The first mention of Jews living in Lwówek dates back to the second half of the 17th century; nonetheless, some historiographic works indicate the end of the 16th century as the beginning of Jewish settlement in the town. It is known that a Jewish surgeon called Maś lived there in the second half of the 17th century. A Jewish community was established in Lwówek in 1719 at the latest. It started to flourish in the 18th century, thanks to a settlement privilege granted to Jews by Castellan Adam Kazimierz Pawłowski from Werbno, the heir of Lwówek, on 20 June 1725. The privilege read as follows:

“Once a year, Jews shall be allowed to choose elders from among themselves, so that they can make judgements acording to their laws.

They shall be allowed to trade in iron, cloth, rope, leather, galloons, silk fabrics, other textiles and wool, provided that they do not buy church-owned or manor goods. They shall be allowed to slaughter and sell oxen, cows, heifers, and animal skins. They shall be allowed to seize oxen, cows, calves, wethers, and other cattle from alien Jews who come to sell them on the heir's estate; alien Jews are only allowed to perform trade activities during fairs. They shall only be allowed to testify in serious cases. A Jewish cemetery shall be arranged on a plot on the edge of the farm. They shall serve in the Municipal Guard and make contributions to fund soldiers amounting to 24 Polish złoty a month. The old shall be exempt from the duty. Each Jew shall own a water pump and five buckets under pain of a fee of 5 grzywnas. In Jew vs. Christian cases, the elders shall judge as their reason tells them; an appeal can be made to the heir. Should a Jew have a grievance against a Christian, he shall bring his case to the mayor or the Vogt; an appeal can be made to the heir. According to Jewish laws in other towns, alien Jews shall pay 3 grosz per one animal skin, but the Jews of Lwówek shall not buy skins from them on the outskirts of the town or in the countryside, unless the shoemakers' and furriers' guild allows it. They shall be allowed to buy animal skins in villages. Jewish shoemakers and furriers shall be allowed to join the guild provided that they donate four pounds of wax and make a contribution. Jews shall not sell flatfish, herring or stockfish under pain of a fine of 30 grzywnas. The synagogue and Jewish houses are exempt from the castle fee. The Jews of Lwówek shall be allowed to choose their rabbi. The administration of the Jewish community shall not be valid without the castle owner's approval. Jews shall not play music at weddings unless the parish priest allows it. Alien Jews shall not pay tributes to the cantor of the parish church in Lwówek, but local Jews shall pay the cantor an annual fee of 10 Polish złoty. The Jews of Lwówek shall be allowed to establish a cemetery delimited by a fence. No Jews or the heir's commercial intermediaries belonging to the Lwówek Synagogue District shall be exempt from taxes imposed on Jews with the exception of Jakób Reier, who is an old and distinguished man. It shall be allowed to accept an alien Jew into the community of the Jews of Lwówek or to not accept him. Alien Jews shall not obstruct trade activities of Jews from Lwówek, but alien Jews from Poland, Silesia, the Margraviate, etc. shall be allowed to buy wool from the castle and from farms belonging to the castle, as well as oxen, cows, and other goods belonging to the castle; they shall also be allowed to lease taverns and produce booze; those Jews shall be exempt from making contributions to the synagogue. Should a Jew wish to build a house, the heir shall grant him a tree. The Jews of Lwówek shall provide the castle with meat and be paid for their services, but they shall donate the heart of each slaughtered calf and shall not be paid for it. The castle shall not provide the Jews of Lwówek with skins of oxen, cows, calves, wethers, dead animals, bears, wolves, and foxes. The Jews of Lwówek shall not buy wethers and cattle from the castle. The castle shall not provide Jews with horses for sale and neither shall the castle buy horses and carriages from Jews. Jews shall be allowed to buy unlimited amounts of flatfish and herring for their own needs. The castle shall not provide Jews with fish for sale, but they shall be allowed to buy fish for their own use should the castle be willing to sell them. Jews are exempt from donating calves to the castle. Jews shall not be allowed to buy cattle from peasants with small herds in the period between Advent and Palm Sunday under pain of a fee of 20 grzywnas. Jews who own horses shall be allowed to go to the forest each Monday and collect firewood. Should there live 100, 200, or more Jews in Lwówek, each year they shall never pay more than 2,000 Polish złoty to the castle”[1.1].

In 1789, the Jews of Lwówek were obliged to pay tributes and other fees to the castle. The synagogue paid in two installments, 200 Polish złoty each; each year, Jews donated “9 heads” of sugar to the castle; they paid 3 Polish złoty when they elected elders; Jews trading in horses paid a fee of 200 Polish złoty; those renting taverns – 126 Polish złoty; bakers – 18 Polish złoty.

At the end of the 18th century, the Koszbok-Łącki family became the owners of Lwówek and the areas surrounding it. Samuel Eifram, the first in a big family of traders, was one of the signatories of the document confirming the town's ownership, signed by the Jewish Community of Lwówek and Melchior Łącki from Bolewice. The agreement was signed on 30 November 1793. Jews agreed to pay the owners 200 florins each year; in exchange, they were allowed to trade in horses and use the local pastures. Additionally, they were to pay 7 ducats each year for trading in horses and 10 ducats for trading in sugar. They were also allowed to barrel 2 tons of beer produced by the heir each week. The document also defined fines that were to imposed in case of infringements of law. The heir allowed for the rabbi's house to be built and undertook to provide building materials.

At the end of the 18th century, there were 443 Jews living in the town, including 27 Jewish tailors (out of the total number of 38 tailors working in Lwówek) and ten Jewish furriers (out of 15 in total.

In August 1813, a fire destroyed the town, including the synagogue and many Jewish-owned buildings; in the aftermath of the event, many Jews left Lwówek. The heir provided building materials for rebuilding the synagogue. At the time, the Board of the Jewish Community was composed of: Dawid Manase, Wolff Samuel, and Selig Schwerin; Jakub Cohn Spiro was the rabbi. The subsequent rabbis of Lwówek were: Mojżesz Gabriel Samter from Leszno (1832–1837), M. L. Spiro (until 1845), Jakub Hamburger (1852–1859), Levin Lipschuetz. Loewenthal (1876–1881), Meier Aschkenaze (1883–1885).

The synagogue was rebuilt in 1858.  In 1834, a Jewish elementary school was opened in Lwówek. At first it had two grades, but in 1878 it was reduced to a one-grade school. In 1898, it had only 45 students and in 1909 – just 20.

In the second half of the 19th century, the synagogue in Lwówek was attended by 540 Jews (data from 1871) – this marked the peak of the community's size. Later on, the number of members of the community started to decrease; in 1880, only 445 out of all 2,466 inhabitants of Lwówek were Jewish.

In 1905, there were only 225 Jews living in the town (ca. 10% of the population).

Large groups of local Jews migrated further into Germany and less and less Jewish people lived in the area, which eventually caused the Community of Lwówek to merge with the Community of Pniewy. In 1907, 180 Jews lived in Lwówek.

After the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919, Lwówek was incorporated back into Poland. This drove most local Jews to leave the town, seeing that they were raised in German culture and spoke exclusively German. In the 1920s, the Jewish school was closed and its last students were transferred to a school run by Evangelicals. A decade later, however, several Jewish families came to Lwówek – they were migrants from the former Russian Partition. They joined the Jewish Community encompassing Nowy Tomyśl and Zbąszyń.

In 1939, 28 Jews lived in Lwówek. On 7 September 1939, during the German occupation of Poland, the Jews of Lwówek were displaced and sent to Buk. There, Germans gathered ca. 1,300 Jewish people from numerous localities, such as Nowy Tomyśl, Szamotuły, Pniewy, Wronki, Sieraków, Kłecko. The Jews were later transferred to a transit camp located in Młyniewo near Grodzisko and eventually transported to the General Government.

It is believed that only one Jewish family from Lwówek survived the Holocaust – the Fuchs family, which was part-Jewish and part-German. After the war, they came back to Lwówek, but in 1960, they migrated to Israel.

Bibliography

• S. Karwowski, Lwówek i jego dziedzice, Poznań 1914.
• S. Konieczny, Dzieje Żydów lwóweckich w zarysie, “Bibliotecznik. Jednodniówka wydawana przez bibliotekę publiczną miasta i gminy Lwówek” published on 16–17.06.2014, pp. 1–2.
• Lwowek, [in] The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, ed. S. Spector, G. Wigoder, vol. 2, New York 2001, p. 775.
• Lwówek, [in] Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, ed. F. Sulimierski, B. Chlebowski, W. Walewski, Warsaw 1884, vol. V, p. 554.
• A. Ziółkowska, Szamotuły w latach II wojny światowej, Muzeum – Zamek Górków w Szamotułach [online] http://zamek.org.pl/aktualnosci/losy-szamotulan-i-ich-rodzin-w-czasie-okupacji-hitlerowskiej-1939-1945/ [Accessed: 02.01.2021].]]