The history of Jewish settlement in Lwów began in the mid-13th century, at the time when the city was chartered during the reign of King Leo I of Galicia. It was not homogeneous but divided (from the second half of the 14th century) into two separate kehillas. One comprised Jews who lived within the city walls. The second consisted of the Jewish inhabitants of Krakowskie Przedmieście. The division into the two groups lasted until the early 19th century.

Within the city walls, the Jews were concentrated around the Old Square and Low and High Castles. The city centre was located between the Old Square and present ul Bohdana Chmielnickiego. According to the information provided by Majer Bałaban, the first Lwów wooden synagogue was probably situated her. North of it, near the present ul Sańska, a new brick synagogue was erected following a fire in 1642. The two kehillas used the same cemetery situated on Krakowskie Przedmieście within Szpitalna, Rappaporta, Browarna and Kleparska Street and was closed in 1855.

In the mid-14th century, Lwów came under the rule of King Karzimierz the Great who, in 1352, delineated its limits southwest of the old princely city which was surrounded by walls, a moat, towers and two castles. The Jews occupied the southwestern part called, in the sources, Communitas Judaeorum intra moenia habitantium.

The legal position of Jews in Lwów was, on the one hand, regulated by privileges granted by Polish kings and, on the other hand, by the regulations of the City Council and statutes of the Catholic Church Synods. The royal privileges ensured that Jews could deal with trade and in some industrial fields. The Magdeburg laws, given by King Kazimierz the Great to Lwów Jews, guaranteed their personal safety on an equal footing with other citizens, but also gave them freedom of residence, occupation, equality under the city law, right to rent property and other rights.

The history of the Lwów kehilla is set in the background of events concerning all Jews living in the First Republic of Poland. In the 16th century, they achieved considerable autonomy within their own community, only then to fall victim to pogroms occurring mainly during the Chmielnicki Uprising of the 17th century. One fact should be mentioned here, namely that the residents of Lwów refused to turn over their Jewish neighbours during sieges from 1648 and 1655, when Cossacks demanded it in return for not attacking the city.

The development of the Lwów kehilla was outstanding among other kehillas of the Republic of Poland, both when taking into account the development of religious life, Talmudic studies and religious-cultural accomplishments, as well as considering the fact that its many representatives achieved high-ranking positions in banking and finance (some Lwów Jews, such as Wolf from Drohobycz, living in the first half of the 15th century, were even royal bankers – a position similar to the function performed by the present Minister of Finance).

A landmark in the history of  Lwów Jews took place in 1648, after which the economic significance of the city and the Jewish merchants decreased, mainly owing to a decline in western trade, which constituted a basic source of their incomes, since it was taken over by Lwów Jews following the collapse of Constantinople in 1453. A difficult situation that the very Jewish district had to face, and which deteriorated gradually, was caused by a lack of dwellings for the growing number of new immigrants coming into the city. This led to overpopulation and to higher costs of real estate. The over-densely populated district also had to tackle other problems caused by the difficulties in maintaining public order and cleanliness which, in time, resulted in serious consequences - for example, two huge fires in Lwów in 1571 and 1616 which broke out in the Jewish district.

In the 16th century, the Jewish district included ulicy Żydowska, Nowożydowska, Szklarska and Za Arsenałem. In the 17th century, Jews also began settling in ul Serbska. The entrance to the ghetto was located at the intersection of ulicy Ruska and Żydowska. The “Jewish gate”, locked for the night from both the Jewish and city sides, was situated there.

In 1571, the first yeshiva was established in Lwów. It became renowned for the fact that, in the 1590's, the noted Talmudist Joszua Falk, a disciple of Salomon Luria and Moshe Isserles, was active here.. According to Bałaban, the yeshiva was situated at 28 Blacharska Street  (now Fedorowa Street).

In the mid-16th century, Lwów was one of several Polish cities in which Sephardi Jews settled. In 1567, Sephardi Jews Chaim Kohen and Abraham da Mossa obtained the right, from King Zygmunt August, to trade in sweet Greek wines, sweet wines from the south and in muscatels, without having to pay customs duties. This was the result of an agreement between the King and Josef Nasim, a Turkish diplomat who helped improve relations between the Repubic and the Ottomoan Empire.

Josef Nasi, descended from an influential family of Sephardi bankers from Lisbon, granted the Polish King a significant loan. Correspondence between Zygmund August and Nasi has been preserved in which the monarch refers tro Nasi as a "dignified prince" (the diplomat had received the title of "Prince" from the sultan of Naksos island) and a "dear friend".

All did not go well for the Sephardis in Lwów. Their privileged commercial position and perhaps, as Majer Bałaban suggests, their cultural differences brought them into conflict with other inhabitants, including with Ashkenazi Jews. Following conflicts with the City Council, the majority of them left the city. The situation of the Sephardis in Lwów was descibed in his letters, written in Italian. by Moshe da Mossy. In the end, he settled in Zamość thanks to his friendship with Jan Zamoyski. In 1588, the Hetman (military commander) gave the Sephardi Jews rights which created, within the city, exceptional potential for Sephardi communities to develop in Poland.

The first years of the 17th century saw the Jewish community come into dispute with the Jesuit Order. The Order, wanting to build a church and a seminary, decided to accuse the municipal authorities and the Jews of illegal transactions concerning the sale of building plots, which were crown land, among which was land on which was built the Nachmanowicz synagogue. The legal case dragged on for a few years through all the courts. In the end, the crown verdict was that the city was required buy back the majority of the questionable plots and to demolish the synagogue because it had been constructed without royal permission. Lwów Jews challenged the verdict and appealed to the Crown Tribunal (Trybunał Koronny). The case ended on 11th July 1608, when King Sigismund III Vasa issued a decree which stated that the Jesuits would be granted a plot in another part of the city and that the Jews could remain in Żydowska Street without any interference to their property.

In 1634, the growing Lwów community was permitted to build an administrative building (for the Jewish Community Council), situated opposite the old city synagogue. The level of affluence of Lwów Jews was confirmed by a 1620 municipal record which stated that they owned as many as forty tenement buildings in the city. Historians' estimates the the number of Jewish residents in the city towards the end of the 16th century vary 3,500 (including Krakowskie Przedmieście).

After the already mentioned incidents connected with the Chmielnicki Uprising, in 1664, another cataclysm hit the Lwów Jewish community. Jesuit college students attacked the synagogue. They were joined by soldiers who were stationed in the city. Being unable to bring the situation under control, a city official (the starost) ordered that halberds and pikes be distributed amongst the Jews in order for them to defend themselves. Still, the overwhelming number of students and soldiers prevailed, caused the death of 75 Jews and wounding another 200.

During the third Northern War in 1704, the Swedish army seized control of Lwów and took its revenge on the city's Jews for participating in the city's defence. They plundered the Jewish district and demanded a ransom of 60,000 thalers. The decline of the Republic of Poland and a lack of a strong central administration created ideal conditions for anti-Jewish riots to be sparked in Lwów in 1718, 1732, 1751 and 1762. In 1728, a law suit was brought against Lwów Jews who allegedly had persuaded the baptised Jew, Jan Filipowicz, to return to Judaism. Two Jews, Joszua and Chaim Rajces, were sentenced to be burned at the stake. Joszua committed suicide, while his brother rejected a proposal of baptism and was also burned at the stake next to his brother’s body.

In June 1759, a dispute took place in the Lwów cathedral between the most noted Podole rabbis and members of the Jewish Frankist cult, who accused the Jews, among other things, of using Christian blood during rituals. This had wide repercussions thoughout the Republic of Poland and led to popularisation of medieval superstitions concerning ritual murder.

As the years passed, the Jewish district began showing signs of overpopulation. Its residents, as well as newcomers, began settling outside the city, away from the traditional area - in the Benedictine Sisters Convent settlements (jurydyki), in the Jabłonowo estates and in the Christian areas of ul Boimów, ul Serbska and ul Ruska. There, they rented apartments from Christian owners, as they were forbidden to acquire real estate outside their own district. The act of renting, especially commercial premises, was met with a number of protests organised by Christian traders and was prohibited by the City Council resolutions and even by royal decrees.

A new era for the Jews of Lwów came about with the partitioning of the Polish state. In 1772, Lwów came under the control of the Habsburg monarchy. In order to prevent the number of Jews in Lwów from growing, they were prohibited from settling within the city. After the introduction of the Austrian administration, a special program was introduced into the occupied zones with the aim of transforming traditional Jewish communal organisations into ones promoting ideas of the Enlightenment - which was supposed to facilitate the assimilation of Jews into German culture and to make them loyal Viennese subjects.

The Jewish Enlightenment movement, called Haskalah, was becoming more and more influential. In the early 19th century, most of its supporters could be found amongst the Jews of Lwów. Members of the Jewish intelligentsia and of the free professions, who were inspired by the ideas and slogans coming to Lwów from Western Europe, were most willing to join the movement. Herz Homberg, who came to the city in 1788, enjoyed the reputation of a pioneer among Haskalah members. With the support of the Austrian authorities, he succeeded in establish a regular school and a public elementary school, where classes were taught in German, in order Germanise the Jewish elite. Nevertheless, his activities were met with resistance from the Hassidic and Orthodox members of the community and Homberg had no other choice but to leave Lwów in 1797.

A characteristic trait of the Maskilm (the enlightened ones) from Lwów was that their efforts were focused on limiting the popularity of the Jewish traditional way of life, not by open criticism and combatting it, but by advocating youth education. They were also distinguished by their strong attachment to the Hebrew language, not as the language of religion, but also of literature, culture and science. In the first half of the 19th century, Lwów Maskilim included such luminaries of Jewish science and culture as Nachman Krochmal, Salomon Jechuda Rapaport, Izaak Erter and Józef Perl. From 1840, the Maskilim had their own representatives within the kehilla authority due to the fact that they had opened an orphanage in 1843 and had created a Jewish school with a four year syllabus. Evidence of the growing importance of the Enlightenment movement among Lwów Jews was the construction of their own synagogue in 1846, situated in the Old Square.

The rapid spread of support for the new ideology did not escape the attention of the Hassidim and the Orthodox. In 1838, the tzadik Izrael Friedman from Różyn and Rabbi Jakub Ornstein from Lwów, both representing these religious movements, formed an alliance. The number of Hassidim in the city grew substantially, evidenceo fthis being the construction of a Hassidic synagogue at St.Theodore Square. The conflict between the combined forces of Hassidim and Orthodox, on the one side, and the progressives on the other, resulted in the assassination of Abraham Kohn, in 1848, by someone hired to poison him.

Amongst the Lwów Jews, there was a heightened sense of political awareness which went hand in hand with the growing appeal of Enlightenment. The implications of this process were especially noticeable during the events of 1848. First the first time publicly, the issue was raised of equal rights for Jews based on the same principles as the rights of the other inhabitants within the Habsburg monarchy. The Lwów progressive synagogue rabbi, Abraham Kohn, became a member of the Galicia delegation which arrived in Vienna to put forward their demands. Some members of the Lwów kehilla participated in the work of the National Council (its members included Oswald Menkes and Abraham Mises) or joined the National Guard. Although the Jews’ equal rights in the Habsburg monarchy were revoked in 1853, they did not resign from their struggle to improve their legal situation. New opportunities appeared in the 1860's with the first signs of Galician autonomy. As early as 1861, the rabbi of the Lwów progressive synagogue, Marek Dubs, was elected as a deputy to the Galicia Sejm. Finally, the Jews’ efforts to introduce the formal equal rights bore fruit in December 1867 when, by virtue of the Constitution, they were granted the same political and civil rights as the other residents of the monarchy.

The Vienna authorities attempted to make use of the increase in the popularity of the acculturation and political awareness of Lwów Jews and of Jews from other regions of Galicia in order to create a counterbalance against a growing Polish influence. As a result, during the 1873 election, a Ukrainian-Jewish coalition was formed thanks to which three Jewish deputies (including Herman Mieses from Lwów) found themselves elected to the Vienna Parliament. The collapse of pro-German assimilation ideology promoted by the Lwów “Shomer Israel” organisation, as well as the endeavors of Polish politicians aimed at winning the Jewish community’s support, bore fruit as early as 1879, when parliamentary elections took place in an atmosphere of Polish-Jewish cooperation. In time, Lwów became one of the biggest pro-Polish assimilation centres. In 1882-1892, the Agudas Achim-Brothers’ Alliance (Przymierze Braci) association was active in Lwów, with the objective of spreading ideas of Polish-Jewish cooperation through, for example, their own “Ojczyzna” biweekly. In the early 20th century, this program was promoted in the Lwów periodical “Jedność” and by the academic association called “Zjednoczenie" (Unification).

Lwów also became to be a centre for the Zionist movement where, for the first timem, a “Zionist evening” was organised by the local academic association “Mikra Kodesz” in 1882. The association, with its headquarters in Lwów, promoted pro-Palestinian ideas. The most politically inclined organisation was the “Zion” association which had separated from the “Mikra Kodesz” in 1897. 

In 1890, a law, which regulated Jewish commnuity councils, was promulgated within the Austrian monarchy. It meant significant change to the lives of the Lwów Jews as it combined the two separate kehillas (the municipal and the suburban) This new Jewish Community Council would encompass Hassidic, progressives and Orthodox Jews. The result was creating of two rabbinical positions for the Orthodox Jews and Hassidim and two for the Maskilm. The Council board supervised the Temple SYndagogue in the Old Square, the Great Synagogue in Krakowskie Przedmieście on Bóżnicza Street and the Hassidic synagogue on Szajnocha Street. At the beginning of the 20th century, three additional synagogues (on Słoneczna Street, Św. Jana Street and Królowej Jadwigi Street) were constructed. At that time, the Council also ran two religious schools, with Polish as the language of instruction - one for boys, the other for girls.

The years prior to World War I were especially favorable for the Jewish community of Lwów. Approximately 70% of all lawyers and 60% of all doctors were Jewish. Jewish entrepreneurs constituted 70% of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry membership and Jewish students accounted for 33% of all students attending Lwów University.

The dynamic development of the Lwów Jewish community was interrupted with the outbreak of World War I. On 3rd September 1914, the Russians occupied Lwów and, on 27th September, a pogrom called “bloody Sunday” was instigated within the Jewish district. The Russians plundered and pillaged, taking some Jewish residents as hostages. In the first days of November 1918, Ukrainians assumed control over Lwów and proclaimed the West Ukrainian People’s Republic. They recognised Jews as a separate ethnicity and guaranteed that their political and civil rights would be respected. A part of the Jewish community greeted the new authorities with enthusiasm. In order to coordinate the political activity, a Jewish Security Committee was formed and operated within Jewish residential district of the city.

On 20th November, representatives of Zionist, Social Democractic, Mizrachi and Poale Zion organisations succeeded in forming the Temporary Jewish National Council. The majority of the Lwów Jews, who considered themselves Jewish Poles, opposed cooperation with the Ukrainians and some members of the intelligentsia even submitted a letter to the Polish National Committee. Jews adopted a neutral stance within the Polish-Ukrainian conflict, which was received rather negatively by both sides. When, during 21st-23rd November 1918, the Ukrainian army was forced out of the city, some Polish soldiers and criminal groups carried out a pogrom on Jews from Krakowskie Przedmieście. As a result, 72 people died, about 400 were wounded. Around 25,000 apartments were destroyed.

During the inter-War period, Lwów was one of the most significant concentrations of Jews within the Second Republic of Poland. In 1921, the city had 77,000 Jews, 33% of the entire population. The number continued to grow such that, in 1941 when a wave of refugees arrived in the city, that number grew to 150,000.

Apart from the city itself, the Lwów Jewish Community Council took in 52 neighboring municipalities which, in the 1920's, added about 80,000 members. As a result, in the 1930's, the so-called "Greater Lwów" comprised 100,000 residents. The kehilla was very actively engaged developing both religious and secular education (including trade education). It supported financially the Jewish hospital, which was one of the best institutions of its kind in the city. The Council board comprised Orthodox Jews, Zionists, assimilationists and Social Democrats. The political views of Lwów Jews were represented by local party organizations - assimilationist, Orthodox, all types of Zionism (from religious to socialist), national democratic, social democratic and communist. There were also numerous professional organizations, educational, social and cultural societies, as well as local branches of Agudas Israel-Orthodox, Mizrachi-Religious Zionists, General Zionists, Hitachdutut-Zionist Labor Party, the Bund, the Jewish Peasant Party, Zionist-Revisionists, radical Zionists, Poale Zion-Zionist Socialists, as well as many other youth and scouting organizations.

During the 1930's, the Jewish community in Lwów thrived but, as time passed, anti-Semitic incidents occurred with ever-increasing frequency. Two of the more serious incidents occurred in June 1929 and November 1932. After 1935, conflicts of this kind became a regular phenomenon for Lwów Jews. It even manifested itself within the university in the form of the so-called "bench ghetto". The Jewish community endeavoured tried to resist this surging wave of anti-Semitism, with the Lwów Jewish Community Council being alone in totallyly boycotting Nazi Germany.

Lwów came under Soviet army occupation in 22nd September 1939. Slogans calling calling for abolition of private ownership and for the creation of a classless society captured the imagination of those in the lowest stratum of  society, including Jews. For this reason, the new authorities were given a neutral or even a friendly reception by Lwów Jews. This, in turn, inspired stronger Polish-Jewish and Ukrainian-Jewish antagonism. This attitude soon changed. Soviet authority in Lwów strengthened. Jewish companies were dissolved and nationalized, Jewish political parties were banne and the NKVD murdered more and more members of the intelligentsia.

The Soviet army withdrew Lwów on 30th June 1941, almost immediately to be replaced by German troops. A change of occupier caused an eruption of hatred towards the Jews, who were commonly regarded as allies of the Soviets. Jewish pogroms were carried out in almost the entirety of West Galicia. In Lwów alone, Polish and Ukrainian lowest social class types, instigated by German propaganda, which accused the Jews of perpetrating crimes on the Polish and Ukrainian population during the Soviet occupation, provoked conflicts with the local Jewish community.

The Germans assigned the Jewss to the most exhausting and humiliating cleaning work, forcing them to wash corpses and collect broken glass etc..The organized murder of the Jewish population began, carried out by the Einsatzkommando and, less often, by Ukrainian police. Many restrictions were imposed on the Jews. For example, they could only shop betweem 3:00pm and 5:00pm. They had limited access to restaurants and cafes.They could not go to parks, swimming spots, cinemas or theatres.

The Germans were aided by the Ukrainian police in exterminating and persecuting Jews in the surrounding area. More information about his pogrom can be found in the memoirs by Edmund Kessler , idem, Przeżyć Holokaust we Lwowie, Warszawa 2007, pages 50-52. ]]. On 1st July 1941, Ukrainian Nationalists organised a pogrom against the Jews of Lwów. Jews were rounded up on the streets, dragged out ofapartments and then killed. many were hered into the barracks on ul Zamarstynowie and there they were murdered. During the biggest pogrom, on 25th-28th July 1941, more than 2,000 Jews were killed.

Jews began to be robbed, often unofficially by German soldiers. Officially, the Jewish community was required to pay a tribute of 20 million rubles. By the time the due amount had been paid, around one thousand Jews had been  taken hostage and, once the money had been received, they were murdered. The Lwów synagogues - the Great Synagogue ul Boimów Street, the one on ul Sykstulska, the Złota Róża Synagogue and the Tempel Synagogue on ul Żółkiewska Street were all blown up and burned.

The Germans took steps towards setting up a Judenrat, its Supply Office (Besordungsamt) being intened to help in the expropriation of Jews. When the Galicia district was incorporated into the General Government, the Jews of Lwów had restrictions imposed upon them - the wearing of compulsory armbands, exclusion from some professions, prohibition to change the residence, property limitations and many others. 

Lwów Jews began to being moved into to a ghetto in July 1941. The poorest quarters of the city, Zamarstynów and Kleparów, were intended to be the Jewish districts. During this displacement operaation, thousands of Jews were murdered in the forests outside the city.

When Operation Reinhardt was carried out in 1942, Lwów Jews were transported to death camps. From February to April 1942, about 15,000 people were sent to Bełżec, in August – approx. 40.000, in November – approx. 10,000, in January 1943 – approx. 4,000 Jews were transported to Sobibór. During the liquidation that took place in June 1943, about 10,000 people were killed on the spot and several thousand ended up in a camp in Janów. The camp, which was classified as harsh one by the Nazi extermination system, was situated at ul Janowska 134, on the site of the former Steinhaus’ factory, became a slaughterhouse for more than 150,000 Jews, Poles and Ukrainians.

According to Lwów Rabbi Kahane, 150 Jews were rescued by the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Lwów, Andrej Szeptycki.

In Lwów, 2,571 Jews survived the Holocaust. Many of them chose Polish citizenship and managed to reach "post-Yalta" Poland as "repatriants". Many of them then went either to Israel or to the United States. Under Soviet control, a large number of Jews came into the city from other places. The effect was around 28,000 Jews in Lwów. In 1960, the Jewish community was forced to close the synagogue, which only opened again in the 1990's. A few thousand Jews still live in Lwow today.

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