BS”D 18 Av 5781 Adolf Gross was born on 26 July 1862 in Kraków, the son of Mojżesz Dawid and Sara Gold. He was a lawyer, a member of parliament, a city councillor. He graduated from the Św. Anna school in Kraków in 1880 and from the faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University in 1888. He fought for the emancipation of women. He died on 28 December 1936 and is buried in the Jewish Cemetery on ul. Miodowa, may he rest in peace.
BS”D 13 Av 5781 On 21 July 1909 the Sports Club Maccabi Kraków was founded in order to “improve the physical strength of the Jews”. In 1932 it had 17 sports sections with 1018 members. It had its own stadium and after the war it was taken over by the Nadwiślan Kraków club. The club grew very quickly. The men’s handball section was, in the same year, vice-champion of Kraków and kept that place for two years. The volleyball section was third in the 1929 Kraków championship. The basketball section was second in 1930. The table tennis section was champion in 1932. The light athletics section was also successful and its Maryla Freiwald was champion of Poland in three specialties. The hockey and skating sections had the…
BS”D 12 Av 5781 On 21 July 2021 a ceremony took place in the Dębica remembering the Jews of that city. Present were the major, Mariusz Szewczyk; the president of the Dębica administrative region, Piotr Chęciek and Mr. Ireneusz Socha, who has been remembering the Jewish community in Dębica for many years. The Jewish Community of Kraków was represented by its Chairman of the Board, Tadeusz Jakubowicz, and Mr Adam Klimek. The Germans undertook the liquidation of the ghetto in Dębica from 21 to 25 July 1942. A few days before they collected the identity papers, which were held by the Gestapo. On the first day of the liquidation, people started to get the documents back, with a stamp. All of those who did not get back…
BS”D 11 Av 5781 The funeral of professor Leonard Neuger took place today in the in the New Jewish Cemetery on ul. Miodowa 55 in Kraków, the city where he was born. He was a historian of literature and a translator. He studied Polish literature in 1965-71 at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and defended his doctoral thesis in 1978 in the Silesian University in Katowice. In 1993 he became an assistant professor in the University of Stockholm and a full professor in 1995. In 2003 he became the director of the Institute for Slavic studies at the University of Stockholm. During the uprisings of the 1980s in Poland he was arrested and emigrated to Sweden in 1983. He wrote more than 200 scientific works. May he…
BS”D 10 Av 5781 Filip Pinkus Eisenberg, who became a physician and a bacteriologist, was born in Kraków on 19 July (NB possibly in August) 1876, the son of Abraham and Esther. He studied medicine in Kraków and Vienna. In 1901-02 he was an Assistant in the Faculty of Hygiene in the Jagiellonian University (UJ), having worked in the Pasteur Institute and in the University of Wrocław. During the War against Russia he directed the army hospital for infectious diseases in Warsaw (1919-20). He was director of the State bacteriologic institute in Kraków (1933-39). Starting in 1933 he became a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. During the Second World War he was in Lvov, where he directed the Department of Microbiology of the Medical…
Arnold Chaim de Porada Rapaport, son of David and Karolina (born Herz) was born on 15 July 1840 in Tarnów. He was a city councillor of Kraków from 1872 to 1881, a member of Parliament from 1876 to 1907 and a member of the State Council from 1879 to 1907 and was involved in several charities. He was a lawyer, an industrialist and a philanthropist. He graduated from the Św. Anna school in Kraków (1858) and in the Faculty of Law of the Jagiellonian University (1862) and defended his doctoral thesis in 1863. He worked as a lawyer in Kraków and Vienna from 1870. He wanted that the Jewish Community of Kraków support Polish autonomy when Poland was not independent. He had influence in important circles and…
BS”D 6 Av 5781 Szymon Feldblum was born in Kraków, the son of Majer and Amalia (born Weber). He was a lawyer and worked for the Jewish Community in Kraków. He graduated from the Św. Jacek secondary school in Kraków on 1900, and then studied Law in the Jagiellonian University (UJ) on 1906. After that he worked for the famous Kraków lawyer, Dr. Ludwik Szalay (1857-1934). After 7 years he became a lawyer. After Dr. Szalay retired, he passed on his office to Szymon Feldblum. He defended his clients with real passion and represented pro bono poor clients. He was the president of the Disciplinary Committee of the Kraków Bar. He died on 28 July 1956 in Tel Aviv and was buried in the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery…
BS”D 27 Tamuz 5781 On 7 July 1942 Germans murdered around 1250 Jews from Nowy Żmigród. Most Jews stood on plac Bala, following German instructions. 750 were allowed to remain in the city and received a stamp on their documents. Others were sentenced to death, among which older, sick and handicapped people. They were selected based on looks and ordered to move out of the group. Those who were too slow were beaten with truncheons and even bottles. About 1000-1250 Jews were selected and taken to the woods neear Hałbowa and shot. Others were taken to Jasło. The first liquidation of the Rzeszów ghetto also took place on 7 July 1942. That day the Germans murdered about 350 people and made others go through a selection on…
Sara Schenirer was born in Kraków on 3 July 1883. She was the daughter of Betzalel and Róża of the Lach family. She was the founder of the Beis Yakov School System. She grew up very religious and wanted to learn more about the world. Not being able to find such a school, she attended lectures in Polish. She met R. Dr. Moshe Flesch in Vienna and eventually, having talked to her brother and to the Belzer Rebbe, in 1917 she opened a school in her seamstress studio on ul. Katarzyna 1 in Kraków. The school was a great success and seeing that there were not enough teachers for Jewish girls, she opened a teacher’s school on ul. Stanisława 10, where from 120 teachers graduated in 1937.…
A letter (in Polish) in which the President of the City of Kraków, Jacek Majchrowski, expresses his gratitude to the Chairman of the Board of the Jewish Religious Community of Kraków, Tadeusz Jakubowski, for his many years of work in the Communal Council for the Establishment of a Museum on the grounds of the Former KL Plaszow. Translation: Dr D Cohen