Iwaniska was established in 1403 by the Zborowski family, on the Koprzywianka River , by the trade routes from Kraków through Opatów to the east and through Iłża to Warsaw and Vilnius. In the middle of the 16th century it was a well known Calvinism center. The town was severely destroyed by the army of Rakóczi. In 1663 the town population amounted only to 416 people, and diminished to 311 inhabitants in 1674.

According to the article of Wojciech Saletra, during the November Uprising, in March 1831, the synagogue custody paid 20 złotys to the benefit of the forming division of the Sandomierz horsemanship. In 1869 the population of Iwaniska was only 1,088 citizens, and due to this small number it lost its municipal rights.

In the interwar period Iwaniska was a town settlement in the Opatów County, situated by the line of the narrow-gauge railway Bogoria-Iwaniska, which was built in 1914. In the 1930’s, approximately 2,800 people lived there. Mills and tanneries functioned in the settlement. A horses, cattle and swine fair took place once a week on Mondays.

Bibliography

• Saletra, W. 2005 Żydzi wobec powstania listopadowego 1830-1831 roku – na przykładzie województwa krakowskiego i sandomierskiego, in: Z przeszłości Żydów polskich, edited by: Wijaczka, J.—Miernik, G., Kraków, page 95
• Sichniński, M. (ed.) 1965 Miasta polskie w Tysiącleciu, Warszawa vol. 1, page 508