Although there are no historical documents to confirm the first Jewish settlement, Jews probably first appeared in Nowy Sącz in the fifteenth century. Fifteenth century documentation was lost during a fire at the town hall in 1894. The first historical documentation of Jews dates back to 1469 when the Krakow Jewish kahal referred to Abraham of Sącz. Szymon Marek from Sącz is mentioned in the documents of the Jewish Council of Kazimierz in Cracow in 1494. In the sources of Christian provenance there is documentation from 1503 on a Jew named Abraham who was an eye doctor who treated eye conditions of townsfolk of Sącz.

There was no regular Jewish settlement in Nowy Sącz until the mid-seventeenth century. Fearing competition and losing their monopoly in commerce and crafts, townspeople of Sącz effectively barred Jews from taking up residence in their town. They applied for the necessary privileges with the central authorities, and were met in most cases with positive results. In 1648, King Władysław IV banned Jews from settling in Nowy Sącz. The ban was ratified by the King Jan Kazimierz one year later, and by the King Michał Korybut Wisniowiecki in 1670. The ban was not strictly obeyed in practice, however: Wolf, a Jew, and several Jewish families were mentioned in 1610 for having been granted permission to settle next to the royal castle by Stanisław Lubomirski, a starost of Nowy Sącz. In 1657 information on more Jews was noted in the town records: Marek Brandys and Jonasz Jakubowicz supposedly were leaseholders of royal mills and Jakub Wolfowicz, a merchant, traded in goods at the yearly fair.

The privilege issued by the King Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki in 1637 that allowed Jews to settle in the town, take over vacant plots and engage in trade catalyzed development of Jewish settlement in Nowy Sącz. The document was ratified by the king Jan III Sobieski in 1676 and in 1682. Soon Jews began renting and purchasing houses. This privilege resulted from the economic and demographic crisis in the second half of the seventeenth century beginning of the eighteenth century; privileges encouraged settlement in town and engagement in economic activity. The influx of Jews contributed to ending economic stagnation and maintaining the economy in town. The town council, however, opposed Jewish contributions to the economy and strove to limit the migration. These efforts did not constrain growing Jewish community, which was concentrated in the area of the market place and the royal castle. By 1676, there was a self-governing Jewish Council with approximately 150 members. In 1699, the Council was granted permission to construct a masonry synagogue; it was finished around 1780, delayed due to the conflict with both town and church authorities that opposed its construction.

In 1765, there were 609 Jewish head taxpayers in Nowy Sącz; the count rises to 1361 when neighbouring communities affiliated to the town kahal are taken into account. During this period, Jews engaged mainly in trade of honey, leather, tobacco, wine and textiles. The other large occupation for the Jews of Nowy Sącz was in craft. There were numerous shops run by tailors, furriers, cap makers, and goldsmiths. Jews competed with the Christian community in the field of crafts. Anti-Jewish incidents occurred and there were even accusations of ritual murder. In 1769 there was a fire in town, which destroyed the Franciscan church. Because the fire spread from the Jewish Quarter, the Christian population, encouraged by the Catholic Church, accused Jews of setting the town on fire.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century the legal and economic status of Jews in Nowy Sącz was far from ideal. The Austrian Empire captured the region in 1772 and maintained its feudal order and anti-Jewish regulations. The government also tried to limit Jewish Council’s privileges and subject to public administration. German was introduced as an obligatory language of instruction at religious schools. Jewish community was becoming impoverished and was its population began to decrease. It was not until the Galician autonomy was established that the situation of the community improved. In 1867 legal rights of all citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including Jews, were declared equal. The Jewish population of Nowy Sącz gradually began to grow. Jews started settling also outside of the Jewish Quarter. They became active in an industrial sector, although trade remained their main occupation – Jews constituted 48.5 percent of all merchants in the town. Jews owned banks, restaurants and hotels in Nowy Sącz. The less prosperous ones peddled in the neighbouring villages.

Jewish cultural and social life blossomed during this period. The Baron Hirsch Foundation opened the Hebrew Gymnasium. In 1900, there were eight Jewish schools in town, including one secular (the aforementioned gymnasium). The Jewish community of Nowy Sącz was not homogenous. There was a small but active intelligentsia, which assimilated rather quickly. A more prosperous group of merchants and artisans constituted the so-called “progressive” Jews, who identified with reform Judaism. The largest group that was also impoverished remained faithful to traditional Judaism. Anti-Jewish sentiments were rare during this period, although there were some incidents mainly due to economic conflict.

In the nineteenth century Nowy Sącz became a vital centre of Hassidism. In 1840, Tssadik Chaim Halberstam (1793-1876) known as Chaim of Nowy Sącz or Divrei Chaim (from the title of his most important Talmudic tractate “Words of Chaim”), established his court in the town[9]. The Tssadik’s charisma made Nowy Sącz one of the movement’s centres. The Tssadik’s court was modest and encouraged traditional learning combining with ecstatic prayer. His descendants settled in Bobowa and established a new dynasty of Sącz-Klausenburg, which had its followers in many towns in the Małopolska region[10]. In 1871, a conflict erupted between the Hassidim and the Catholics. As a result the town council issued a decree banning Jewish pilgrims from congregating in town, due to the cholera epidemics. The ban was soon lifted following numerous complaints from the Jewish Council[11]. The Hassidim from Nowy Sącz were famous for their orthodoxy in religious and moral issues, which aroused opposition from other Hassidic groups. The descendants of the Halberstam dynasty and its followers currently reside in New York and Israel (Bat Yam).

During the interwar period, Jews made up one third of the total population of Nowy Sącz. They were active in most areas of the economy. The majority of Jews resided in the centre of town and in Zakamienica district. Social and cultural organizations operated dynamically. The size and significance of the Nowy Sącz community is emphasized by the fact that in addition to the central synagogue at the corner of Berka Joselewicza and Bóżnicza Streets, there were approximately 20 prayer houses and small private synagogues in operation throughout the town. In Nowy Sącz of the 1920s there were Jewish benevolent organizations, orphanage, library, Hebrew Gymnasium, amateur theatre and sport clubs: Maccabi and Spartakus.

Jews from Nowy Sącz were very active politically as well. Almost all Jewish political parties had representatives in town. The conservative Aguda was most powerful; it cooperated with the Nonpartisan Bloc of Cooperation and with the Government, which supported Aguda in the local election of 1928. The Zionist movement, which dated back to the nineteenth century, was also very popular. The Zionist movement was diverse and fragmented: the most important parties were Mizrachi, Orthodox Zionists’ Party, the General Zionists, the Zionist Labour Party (Hitachdut), Poale Zion, and Revisionist Zionists. In 1929, during election for the Zionist Congress, the General Zionists won 190 votes, Mizrachi – 119, Hitachdut – 295, Poale Zion – 66 and Revisionists – 3. In 1939 the Zionist won 589 votes, Mizrachi – 189, and Eretz Israel Ha-Ovedet – 654. The Zionist parties consisted of young members who were actively preparing for immigration to Palestine. There was a large wave of emigration left in 1924-25, during the so-called Grabski’s Aliyah, and in the mid 1930s. The Bund was also active in Nowy Sącz. In 1923 the TSISHO School was opened in town (Tsentrale Yidishe Shul Organizatsye, the Central Yiddish School Organization). The Tarbut Jewish Cultural-Educational Association initiative opened a school of four grades was opened in 1934, which housed 100 children. In 1936 it added the fifth grade.

The overall cohabitation of Jewish and Christian residents of Nowy Sącz was civil, even though from time to time anti-Jewish incidents occurred due to economic tension. In the second half of the 1930s the National Democracy movement became more prominent in town; it engaged in various activities that targeted and constrained Jewish artisans and merchants. In April 1936, there was a number of assaults on stores in the Jewish Quarter. Similar incidents occurred also in the autumn of 1937 and at the beginning of 1939.

The German occupation brought Jewish life in Nowy Sącz to an end. At first, Jews were forced to wear armbands with the Star of David on them; they were limited to a small section of town and used as forced labour. All Jewish institutions were closed and Jewish stores were taken away from their owners. In the spring of 1940 the Judenrat was formed. Jews deported from the neighbouring resort towns of Muszyna, Krynica and Piwniczna[1.1] were resettled to Nowy Sącz. In June 1941, the ghetto was established in the town. It consisted of two parts: the centre of town, around Kazimierza Wielkiego Street and the Piekło district. Jews from other regions of Poland were resettled to Nowy Sącz ghetto from Łódź, Sieradz, Cracow, Lviv and Bielsko, as well as from small towns in the vicinity. There were approximately 12 thousand Jews in total residing in Nowy Sącz ghetto, making it extremely overcrowded. Often 20 people were housed in one room. Ghetto residents also suffered from starvation.

Jews were employed at labour camps located in the vicinity of Nowy Sącz, such as the camp in Różanów. The first execution of a group of Jews and Poles took place in May 1940. The terror was gradually escalating. In autumn of 1941, Germans murdered 30 Jews who returned to town after a failed escape to the Soviet Union. 70 people perished in the so-called “Action Cigarette,” in which cigarette traders were caught. About 200 people were murdered within two days at the Jewish cemetery in an effort to eradicate leftists and the Zionists.

The final liquidation of the ghetto took place on August 23, 1942. Prior to that, the central part of the ghetto along Kazimierza Wielkiego Street was surrounded with the two metres high brick wall; the elderly and the sick were moved there, in order to be shot dead straight away. All Jews selected for deportation were gathered on the bank of the Dunajec River. They were ordered to come to the riverbank with food, luggage, and marked keys to their apartments. They were informed they were being transported to a labour camp in Ukraine. After the selection, having chosen approximately 750 young males to be sent to the camps (they were sent mainly to labour camps in Muszyna, Różanów, Sędziszów Małopolski), the remaining Jews were taken in three transports between August 25-28, 1942 to the Bełżec death camp[1.2].

After the war very few Jews returned to Nowy Sącz and tried to revive its Jewish Council. The environment in the town was less than favourable. Eventually, in 1968-69, the last members of the local Jewish community decided to emigrate. Jakub Müller, who began living in Sweden permanently in 1969, spent his summers in Nowy Sącz for many years. He looked after the Jewish cemetery and the small synagogue on Wąsowiczów Street and took tourists on guided walking tours on Nowy Sącz Jewry. He passed away in 2010 and was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Nowy Sącz.

Bibliography:

• Dybiec J., Dzieje miasta Nowego Sącza w czasach autonomii galicyjskiej (1867–1918), Kraków 1993.
• Długosz E., Żydzi w Nowym Sączu. Trzy wieki w historii miasta, Nowy Sącz 2000
• Encyclopaedia of Jewish Poland, vol. III, Western Galicia, Silesia, Eed. A. Wein, A. Weiss, Jerusalem 1984.
• Mahler R.,Generation of Jews in Sandz [w:] Sefer Sants / The Book of the Jewish Community of Nowy Sacz, New York 1970.
• Reichelt K., Dean M., Nowy Sącz [w:] Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1939–1945, vol. II, Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe, Part A, red. P. Megargee, M. Dean, Bloomington 2012.
• SeferSants / The Book of the Jewish Community of Nowy Sacz, red. Mahler, New York 1970.