzig 1939, treasures of a destroyed community". The Jewish Museum, New York. p. 9.
3. ^ jewishgen.org
4. ^ Żydzi na Pomorzu Template:Pl icon
5. ^ Gdansk at Jewish Virtual Library
6. Kaplan, Yosef (2000). "An alternative path to modernity". Brill. p. 93. ISBN 90-04-11742-3.
7. Wolli Kaelter interview
8. Schalom, Günther Grass, Die Tageszeitung, 7 October 2007
9. Betar at Jewish Virtual Library
10. ^ shoa.de Template:De icon
11. Epstein, Catherine (2010). "Model Nazi:Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland". Oxford University Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-19-954641-1.
12. Schwartze-Köhler, Hannelore (2009). "Die Blechtrommel" von Günter Grass:Bedeutung, Erzähltechnik und Zeitgeschichte (in German). Frank & Timme GmbH. p. 396. ISBN 978-3-86596-237-9.
13. ^ Bauer, Yehuda (1981). "American Jewry and the Holocaust". Wayne State University Press. p. 145. ISBN 0-8143-1672-7.

Bibliography

• Wolli Kaelter, From Danzig: An American Rabbi's Journey, Pangloss Press, 1997. ISBN: 0934710368
• Mira Ryczke Kimmelman: Echoes from the Holocaust, a memoir ISBN:978-0-087049-956-2
• Samuel Echt, Die Geschichte der Juden in Danzig, Template:De icon
• Erwin Lichtenstein, Die Juden der Freien Stadt Danzig unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus Template:De icon
• Erwin Lichtenstein, Bericht an meine Familie,: ein Leben zwischen Danzig und IsraelTemplate:De icon

• History of Gdańsk
• Historic Jewish communities
• Jewish history
• Jewish German history
• History of Germany
• Judaism by city
• Jews and Judaism in Poland
• Jewish Polish history