The first mention of Jews settling in Kolomyia dates back to the 13th century. In 1364 and 1367, King Kazimierz Wielki granted them the privileges introduced in the Statute of Kalisz, issued by Duke Bolesław Pobożny. The Jews were protected by the king but were obliged to pay taxes both to the monarch’s Treasury and to the town. They were also subject to other payments.

According to the provisions of the Union of Lublin signed in 1569, the Jews from Lviv settled in a separate district of Kołomyja, located near the market square. According to the property registry of 1616, the Royal Commission ordered the Alderman of Kolomyia, Piotr Koryciński, to erect a synagogue and designate a place for the Jewish cemetery in exchange for tax exemptions for the districts of Kolomyia where these objects were to be created. According to the lustration carried out in 1616, Jews paid the annual sum of 20 thalers to the Alderman’s office, while the Jewish butchers (together with the Christian ones) – 40 stones of tallow.

After the destruction of the town in numerous attacks of the Turks in the first half of the 17th century and its transfer from the right bank of the Prut River to the left in 1629, the municipal authorities issued a document confirming that “the rights and dues of the Jews should be preserved.” The lease of the city mill was preserved, with Jews obliged to pay 3,000 zł to the royal Treasury each year.

According to an agreement between the townspeople and the Jewish community signed in 1715, the kehilla was to pay three quarters of the tax to the town’s treasury. An agreement signed in 1771 stipulated that Jews were to supply 17 and three quarters out of the 23 corodies, and the remaining townspeople – five and one quarter.
The oldest synagogues in Kolomyia were made of wood or brick. According to historical sources, the synagogues in the nearby villages, Peczeniżyn and Gwoździec, were wooden, designed in a style inspired by folk architecture. When marking the area for urban development, the 1616 lustration commission indicated a plot for the construction of a synagogue (today's J. Orenstein Street, currently housing a farm). In 1664, thanks to the efforts of Rabbi A. Wolf, the Jews who developed the squares surrounding the market also erected a new synagogue, and its first rabbi was Rabbi Chaim. At the end of the 18th century, after the reconstruction, it gained the name of the Great Synagogue.
In the 18th century, the Jewish community in Kolomyia played a significant role in the spread of Hasidism. In 1730s, the founder of the movement, Baal Shem Tov, visited the local rabbi.

In 1765, 1,072 Jews lived in Kolomyia. They excelled in manufacturing and trading in the town, working as traders, brokers and intermediaries, as well as agents and lessors, especially of saltworks.

In 1778, after the area had come under the Austrian rule, the local community established its first school. A cheder operating at the Great Synagogue was opened in 1787. In the 1860s, Hulesowa, a resident of Kolomyia, began to run a kindergarten for Jewish children. In 1866, a second primary school was opened. According to the local census of 1869, there were 9,019 Jews in the town, out of about 15,000 residents in total.

The local community was actively involved in various undertakings. In 1876, its board was composed of Solomon Wieselber, Dawid Kriss, and Joseph Funkenstein. In 1854, the community contributed to the opening of a municipal hospital with 20 beds. In 1898, a house for the old and disabled was built at the expense of the community.
In 1872, there were 16 synagogues and 35 prayer houses in the town. Some of the prominent Kołomyja rabbis of the 19th century were Rabbi Icchak Zeew, Gershon ben Jehuda, Hillel Lichtensztein, and Jakub Teomin. Among the distinguished Hasidic leaders working in the town were Sholem Rabinowicz (1851-1911), and later Oszer Lechman (perished during the Holocaust).

In 1882, Jews constituted 41.4% of the total population. In the 20th century, their number continued to increase. In 1911, Kołomyja, Dziatkowce and Szeparowce were inhabited by 7,850 Greek Catholics, 8,244 Roman Catholics, and 16,750 Jews (51% of the total population).

The educational system was developing swiftly. The best known of the Jewish schools in Kolomyia at the turn of the 20th century was the four-grade male school funded by German Jews, Josef and Moritz von Hirsch. The von Hirsch family also sponsored the School Foundation for the Organisation and Maintenance of Schools for Poor Children in Galicia, Bukowina and Turkey, located in its own building in 1896 (currently the Pushkin Grammar School No. 8). In 1890s, a Jewish amateur theatre was established. It staged a play under the title Brandles – Cossack from Kolomyia. During this period, Kolomyia was visited by one of the most famous Jewish writers, Sholem Aleichem, who in the early 1906 stopped in the town for four days on the way to Switzerland. He later depicted the life of the Eastern Galician Jews in the short story Falsehood, whose action takes place on the train to Kolomyia.

Local entrepreneurs actively participated in the social life, for instance by supporting the local Ukrainian culture. One of the most important institutions in this field were the printing house of William Brauner (1905-1923) and the publishing house ‘Halytska Nakladnya’ run by Jakub Orenstein (1903-1919). They published a number of Ukrainian magazines, books and translations.

In 1880, Zionists became active in the area. Israel Fadenrecht started to publish the Hebrew journal Israel. At the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, Kolomyia was represented by Solomon Singer and Rosenhecht, while Lviv had only one delegate. In 1914, Zionist L. Taubes began to publish the journal Volks Zeitung.

A prominent figure of the first decades of the 20th century was Józef Funkenstein, a member of the municipal council and the district council, mayor of Kolomyia, chairman of the Jewish Community, and a member of the district school council. Gedali Szmelkes, who became the chief rabbi of the town in 1902, also enjoyed great respect among the local Jewish population.

Following the outbreak of the World War I, in the years 1914–1915, Galicia was occupied by Russian troops. The local Jewish Community suffered great financial and physical loses, with many people killed during the pogroms. The synagogues were desecrated and all Jewish magazines ceased to be published.

In the years 1919–1939, Kolomyia was located in the territory of Poland. The local political life was thriving. The Zionist party Mizrachi, the Orthodox Agudath, and the working-class Poale Zion all enjoyed significant support. Among the leaders of the Mizrachi were F. Rotstreich, I. Horowitz, M. Stern and W. Farbstein (deputy to the Sejm – Parliament of the Polish Republic). Doctor Frisch was an important member of the Bund, while Markschtaid played a prominent role in the activities of Poale Zion. The youth was inclined towards Zionism. Among the Zionist youth organisation active in the town were HaShomer HaTsair and Betar.

The kehilla remained at the head of the local Jewish community. In 1925, the members of its board were: Doctor Leon Funkenstein – commissioner, Abraham Samuel Heller – deputy, and Ozjasz Silber – rabbi's assistant. The board was controlled by 27 councillors. The extensive network of communal institutions included, among others, the Association of Jewish Merchants, the Association of Jewish Doctors and Lawyers, and the ILAG (Idische Landwirtschaftliche Gesellschaft) company. Judaism was taught in public schools, with both Polish and Ukrainian as the language of instruction. The teachers of the Torah and the Talmud were, among others, Benjamin Blitz, Calel Brandes, Juris Mandel, Solomon Hergiz and Józef Stecnel.

On the eve of the outbreak of World War II, 44,000 people lived in Kolomyia, out of which 15,000 were Jews. In 1930, Józef Lau became the last rabbi of Kolomyia.

After the outbreak of World War II, the number of Jews in the town increased by several thousand as a result of the influx of refugees from the German occupied territories. In July 1941, Kolomyia passed from the Soviet to German occupation. The SS, the Gestapo and the auxiliary formations of the Ukrainian police were brought to the town. On 21 August 1941, the SD and Sipo forces, led by Peter Leideritz, gathered 250 Jews. They were to be shot in the nearby Korolowka but Hungarians prevented this from happening.

The Germans established the Judenrat, which had jurisdiction over Kolomyia and neighbouring villages, as well as the towns of Kuty, Kosów, and their surroundings. It was headed by M. Horowitz. The chairman was a controversial figure. Some accused him of collaborating with the Germans; others believed that he was forced to work under hopeless circumstances. Before the war, he had been a well-respected Kolomyia manufacturer, but he was not actively involved in the public life. As the president of the Judenrat, despite not being particularly pious before the war, he organised illicit religious services and provided support for the poor. In the autumn of 1942, he committed suicide.

On 12 October 1941, the German army and the Ukrainian police arrested nearly 3,000 Jews and shot them in the forest near the village of Szeparowce over the next few days. Another ‘Action’ took place on 6 November 1941. On 23 December 1941, about 1,000 Jews, holders of foreign passports, were imprisoned as a result of a provocation by the Gestapo. They were shot at the site of previous executions.

In March 1942, Germans created three ghettos in the area, where they placed almost 18,000 Jews from Kolomyia and its surrounding areas. In April 1942, about 5,000, and in September 1942 – almost 7,000 people were sent to the German Nazi extermination camp in Bełżec. On 20 January 1943, 2,000 surviving Jews were gathered in several houses, and shot on 2 February 1943. In August 1944, when the Soviet Army entered the town, only a few Jews remained there.

Shortly after the war, the community grew in numbers due to the influx of refugees from the East and former Red Army soldiers. Soon afterwards most of them left for Poland and from there to the United States and Israel (their landsmanshaftn are still active). In 1969, about 350 Jews lived in Kolomyia, and in early 2000 – no more than a few dozen.

Based on:
• Moholatyi I., Zabutyi svit – kolomyiski yevreyi, Yi 2007, no. 48 [online] http://www.ji.lviv.ua/n48texts/kolomyja.htm [Accessed: 06.05.2015].
• Woznyak T., Hebreyskyi use-svit Halychyny.