The first mention of the Jewish community in Kobryn comes from a document dating back to 1515, in which the King Zygmunt Stary confirmed the privileges granted to the town in 1503 by his brother Alexander Jagiellończyk. According to the 1563 census, the Jews of Kobryn owned 25 houses, 20 orchards and gardens, as well as a synagogue. Their main activities were: trade, brewing, leasing of customs, inn-keeping.

In 1589, Jews obtained equal trade rights. In 1623 the minutes of the Lithuanian Va’ad started to record Kobryn as subordinate to the Jewish kehilla in Brest. The community suffered in the so-called Deluge – the Swedish invasion on Poland in 1655 – but by the end of the 17th century it had been fully revived. At the beginning of the 18th century, Kobryn was famous for its religious life, represented by such prominent figures as the scholar Becalel ben Shlomo of Kobryn and the founder of the local yeshiva, Rabbi Jakub ben David Shapira (died in 1718).

In the 18th century, due to the economic collapse of the town, the community fell into debt. Among its creditors was a female monastery from Pinsk. At that time, the main activities of the common people were trade and crafts, while the rich were involved in salt, cereal and wood trading. In 1766, the local community had as many as 924 poll tax payers.

In 1847, the community had 8,840 members, including 4,184 in Kobryn itself. In 1897, there were 6,738 Jews living in the town, that is 64% of the population. At the same time, many people were migrating away as a result of restrictions on land trade introduced in 1882 and the imposition of a water monopoly in 1897. Many Jews, especially artisans, migrated to the United States during that period. In the years 1892-1897, the town’s rabbi was a prominent Halakha sage, H. Berlin. Hasidic influence was growing in the town, being cultivated by the local dynasty deriving from the Slonim dynasty, headed by tzaddikim: Mosze ben Israel (died in 1858), Noah Naftali (died in 1889), David Szlomo (died in 1918), Moshe Aron (died in 1942) and Baruch Jozef Zak (died in 1949).

In the 20th century, the cultural and political life in the town started to thrive. The spread of Zionist thought was vehemently opposed by the Orthodox Jews.  After the revolution of 1905, a cell of the Bund was established in the town, followed by the foundation of a branch of Poale Zion.

In the Second Polish Republic, Jews constituted 66% of the population (in 1921 – 5,431 people). Kobryn boasted numerous cheders, a Talmud-Torah school, a yeshiva, a Hebrew Tarbut school, and a Yiddish school. Most people made a living off of trade, weaving and construction services.

After the Soviet Army entered Kobryn (on 20 September 1939), some of the Zionist youth fled to Vilnius and from there to Palestine.

On 23 June 1941, Kobryn was taken by the German army. Soon after, two ghettos were created: the ‘A’ Ghetto, with those skilled and able to work, and the ‘B’ Ghetto, holding those who did not meet these criteria. A Judenrat was formed at the German order, headed by the merchant Anielowicz.

By the end of 1941, the German Einsatzkommando 9 had shot 170 Jews. On 25 July 1942, all Jews from the ‘B’ Ghetto were taken to a range near Bronna Mountain and killed by Germans together with a Belarussian police unit. In October 1942, the prisoners of the ‘A’ Ghetto – 4,250 people – were sent to the forest near the village of Chidry, where they were shot at the previously prepared four large pits. On the eve of the execution, about 100 Jews managed to escape from the ghetto and join the partisans. During the final liquidation of the ghetto, the Germans encountered armed resistance.

Nearly all the Jews from Kobryn who survived the Holocaust left for Poland under the Repatriation Agreement of 6 June 1945, and from there migrated to the emerging Israel. Between 1950 and 1980, a few Jews still lived in Kobryn, but according to the census of 1999, no Jewish people have remained.

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