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Czestochowa was the home of the eighth largest Jewish community in
Poland. After 1765, when there were 75 Jews in Czestochowa, the
community grew steadily. With emancipation in 1862, many Jews
migrated to Czestochowa and contributed to its industrial and
commercial growth. In 1935, there were 27,162 Jews out of a total
population of 127,504. When the Nazis deported Jews to Czestochowa
to work in its munition factories, the Jewish population exceeded
50,000. Almost all perished in Treblinka. Anti-Jewish feeling was
spurred on by the Church and Fascist groups that organized boycotts
of Jewish stores and incited pogroms intended to drive the Jews out
of the city. The Jewish labor movement fought unemployment and poor
working conditions. Impoverished families were aided by community
charitable funds. Jewish philanthropists established the
non-sectarian "Jewish Hospital," progressive schools, two gymnasia
and the "New Synagogue." During election seasons, the entire Jewish
political spectrum, from the socialist parties to the
ultra-Orthodox, competed in the self-governing body, and in the
Municipal Council. By 1901, stylishly dressed men and women mixed
in the streets with poor religious Jews in their traditional garb.
A popular press, libraries, theaters, cinema, sporting events and
youth movements gave Czestochowa Jews a variety of cultural choices
to suit their politics, artistic taste, and modes of leisure.
Public life transformed a dreary factory town into one of the most
colorful and celebrated Jewish communities in Poland before and
after the First World War.
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