Czyżew (Czyżew-Osada until 2011) never held the privilegium de non tolerandis Judaeis. Nevertheless, Jews did not appear in the village until the 17th century. They founded an official community at the beginning of the 18th century, at the same time replacing the Christian population. Already in the 18th century, Jews constituted 93% of Czyżew’s inhabitants. With the fall of the Polish state, Czyżew was initially incorporated into the Prussian Partition, and after the Congress of Vienna it formed part of the Russian Partition.

The town was initially very poor, but the tide turned with the construction of the St. Petersburg-Warsaw railway line in 1854, which facilitated the development of local crafts and trade. As a result, a number of enterprises were founded in Czyżew, including a factory producing tzitzit (tassels attached to the prayer shawl). The tzitzit were exported to the entire Russian empire.[1.1] After the January Uprising, the share of the Jewish population in Czyżew decreased.

On 10 September 1939, German troops entered the town. They were pushed out of the town by the Red Army in October of the same year, but returned with the outbreak of the German-Soviet war in June 1941. The Germans immediately exterminated a part of the Jewish population. A large group of Jews was driven to the outskirts of the village of Mianówek, where, along with their fellow believers from Zaręby Kościelne, they were killed and buried in an anti-tank ditch. A total of ca. 3,500 people were killed at the site.  

The remaining Jewish population was enclosed in a ghetto located in the vicinity of today's Polna Street. It gained infamy as one of the most brutal ghettos in the former District of Białystok. The Jewish population was forced to work on the renovation and construction of railway tracks and other construction works in the town and the surrounding area. The ghetto existed until November 1942, when its prisoners were transported to the Treblinka extermination camp.

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