Jews started to settle in Cieszanów as early as in the early 17th century. In 1629, they had three houses and a synagogue employing a shamash. A document of 1630 mentions 23 Jewish families residing in the town. It is recorded that they had as many as eight houses in 1631. In 1643, Jews were the owners of 17 out of all 100 houses in Cieszanów.

In 1649, after the town had been destroyed by the troops of Khmelnytsky, Aleksander Stanisław Bełżecki ordered that everyone, regardless of whether a Christian or a Jew, should possess a good musket, two pounds of powder and sixty bullets. In 1670, he granted the local Jews equal rights with Christians in return for their assistance in the defence of the town against the Cossacks. In 1672 a fire damaged Ciechanów, severely weakening the local Jewish community [1.1].

In 1785, the town was inhabited by 410 Jews. By 1799, their number rose to 473. In 1857, Cieszanów had 1,067 Jewish residents, who made up 49% of the whole population. In 1870, the Jewish community of Cieszanów had its synagogue, cemetery and three Jewish institutions – brotherhoods and associations. Jakub Fränkel performed the function of the kehilla rabbi.

In 1885, another destructive fire broke out in the town [1.2]. Starting from 1880, the Credit Society, presided over by Salomon Schmukler, operated in the town. By 1900 the Jewish community of Cieszanów grew to have 2,777 members. There were numerous charity associations in the town, including particularly active Gemilut Chesed, which granted interest-free loans to the poor.

Dawid Halberstam, a son of a tzadik from Dynów (1818–1893), established the local centre of Hasidism in Cieszanów. He was succeeded as a tzadik and rabbi by Simche Ber Halberstam, his nephew and a son of Ezechiel Szraga, a tzadik from Sieniawa (died on 18 January 1914).

In the early 20th century, Hasidic Jews from Cieszanów, the followers of a tzadik from the Halberstam family, arranged a prayer room in the Cracow district of Kazimierz, in a building at 13 Miodowa Street. During the Second World War, it was destroyed by the Germans. Nowadays it is in ruins.

In 1910, the Cieszanów District had 10,760 Jewish residents, who made up 12.5% of its total population. The town itself was inhabited by 1,900 Jews just before the outbreak of the First World War. In 1914, Cieszanów was invaded by the Russian troops, which destroyed all Jewish shops and workshops in the town. The war led to the decline of the Jewish population.

In 1921, Cieszanów had 939 Jewish residents, who made up 41.8% of the total population of the town. The organisations operating at the time in the town included the Jad Charuzim Association of Jewish Craftsmen, Credit Union comprising 310 members, and Gemilut Chesed.  In the early 1930s, the town had a very high rate of unemployment. About 90% of Jewish craftsmen and wage workers did not have a job [1.1.2].

During the Second World War, on 12 September 1939, Cieszanów was seized by the German troops. The German-Soviet boundary was demarcated near the town. Most Jews escaped from Cieszanów to the nearby town of Lubaczów, situated in the Soviet occupation zone. Only several tens of them decided to remain in the town. According to other sources, Jews escaped from Cieszanów during a short period of Soviet occupation [1.3].

In the first half of 1940, a group of 50 Jews was brought to the town to prepare land for the establishment of a forced labour camp, which was opened in the spring of 1940. On 18 August 1940, three thousand Jews were transported to the camp. In the autumn of 1940, there were as many as 3.8 thousand Jewish prisoners, who assisted in the construction of fortifications and roads, as well as river regulation. Tombstones from the local Jewish cementry were used for this purpose.

In October 1940, a group of one thousand Jews was transferred to a forced labour camp in Stary Dzików. The camp in Cieszanów was temporarily liquidated in November 1940. It was re-opened in the spring of 1941.

The Germans established also a ghetto near the synagogue in Ciechanów, where Jews from neighbouring villages were placed. For some time, it was a home to Jews from the ghetto of Mielec, who were later transported in carts to the Bełżec extermination camp. In early 1943, the Germans transported all Jews who still resided in Cieszanów to a forest in Wierzbica, where they were shot dead.

Bibliography

• Cieszanow, [in:], The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, ed. Sh. Spector, G. Wigoder, vol. 1, New York 2001, p. 261.