A Brief History of Drohobycz

The First Jews in Drohobycz

The Marketplace in Drohobycz
From the collection of Claudia Erdheim

Drohobycz Develops as a Centre for Trade

Jewish merchants also attend fairs throughout Germany, export oxen to Silesia and developing the cloth trade and banking. Jewish traders take the Drohobycz route to visit the famous Jewish moneychangers there to exchange their Polish money for foreign currency before traveling to Hungary and Austria. Jewish artisans compete with Christian artisan guilds. Jewish salt merchants of Drohobycz and Lwów compete strongly with one another.

A synagogue and a cemetery are now in existence. Jews in the surrounding villages belong to the Drohobycz kehilla.

Reb Yitzhak Hior, the famous scholar and kabbalist and sharp opponent of Shabtai Zvi, who had been living in Drohobycz, is buried there.

The kehilla is now well organized with seven administrative committees and two courts. The Drohobycz community is part of Reisin but Drohobycz disputes its share of taxes imposed by the Council.

A herem (excommunication) is placed against Avigdor Hershkowitz for turning the people against the community leaders.

By this time the khassidic movement has penetrated the Drohobycz Jewish community. The khassidim believe in the emotional aspect of religious experience, favouring mass enthusiasm, group cohesion, and charismatic leadership. Early famous khassidim of this time are Reb Yitzhak Drubyczer, a supporter of Baal Shem Tov, Reb Yosef Drubyczer Ashkenazi, and his son, Reb Yisraeli Nachman Drubyczer, who travels to Italy and eventually settles in Palestine.

Austrian Rule

Emperor Joseph II continues his enlightened reform and wishes to assimilate the Jews so they are no different from other citizens: free from discrimination, paying the same taxes as others, serving in the army, and using German, not Yiddish. He also wishes to centralize authority. The provincial parnesim are eliminated and Drohobycz Jews are now governed by three local parnesim who are directly responsible to the District government authorities. They represent the community, care for the poor, register births, marriages and deaths, and collect the communitty and Jewish taxes. Rabbinical civil law and the political and legal rights of the kehilla are abolished. Jews are no longer considerd a „national“ community but rather a "religiou"“ group. Taxes are now levied on individuals rather than on the community, reducing the kehilla’s standing and power

Joseph II’s benevolent reform will soon be undone by his successors and the status of Galician Jews will fluctuate for the next 125 years, depending on the internal politics of the Hapsburg Empire. However in spite of economic oppression and severe poverty, heavy taxation and government interference in communal affairs, the period of Austrian rule (1772-1918) will be the high point of Jewish life in Galicia.

Maskilim lay the cornerstone of the Great Synagogue, a new, lavish synagogue that will become known as the Groyse Shil. The royal decree of 1792 is reaffirmed that any Jew in Galicia who owns a house or is a skilled craftsman can acquire the right of citizenship from the municipality. In practice, this right is denied by many towns, especially by Drohobycz. The major Jewish communities of Galicia are convened by the Lwów community to discuss limitations against the Jews.

Abraham Schreiner, a small landholder in Borysław, begins to experiment with the distillation of crude oil that he finds on his land.

During this period, many die in a cholera epidemic.

From now on until the end of the century, the maskil circle strongly influences Jewish Drohobycz. Asher Zelig Lauterbach, a wealthy industrialist, outstanding scholar ad typical maskil, has a profound effect on the Drohobycz community through his generosity and writing. An outstanding and talented scholar of both traditional and general learning, he writes many articles in Hebrew on industrial matters and belles letters as well as religious commentary. He founds a Jewish hospital, library, reading room, a branch of Israelitische Allianz in Drohobycz, and aids Jewish refugee victims fleeing pogroms in Russia. His incisive publications on the state of Jewish education in Galicia and Drohobycz have a significant influence on the city’s cultural life.

Other influential Drohobycz maskilim are: Shmuel Avraham Apfel, head accountant in the Gartenberg-Lauterbach-Goldhammer factory and Alexander Schor, a merchant and community representative, who like Lauterbach, writes outstandingly in Hebrew. Secular primary schools, as opposed to kheders, are finally established in Drohobycz.

Shmuel Avraham Apfel
Memorial to the Jews of Drohobycz, Borysław,
and surroundings

Published by permission of
Irgun Yotzei Borysław-Drohobycz
and Surroundings in Israel

The first signs of a formal Zionist movement influenced by maskilim appear in Drohobycz. The Zionists, or “nationalists” as they are still called, believe that real improvement for Jews can never be achieved in Galicia or Europe and that emigration to the Jewish homeland is the only salvation for Jews. Since this solution will take time, they favour self-emancipation and interim participation in local politics to improve the status of Jews while they are still in Europe. Drohobycz supports a conference in Lwów whose aim is to unite all Jewry and to modernize the rabbinate. Ultra-orthodox groups are opposed and try to split the community as they did in Hungary. Jewish factions fight bitterly with each other; all sides finally appeal to the Austrian Ministry of Religion.

Hovevei Zion is established in Borysław in 1887.

About 3,000 Jewish workers are now employed in Borysław. Large Austrian and foreign banks, subsidizing modern techniques, begin to squeeze out smaller Jewish enterprises and labor, although a number of wells in Borysław are still in Jewish owned.

Unified regulations come into effect for all Galician kehillot. A Kultusrat (cultural council) whose members are elected for six-year terms conducts communal affairs. A struggle breaks out between maskilim in favour of general schools who oppose khassidim and haredim (orthodox traditionalists) who support kheder education. Maskilim work to set up a modern Hebrew-language Jewish school.

Drohobycz becomes an important centre for Zionism that affects all strata of Jewish society and is the most active force in Jewish life of the city. Drohobycz helps found the Galician settlement of Mahanaim in Palestine. Ephraim Moshe Lilien, a gifted painter, native of Drohobycz and active in Zionist circles, becomes famous during this period.

1890's

Dr. Leon Sternbach, born in 1864, was the son of one of the leaders of the Jewish community
in Drohobycz. He studied classical linguistics at Vienna and later Leipzig and was appointed
lecturer at the University of Lemberg in 1889 at the age of twenty-five.
In 1892, he became Professor at the University of Kraków.

Photograph from the collection of Marie Zielinska

By this time the ozokerite industry has declined since expansion would have required infusions of capital that would not have yielded a return. The lebaks, the poorly paid labourers in the wax enterprises, lose their employment. This results in an economic and social crisis for the Jews of the district.

Due to the success of the petroleum industry, Drohobycz, where the wealthy industrialists reside, has become a handsome, affluent town that can boast of fine buildings and elegant homes. With the philanthropic generosity of the Jewish oil magnates and owners of flourishing ancillary industries, like the wood industry, the Jewish community is served by several social service institutions, including an orphanage, an old folks’ home, a hospital, and a fine private gymnasium or secondary school.

Parliamentary elections cause bitter fighting among Jewish factions: the Zionists, the National Democrats, and various small groups. The civil authorities support the assimilationists. On election day the ballot boxes are stuffed and many persons are prevented from voting at all. Riots occur; the army fires into the crowd killing twenty-two of which thirteen are Jews, and wounding many others.

In reaction, additional Zionist groups are formed and focus with increased energy on Jewish culture and education. Dr. Leon Reich of Drohobycz is an active and influential Zionist.

Dr. Leon Reich (1879-1929) born in Lemberg, Reich joined the Zionist movement in his youth and founded the first Zionist students’ union in Galicia. After studying in Paris he became known as a lecturer and writer. As head of the Galician Zionist movement he was also involved in the political struggle for the civil rights of Jews and was a candidate for the Austria parliament in the elections of 1911.

By permission of Irgun Yotzei Borysław-Drohobycz and Surroundings in Israel

Parliamentary elections cause bitter fighting among Jewish factions: the Zionists, the National Democrats, and various small groups. The civil authorities support the assimilationists. On election day the ballot boxes are stuffed and many persons are prevented from voting at all. Riots occur; the army fires into the crowd killing twenty-two of which thirteen are Jews, and wounding many others. In reaction, additional Zionist groups are formed and focus with increased energy on Jewish culture and education. Dr. Leon Reich of Drohobycz is an active and influential Zionist.

A landsmanshaft association of Jews from Drohobycz and Borysław is already established in New York. It will continue to meet regularly until the early 1980’s.

Under the Polish regime, the electoral system discriminates against minorities. Jews are not employed in the civil service. The state policy is to edge Jews out of successful economic life. Jews suffer discrimination in all areas, but especially in the professions. The Polish government is alarmed at the high percentage of Jews in professions (i.e. two thirds of all lawyers and over half of all doctors are Jewish). They use quotas (numerus clausus) to restrict Jews’ entrance to universities. A total of 567,000 Jews now live in eastern Galicia.