The history of Jews in Poland dates back more than a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the center of Jewish culture, thanks to a long period of religious tolerance and social autonomy. From its founding in 1025 until the years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century, Poland was the most tolerant country in Europe. It had become a refuge for Jews persecuted and expelled from Europe. By the mid-16th century, three-quarters of the world’s Jews lived in Poland.

The first great emigration of Jews from Western Europe occurred at the time of the First Crusade in 1098. In the 13th century, the Polish government encouraged Jewish immigration to colonize the country. Immigrants came from Bohemia-Moravia, Germany, Italy, Spain, and even Crimea. Refugees from Germany brought a dialect mixed with German and Hebrew that eventually became Yiddish, which Polish Jews spoke for centuries.

One factor that encouraged the arrival of Jewish immigrants to Poland was a series of edicts, such as the Magdeburg Law, which granted them certain rights and privileges. For example, they could define their own neighborhoods, mark their economic competition, and even establish monopolies. Another was the Kalisz Statute, which gave Jews freedom of worship, trade, and movement. In 1332 King Casimir II the Great further expanded the statute. Among other things, he established the death penalty for those who kidnapped Jewish children for the purpose of converting them to Christianity.

In 1388-89, Lithuania was merged into the Polish kingdom, extending the same privileges to Lithuanian Jews. In 1492, following the expulsion of Jews from Spain, Poland became a refuge for exiles from Western Europe. This influx of new immigrants, combined with the local Jewish population, made Poland the cultural and spiritual center of the Jewish people. The period of King Zygmunt I (1506-1548) is considered to be the most prosperous period of Polish Jewry. A number of great intellectual figures emerged in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Jewish academies were established in many Polish cities such as Lublin and Krakow. Although not before, by 1551 the Jewish community could elect its own chief rabbi. He could appoint officials and judges. After the merger of Poland with Lithuania, Poland annexed Ukraine and many Jews were sent to colonize the new territories.

Jews became the backbone of the Polish economy. They formed the middle class in a country where the general population was mostly made up of landowners and peasants. From the 16th to the 17th century, Jews enjoyed a form of self-government, the Council of the Four Lands, “Vaad Arva Artzot,” a kind of Jewish parliament. His decrees reflected the spirit of the Torah and its values. After the Land of Israel, Babylon, and Spain, Poland had become the fourth great center of world Jewry.

Prepared by Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Jewish Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Judaica, and other sources.