Jewish History Of Kurow

As noted earlier my grandmother's grandfather David Handelsman was born in 1819 in the village of Klementowice in the town of Kurow. His parents married in Klementowice the previous year. His mother Esther Sztul was from Klementowice and his father Binish Handelsman was from the main village of Kurow. I will post a separate entry about Klementowice. Following is a history of Jews in Kurow copied and pasted from https://sztetl.org.pl/en/towns/k/650-kurow/99-history/137561-history-of-community

The first Jews appeared in Kurów in the mid-16th century. For the contemporary town squire, Stanisław Zbąski, the Jewish issue was not a top priority. In 1568, the successive Kurów’s owner, Stanisław Zbąski (Stanisław’s son), allowed the Kurów Jews to set up their own independent Jewish community, kehilla.

During the wars of the 17th century, the Jewish population was decimated by the Tatars and Cossacks. In 1565, many Jews were killed by Stefan Czarniecki’s troops. In 1661, Kurów numbered 384 people, among whom there were 50 Jews (13%).

In 1668, Bogusław Jan Zbąski granted a privilege to the Kurów Jews which equaled their rights with the rights of Catholics; they were granted, amongst others, the right to occupy buildings by the town square, the right to build a synagogue, a brewery, steam baths, and the permission to trade freely. The Jews were also under protection of the town squires. The privilege was confirmed in 1713 by the Szczuk family, and in 1742 and 1782, by the Potocki family. In 1674, the town population was 361, including 61 Jews (16%).

The Jewish population lived in the south-western part of Kurów, near the town pond, in the area encircled by such streets as Głęboka, Dworska (today I Armii Wojska Polskiego Street), Stawna and Tylna. In this area, the Jewish cultural and religious life was concentrated. Around the town square, the majority of butcher’s stalls and stands were owned by the Jews. Most of them were located around the town square.

Jews also lived in the following streets: Blich, Bożniczna (today: Nowa Street), Dzika (today: Kilińskiego Street), Kościuszki, Lubelska, and Żabia. In the beginning, in Żabia Street there was a Jewish lumber and boards warehouse. On the left the Poles lived, and on the right – the Jews[1.1].

The Jewish population in Kurów was mainly engaged in trade and craft. The Jews also took their goods to neighboring fairs in Wąwolnica, Markuszów, Puławy, Ryki, Michów, Lubartów or Niedrzwica. A Jew Josef Lewkowicz had his square by the local mill, near the Kurówka River. In the same place Berek Lewkowicz ran his winery and granary. In Dworska Street, near the Old Market Square, Josef Mortkiewicz owned a butcher’s stall. On their free days, the Jews were relaxing on meadows in Dworska Street. In summertime, well-off Jews traveled to Ruda, a summer resort, for relaxation.

In the 18th century, the owner of the town at that time, Konstancja Maria Szczuka, resettled the Jew Abraham Cyrulik whose building was located on the town square. She explained her decision in the following way: “I hereby announce to all and each of you who is concerned, and in particular to the townsmen and citizens of Kurów, both Poles and Jews, that I grant the Jew Abraham Cyrulik, a citizen of Kurów, the right to build a house, and I allow him to build it opposite the market, on the empty sarczyński plot. In the place of his house, a town hall will be built - both to adorn the town, enlarge the square, and improve the proportions. In this way, Abraham Cyrulik will empty the slot where his house stood - the house that was obsolete and meant for replacement”[1.2]

The tax liabilities borne by the Jewish population towards the state were high, so the kehilla took out loans. On 15 November 1671, the Jews borrowed 1,000 zlotys from priest Józef Nieradzki, a parson of the parish church in Markuszów. In 1702, the Kurów kehilla borrowed 600 zlotys from the Kurów parson, Jan Kobus. Another loan was taken out on 24 June 1710; the loan document was recorded in the Lublin tribunal, and then signed by Wulf Jozwowicz and Mendel Berkowicz. This was witnessed by the Kurów parson, priest Michał Szajkowski. On another occasion, the Jewish commune borrowed 1,700 zlotys from priest Idzi Stanisław Lisiecki in 1715.

At the convention of senior landowners and kehilla elders in 1750, the Kurów kehilla and Lubartów kehilla were obliged to repay the debt of the Jews from the Lubelski district to Wojciech Świechowski, the Bracław Cup-bearer. The amount of loan was 10,000 zlotys. In 1758, Eustachiusz Potocki agreed that the Jews borrowed 2,000 zlotys – this money was given to priest Piotr Strykowski. There is no further information on the loans taken out by the Kurów Jewish commune during the subsequent years of its activity.

In the 18th century, the function of rabbi in Kurów was performed by: Izaak Pinkasowicz, Chaim Ickowicz and Szloma Lejbusiowicz[1.3]. In the mid-18th century, the following people lived in Kurów (amongst others): Abram Leskowicz, Jakub Szalowicz, Bereke Leskowicz, Abramowicz, Jakub Salomonowicz, Abram Markowicz, Szal Lejbowicz, Lejzer Chaimowicz, Mortka Leskowicz (merchant), Sochar Izraelowicz, Kusiel Jozwowicz, Aron Markowicz (butcher), Lewek Irkowicz (capmaker), Mortko Jeskowicz (baker), Zejler Moskowicz (tailor), Chaim Markowicz (capmaker), Mosiek Irkowicz (capmaker), Aron Dostorowicz, Berek Judowicz (capmaker), Szmal Moskowicz (tailor), Mosiek Leszkowicz, Szloma Szymonowic, Gierszonowicz, Perec Zalmanowicz and Berek Abramowicz (bookbinder)[1.4]. In 1775, there were 89 Jewish families in the town. In 1786, Kurów numbered 1,500 people, among whom there were 803 Jews (53%).

In 1806, Ignacy Potocki prolonged the contract with the Jewish community for the lease of town mills and inns, as well as for selling alcohol. The heir/squire leased to the Jews the court brewery so that they could produce beer and mead. In 1856, Kurów numbered 2,664 people, among whom there were 1,564 Jews (58%). In 1886, a great fire ravaged the town – the southern part of Kurów, inhabited by the Jewish population, burnt down (Bożnicza Street, Dworska Street and Puławska Street). In 1892, there were 4,381 residents in Kurów, of whom 2,486 (56%) were Jews.

Towards the end of the 19th century, among the wealthiest Kurów residents there were: Chaim Hindkatz, Jojna Lakser, and Mowsza Bierman. At the turn of the 19th and 20th century the synagogue district was headed by Rabbi Chil Lejzor Goldberg and Rabbi Mordko Jankiel Rabinowicz. Before World War I, the Kurów kehilla had: a synagogue (Bożniczna Street – today: Nowa Street), the old cemetery (Bożniczna Street), a bathhouse (Żabia Street), a slaughterhouse (by the bathhouse) and the new cemetery (Blich Street)[1.5].

In the inter-war period, the Jewish community was headed by two rabbis: Mordko Rabinowicz and Mojlech Guterman. At the end of the 1920s, Majer Zalcman and Icek Kirszenbaum were the ritual slaughterers, shochets.

In 1913, there were two floor laying shops run by Leberbaum Lizyk (he employed 13 people) and Lenberg Pines (he employed 8 men). In Bożniczna Street, there was a Jewish soap shop.

In 1925, there was an oil mill owned by Mendel Medkorn, a soap shop owned by Lejbuś Cukierman, and a motor mill with a power plant run by Oskar Urlich and Mordek Finkielsztajn. The mill was situated near the public bath, on the Kurówka, in Warszawska Street. The other mill was located in Puławska Street and was owned by Holcman. There was a post-office in Kurów run by Mr. Tarczyński; the letter carrier was a Jewish woman. In the inter-war period, among 36 people in Straż Obywatelska (home guards) 14 were of the Jewish origin. In this period, the Jews set up a bank in Kurów.

In 1936, the Jews owned 161 commercial venues in Kurów; only 23 were owned by the Poles. In 1939, Kurów numbered 4,365 people, of whom 2,571 were Jewish (55%).

After World War II began, in June 1942, the Germans established a ghetto in Kurów: it encompassed the streets where the Jews lived. In April 1941, 40 Jewish families from Lublin and Wąwolnica arrived to the ghetto.

During the Nazi occupation, a labor camp was established for the Jews. It functioned until the end of 1942. The Jews kept there were forced to work on hardening of the road from Kurów to Klementowice. The material for road construction was taken from the synagogue and Jewish houses destroyed in September 1939. The road was also built from Jewish tombstones, taken from the cemetery in Blich Street. The work was supervised by the German company Bauman and Losch. In 1940, the Germans set up a tannery in Kurów in which 50 people were employed, including five Jews.

On 8 April 1942, the Germans transported Kurów Jews to the railway station Puławy, and from there to the extermination camp in Sobibór. Only men capable of janitorial works were left in the town. On 13 November 1942, the second deportation was organized during which the Germans killed 36 Jews. They were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Blich Street. Another 23 people were shot at the Jewish cemetery on 19 December 1942. The Jewish population in Kurów ceased to exist.

During the expulsion of the Jews from Kurów several people attempted to escape. Those who were successful were hiding in Garbów forests, where a Jewish partisan unit was active, headed by Kaim Elizer Wurman.

On numerous occasions, the Polish population helped the Kurów Jews. Mieczysław Kutnik, risking his own life, was hiding Jewish tanners. Owing to his help a Jew called Mola Stern survived the war. Adam Turczyk was hiding Lejbuś, the butcher. Antoni Wiejak and Mr. Mazurkiewicz’s son were hiding Jews in Łęgi Nadwiślańskie. Wacław Mańko from Barłogi village was hiding a Jewish woman named Najmark, who was the daughter of the boot leather stitcher from Kurów.

One of the people who survived the times of Holocaust in Kurów was Lejbuś Wajnbuch. He did not live long though – in 1946, he was shot dead at a fair in Wąwolnica.

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Photos of Michow (courtesy of Joelle Berkowicz of France)

Grandma's father Abram Gutman's maternal grandmother Mnicha Haneft (1797-1824)

Abram's mother Tema (=Tamara) died at age 39 in 1855 when Abram was 11. Tema's mother Mnicha (=Mary, Manya, Marian) died at age 27 in 1824 when Tema was 8. The death certificate says she was 27 when she died on April 25th, witnesses Moszek Zelmanowicz Haneft, 33, and Icek Janklowicz Kraft 42. She died in Konskowola, which is where Tema married Abram's father David in 1836. Moshe Haneft was a religious leader in that town. He remarried soon after, as was the custom, and perhaps had more children but Tema is his only known offspring. Moshe died in Konskowola in 1859.

Mendel Morgenstern's second marriage - January 1, 1838 in Kock, officiated by a Gutman

So my grandmother falsely claimed that Mendel Morgenstern was her great grandfather. We know who her parents (Abram Yankel Gutman (1844-19??) and Shaindel Esther Handelsman (1844-1899)) were. Abram's parents were David Gutman (1814-1872) and Tema Haneft (1816-1855). Esther's parents were David Handelsman (1819-1893) and Perla Kawe (1821-1888). David's parents were Berek Gutman (?-1846) and Yenta ? (?-?) of Kock. Tema's parents were Moshe Haneft (1790-1860) and Mnicha ? (?-1824) of Konskowola. David's parents were Beinish Handelsman (1796-?) and Esther Sztul (?-1826). Perla's parents were Levi Kawe (1795-1871) and Dvora ? (1792-1867). Berek's parents were Icek & Mala. Esther Sztul's parents were Moshe and Rachel. Rachel's father was Juda. Juda's father was Joseph.

So Jenny Goodman's great-grandfathers were Beinish Handelsman, a merchant, Levi Kawe, occupation unknown, Moshe Haneft, a clergyman, and Berek Gutman, a baker. All of them born in the 18th century. However there was a Gutman connection to Mendel Morgenstern. Berek's brother Wolf Gutman was a clergyman, not ordained as a rabbi but acting in that capacity for the town of Kock in the 1820's. It is likely that Morgenstern was invited to move to Kock in 1829, from Tomaszow, where he was in conflict with the Jewish religious authorities. However Wolf Gutman continued to officiated at most of the weddings in Kock until his death in 1844. One of these weddings was the 1838 marriage of Mendel Morgenstern and Chaya Lipszycz (Lipszhitz).

The affidavit of that wedding is below, signed in Roman cursive by Wolf Gutman. It is extraordinary that Wolf Gutman could write Roman cursive. Almost all Jewish civil documents were signed in Yiddish at that time. Anyway it is clear that Wolf Gutman, and likely his brother Berek, Jenny's great-grandfather, were intimately involved with Morgenstern. Berek's son David, Jenny's grandfather, and David's son Abram, Jenny's father, were religious scholars and teachers. Abram and Esther married in the mid 1860's and initially lived in Michow, moved to Kock upon the death of David Gutman in 1872 (maybe Abram assumed David's position) and back to Michow in 1891.

Beinish Handelsman

Jenny Goodman's maternal grandfather was David Handelsman (1819-1893). David's parents were Beinish Handelsman (born circa 1796) and Esther nee Sztul (born circa 1800). Evidently Esther died around 1825 since Beinish was married to another woman by 1826 and had several more children with his second wife. One of these children was born in Michow in 1837, so perhaps he moved to Michow when he remarried. By the 1840's Beinish had moved back to Kurow where a son, Berek was born in 1844. David Handelsman remained in Michow for the rest of his life, in the village of Rudno where his daughter Esther (Jenny's mother) was born in 1844. David was a successful merchant and eventually his son Moshe Yankel Handelsman took over the Rudno village business while David moved to a different part of Michow and established a business there. Jenny Goodman's family resided in the household of Moshe Handelsman. Jenny's father Abram was a religious scholar and thus did not work, so the family lived on the generosity of the Handelsman clan.

The given name Beinish is pretty rare. Beinish Handelsman was born in Kurow and was the only person there with that name. In a few earlier Kurow records there was a man named Levi Biniasowicz (son of Beinish) who was a merchant of some kind. Below is a notary record from 1694 concerning Levi. Kurow had been sacked and burnt to the ground twice in the mid 1600's, first by Cossacks, then by Swedes. By 1670 it had been rebuilt and there was a small Jewish population, which was granted permissions to build a synagogue, bath, hospital, etc and also granted equal rights. Quite possibly Beinish Handelsman was related to Levi, 3-5 generations later. Impossible to know how.

Also impossible to translate this document since it is in archaic Polish.

David Handelsman, maternal grandfather of Jenny Goodman (Czarna Gutman)

He was born 12 Sep 1819 in the village of Klementowice in the town of Kurow, and died 15 Oct 1893 in the town of Michow. My grandmother was 12 at the time of his death and also living in Michow so she must have known him. His birth certificate is below, signed in Yiddish by his father Beinish Dawidowicz (Handelsman), age 24, Manes Dawidowicz (Klemensberg) and maternal grandfather Moshe Leybusowicz (Sztul). His mother is given as Esther Moskowicz (Sztul).

There was only one Jewish household in Klementowice, headed by Juda Josfowicz Klemensberg, the maternal grandfather of Esther Moskowicz. There are 15 birth, marriage, and death records of this household from the period 1810-1825, including the 1818 marriage of Beinish and Esther, and the births of two siblings of David - Rosa Czarna in 1822 and Aaron in 1825. Czarna Gutman might have been named after Rosa Czarna. There were also records of the births of two siblings of Esther and as well the deaths of two other siblings.

Manes Dawidowicz Klemensberg was the son of Dawid Manesowicz Klemensberg and Zlota Josfowiczowna Klemensberg. I reckon that Zlota and Juda Klemensberg were siblings, and that Dawid Manesowicz took his wife's surname when they married. If so then Manes Dawidowicz was a cousin of Esther Moskowicz. Juda Klemensberg is named as the head of household (arendarz) in these records. Apparently he was in the wine and liquor business. He was born about 1750 and still alive in 1825 when he legally changed his name to Brandywein.

The name Klemensberg also appears as Klemenstal and Klemenstein in the 1810-1825 records but only as Klemensberg in later records. The name is very rare, and almost all occurrences are from Kurow, with a handful from nearby towns. So it is a safe bet that the name was constructed from the village of Klementowice, and that anyone with this surname was related to Jenny Goodman.