In 1262, King Boleslaw Wstydliwy allowed the Cistercian monks to establish an urban settlement in Jasło, but he prohibited Jews from settling in the locality. Jasło was chartered in 1365 by King Casimir the Great, who probably lifted the ban on Jewish settlement. Further information on the Jewish presence in the town dates back to 1463.

The townsmen of Jasło and many other localities feared competition from Jews and thus sought to suppress their settlement and involvement in trading or artisan activities. In 1589, Jasło was granted the de non tolerandis Judaeis privilege. Twenty years later, the regulation was re-confirmed and additional restrictions were introduced, which effectively forced Jews to leave the town. However, a few Jewish families continued to live in Jasło in the mid-18^th century, for instance Zelman Ickowicz, a leaseholder who resided there in 1745.

During the Partitions of Poland, the Jewish population started to slowly grow and assimilate into the rest of the society. The situation of Jews in the early 19^th century was thus described by Father Władysław Serna: “There had been no Jew in Jasło until the beginning of the last century. Then one Jew came and lived by the toll road, and later moved to the town. Since that time, Jews have lived in Jasło together with Catholics.”[1.1] In his memoirs from the 1820s, Michał Franciszek Stoger wrote: “Only one Jewish family was allowed to stay permanently in Jasło; it maintained an inn for Jewish travellers.”[1.1.1] In 1820, Emperor Franz Josef I allowed two Jewish families, the Steinhauses and the Welfelds, to settle down in Jasło. They were deemed trustworthy and did not deal with usury.

The ban on Jewish settlement in Galicia was lifted by the tsarist authorities in 1867, which resulted in mass influx of Jews to local urban centres. At the time, 86% of the population of Jasło District was Roman Catholic, 8.7% – Greek Catholic, 0.1% – Protestant, and 5.2% – Jewish. In 1880, 433 Jews lived in Jasło; twenty years later, the number reached 1,524, which constituted 23.2% of the town’s population. They were mostly Hasidic Jews, followers of the tzaddik from the nearby Bobowa.

In the second half of the 19^th century, Jasło started to lose its rural character. Agriculture-based trade became a crucial element of the local economy and crafts were developing; both branches of the economy were the domain of Jews. In 1907, most of Jasło’s inns (six in the Market Square and 20 altogether) were owned by Jews. In 1892, the Credit Union was founded by the Jewish community; its president was J. Steinhaus.

The Jews from Jasło initially belonged to the Żmigród kehilla. An independent community was established in the town in 1891. A synagogue with adjacent cheder and women’s bath had been erected a bit earlier, in the second half of the 19^th century. However, the community did not employ its own rabbi until 1900.

In 1901, Jasło had 6,580 inhabitants, including 1,500 Jews and 180 Ukrainians. Before the outbreak of World War I, the Jewish population of Jasło comprised 2,400 people. In 1905, an impressive synagogue was erected at the site of the former defensive manor from the end of the 16^th century, called “Koci Zamek” or “Kotczy Zamek.”

In the beginning of the 20^th century, many Jewish people were actively involved in the emancipatory struggle. Historical sources contain numerous mentions of Jews forming part of Galician independence organisations. Two Jewish secondary school students from Jasło joined the scouting movement.

Jews also supported Polish military operations; for example, Jewish merchants from Rzeszów donated textiles, wool, sweets, and cigarettes to the Polish Legions. Similar donations were made by wholesalers from Sanok, Jasło, Tarnobrzeg, and Tarnów. The reports drawn up by army commissioners describe Jewish presence at national ceremonies and patriotic campaigns for the Polish Legions; for example, the Jews from Jasło and other towns decorated their houses for the announcement of the Act of 5^th November 1916 and took part in the ceremony.

In the interwar period, the Jewish population of Jasło grew significantly. In 1921, the community had 2,445 members. At the time, the local Jews could use the Great Synagogue and the old house of prayer, four other beth midrashim, two cheders, and two ritual baths. Several Jewish associations and organisations operated in the town, including Gemilut Chesed, Chevra Kadisha, the Yeshurun Cultural and Educational Society (it owned a building with a concert hall), and Beit Yaakov, which ran a school for girls. There was also a religious Talmud-Torah school in the town, attended by children from the town’s poorest families. In 1924, the Maccabi Jasło sports club was founded.

Jews constituted ca. 25% of the interwar population of Jasło. In 1938, there were 2,639 Jews in the town, owning a total of 290 houses. The Jewish population dealt mostly with trade. Out of all 197 stores in Jasło, 148 were Jewish-owned. Jews also ran 19 restaurants and inns and owned sawmills, mills, and brickyards, transportation companies, and around a dozen small production plants (including a toothpaste factory and a brooms and brushes factory). Crafts were also dominated by Jewish producers, most prominently tailors, shoemakers, and barbers. The local intelligentsia comprised physicians and lawyers. In the 1930s, the building of the Jewish school was erected at Wysoka Street (currently Polskiego Czerwonego Krzyża Street). The last rabbi of Jasło was Meilech Zukerman.

The German occupation irrevocably changed this image. All Jews of Jasło were registered in the first weeks of the war. Towards the end of September 1939, on the holiday of Yom Kippur, the Germans blew up in the Great Synagogue. They imposed a ban on listening to the radio and confiscated all radio players, skis, and ski boots. Just as all Jews in the territory of Poland, the Jews of Jasło were prohibited to change their place of residence or use public transport. They were not allowed to join political groups, cultural associations, or educational organisations.

Over the subsequent months, the Germans established the Distict Judenrat in Jasło, having jurisdiction over 16 Jewish councils from nearby localities. Its president was Jakub Goldstein. On 7 August 1941, the district governor of Jasło issued a ban on free movement of Jewish population within the district.

A ghetto was formed in Jasło in the spring of 1942. Its population also comprised Jews from nearby localities, including Bieździedz, Frysztak, Jedlicz, and Kołaczyce, as well as a group of people displaced from the Krosno Ghetto. A small group of ghetto prisoners was sent to the Szebnie camp, but most were transported to the Nazi extermination camp in Bełżec in the summer of 1942. The transport also included around a dozen Poles who had extended help to Jews.

Concomitantly, executions were carried out in the town itself. In late May 1942, German officers of the Feldpolizei and Ukrainian collaborators shot 1,500 Jews in the Warzyce forest. Another mass execution was held in early June; the victims were Jewish people and a Polish family accused of providing a hiding place to Jews. On 12 July 1942, Germans murdered 260 Jews in the forest in Krajowice. The victims hailed from Bieździedz, Frysztak, and Kołaczyce.

The Jasło Ghetto was liquidated in December 1942, when the remaining prisoners were transported to the ghetto in Rzeszów. In January or February 1943, the Gestapo shot 19 Jews discovered in hiding in the forests around Osobnica. The last group of Jews from Jasło, ca. 690 people, was shot in the Warzyce forest on 3 August 1943.

As much as 90% of Jasło was destroyed in World War II. Apart from the devastated cemetery and the mikveh adapted for other use, no object owned by the prewar Jewish community has been preserved.

Bibliography

• Hap W., Ziemia Jasielska. Naszą małą ojczyzną, Jasło 1998.
• Jałosińska F., Kalendarium dziejów Jasła od 1901 do 1938, Jasło 2006.
• Potocki A., Podkarpackie Judaica, Brzozów 1993.
• Potocki A., Żydzi w Podkarpackiem, Rzeszów 2004.
• Toldot Yehudei Jaslo. Me-reshit hityashvutam be-toch ha-ir ad yemei ha-hurban al yedei ha-natzim, ed. M. N. Even-Chaim, Tel Aviv 1953.
• Żydzi w Małopolsce. Studium z dziejów osadnictwa i życia społecznego, ed. F. Kiryk, Przemyśl 1991.