There are records of only a few Jewish inhabitants in the city documents from the turn of the 15th and the 16th centuries. Abraham, an eye doctor, was recorded in the documents of Kazimierz community from 1503. Being afraid of the competition, the city council kept Jewish craftsmen and merchants away from the city. The wars and epidemics in the 50s and 60s impoverished the city. Aleksander Michał Lubomirski, a starost at that time, hoping for the economic development and incomes of the city from new taxes, applied for permitting Jews to settle in the city. In 1673, Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki issued such privilege for Nowy Sącz. According to the 17th century sources, Jews engaged mainly in trade in honey, wine, furs, leather, tobacco and goods sold by ell (there was a model ell in the synagogue)[1.1]. Jewish craftsmen, butchers, tailors, furriers, hat makers, belt makers, goldsmiths worked mainly for other Jews and in other crafts they competed with Christians craftsmen associated in guilds. Both Jews and Christians ran many bars. Jews dominated in the lease of mills, breweries and collection of customs and tolls. In the 19th century, Jewish inhabitants of the city joined the economic life of the city on a larger scale. They still dominated in trade, particularly small one, but they also kept larger stores, restaurants, hotels, they owned many firms, production plants and factories, they even had their own banks)[1.1.1]. At the beginning of the 20th century, a few assimilating representatives of intelligence mainly practised free professions - of lawyers and doctors. One of them was doctor Herman Reiss, remembered by the city inhabitants for the reason that, at the beginning of the 20th century, he saved the Jewish district from the epidemics of dysentery. He had a good opinion among all inhabitants of Nowy Sącz, as he helped the poor without any remuneration [1.2]. Wealthier merchants, owners of larger and smaller firms, prosperous merchants were not a very numerous group. The largest group consisted of the poor who earned their bread doing temporary jobs or pursuing weakly profitable businesses - those were mainly Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews. Jewish people lived in the area near the castle, where they had many shops and pursued various businesses. Their presence is marked by the names of present-day streets. Franciszkańska Street was called Fish Gasse, whilst the nearby square was called Rybny (Fish Square), since Jews traded in fish there. Tepe Plac is the name of Trzeciego Maja Square, where craftsmen traded in pots. That is where the Polish name of that place - Plac Garnkowy (Pot Square) comes from. Nearby, there was also a bar before the war run by Englanders, where Chaim Halberstam, the famous Tsaddik from Nowy Sącz, used to come for a beer. It is said that it made the bar so popular that its owners made a fortune within a few years[1.3]. In the 1930s, due to the difficult economic situation, competition between Jews and Poles intensified, there were cases of boycott of the Jewish trade, initiated primarily by National Democrats. There were also a few cases when Jewish shops were attacked directly[1.4].

Translated by LIDEX