Remembering the Jews of Lubaczow

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Lubaczów, Poland
50° 10' N/ 23° 08' E

Other names: Libatchov, Libechuyv, Liubachev, Lubachov, Lubatchov, Lubichuv

Religious Life

Lubaczów synagogues

Three persons who all originally came from Lubaczów, have told me about the synagogues in Lubaczów - Joshua Heilman from Canada, Shlomo Helsinger from Israel and Maurie Hoffman from Australia.

Maurie Hoffman and Joshua Hilman have now given me maps and explanations concerning the synagogues.

There were three synagogue buildings. One of these buildings housed two synagogues.

First, these three buildings were situated to the north of the Rynek.

Besmedrish

(Click to enlarge)

To the west was a long building that housed two synagogues. The entrance to both was in the middle of the building.
To the left you entered what was, in Yiddish, called the BESMEDRISH. In Hebrew this is called Beth Hamidrash.
To the right you entered what was called, in Yiddish, the CHASSIDISHE BESMEDRISH.

To the east was the synagogue called the PUDISHEL. Shlomo Helsinger says that this was the place where many of poor and hardworking people, like those driving horse carriages, prayed. He says that the shabat services in this synagogue were much shorter than in the others.

To the north, between these two synagogues, was the newest and biggest synagogue - DI GROISE SHIL. You can read about this synagogue in Joshua Heilman's story "Fifty Years Ago" .

The Main
Synagogue

(Click to enlarge)

In addition, we will mention two more buildings - the rabbi's house and the Jewish ritual bath.

The RABBI'S HOUSE was situated behind the big synagogue, to the north. In this house was also a study hall and the local Jewish court, called Beth Hadin in Hebrew. Joshua Heilman remembers how his grandmother would send him to the rabbi with some problematic chicken so that the rabbi could declare if the chicken was Kosher and therefore fit to eat.

A little further north behind the big synagogue was the MIKVEH, the ritual Jewish bath. Married Jewish women would visit the Mikveh once a month for their ritual cleansing.

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