20th February 1870 marks the date of death Dow Ber Meisels. The son of  Izaak and Aurelia (born in 1798 in Szczekociny) passed away in Warsaw. A Chief Rabbi of Kraków between  1832-1856  and a Chief  Rabbi of  Warsaw between 1856-1870. A great advocate of the settlement between the Poles and the Jews in order to regain indepenence. Dow Ber Meisels  spent his childhood and youth years in Kamieniec Podolski where he took his first steps in the Talmud education thanks to his father.  In 1820 he moved to Cracow where he married Pajcza, a daughter of a very wealthy banker and a salt dealer from Chrzanów,  Zelman Bornstein. Thanks to this marriage, Meisels could fully devote himsef to the Talmud studies. However, he did not resist the temptation to…

Born on 20th February 1877 in Lviv, Majer Bałaban was a historian and a researcher of the Jewish history on Polish soil.  An author of „Historia Żydów w Krakowie i na Kazimierzu 1304-1655” (”The History of Jews in Cracow and Kazimierz 1304-1655”), a monumental work for the history and identity of the Cracow Jews. The two-volume book, which took nearly 25 years to write, was pubished in Cracow in 1936. Its reprint by Austeria , a Cracow publishing house,  came out in 2013. Bałaban received thorough education which he started at a cheder in Lviv.  In 1890, he graduated from the C. K. 4th Gymnasium in Lviv. Between 1895–1904 Bałaban studied history, philosophy and law at the John Casimir University in Lviv. He obtained his PhD title in 1904. A…

Czesław Jakubowicz was born on 20th February in 1916 in Lviv as the son of  Józef and Anna, neé Milner. A president of the Congregation of the Mosaic Faith in Cracow between   1979-1993. For most of his life, Jakubowicz had a close connection with his uncle Maciej Jakubowicz’s family. What is more, he worked at the uncle’s company for several years.  After Maciej Jakubowicz’s passing, Czesław Jakubowicz was chosen a president of the Congregation of the Mosaic Faith in Cracow. He died on 7th March 1997 and was buried at the new Jewish Cemetery in Cracow at Miodowa street.

Abraham Ozjasz Thon  – a rabbi, politician, activist, publicist, speaker and most importantly, a Zionist, was born on 13th February 1870 in Lviv.Thon came from a poor orthodox family. From a very young age he stood out with his intelligence and hard work.  Thon was the son of a well-known Talmudist – Uri Wolf Salat. At the age of 17, Abraham Ozjasz Thon received an unofficial rabbi title from his father. Between 1888–1891 he was a student of the 2nd National Gymnasium in Lviv. He continued his education at the  Frederick William University in Berlin, in the Department of Philosophy.    Thon achieved a PhD title in Philosophy in 1895.  Concurrently, he was studying at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums. It is very challenging to describe his incredibly fascinating…