|
|
PRUZHANY YZKOR
BOOK 1983 PRUZANA
IN THREE ENCYCLOPAEDIAS A. Excerpt from the Jewish
Encyclopaedia, a collection
of information about Judaism and Jewish culture in the past and present,
under the general editorship of S.A. Harkawi and Dr. L. Katzenlson. Part 13
with photos and maps. Publishers: the Jewish Sciences Publication Society and
the Publishers Brokhauz-Efron, PRUZANY-during Polish rule belonged to the district (Wojevovsxcwo) of
Brisk, as a part of the " In 1644, the Jews of Pruzana received from King,Wadyslaw, in addition
to the rights approved in Lithuania, the following privileges: to buy houses
and plots in the market square and town streets, sell wine, ale and mead,
deal in workshops and trade and construct synagogues provided they were not
like Christian churches. The Jews were also exempt from paying taxes for the
land for synagogues and cemeteries. They also received extra privileges. King
Jan Kazimierz reaffirmed the main privileges in 1650, but banned the purchase
of new land for building a synagogue. These rights were again reaffirmed by King
Jan Sobieski in 1677 and Augustus II in 1698. The lists of head tax paid by
Jews in the Brisk district in 1705, including the leases in the villages,
totaled 485 zlotys. In 1766, there were 641 Jews in the town, (according to
lists I and II of the At that time, Pruzana served as a regional centre
(Ujezd) of the The 1897 register showed there were 139,000 inhabitants in the Pruzana
area, including 17,826 Jews. At that time, there were 7,633 residents of
Pruzana town, including 5,080 Jews. In
settlements of under 500 inhabitants, the Jews formed the largest percentage
of the population. In Bereza, the population was 6,226 including 2,623 Jews;
in Bluden 780 inhabitants, of whom 210 were Jews; in Malch 2,159 including
1,201 Jews; in Narewka 1,004 out of 1,268 were Jews; in Seltz 866 out of
2,642. At Sosnovka 99 out of 627. In Scherschev Jews were 2553 out of 5079. In 1910, there was a Talmud Torah in Pruzana and
there were famous rabbis serving on its rabbinate more than once. In the
middle of the 19th century, Rabbi Yeruham Yehuda Leib Perelman, Rabbi Eliahu
Haim Maisels and Rabbi Eliahu Feinstein served in Pruzana. B. Excerpt from "Encyclopaedia
Judaica", Volume 13, P-Rec,
issued by Encyclopaedia Judaica,
In 1495 the Jews of
Pruzhany were included in the general expulsion of Jews from In 1588 the town was
granted autonomous rights according to the In 1927, 16 of the 24
delegated elected to the administration were Jews. In the elections of the
Jewish community in 1928, M. Goldfein, a delegate of the
merchants, was elected president. Distinguished rabbis served in the town. At the
close of the 16th century, R. Joel Sirkes, the renowned author of the Bah (Bayit Hadash), officiated as rabbi and rosh yeshivah for some time. R. David b.
Samuel ha-Levi, author of the Turei Zahav (taz) also held the rabbinical office for a brief
period. Among the last rabbis of the town, one of the most prominent was R.
Elijah Feinstein (1842-1929) who was appointed in 1884. Active in the affairs of Polish Jewry, he wrote Sefer Halikhot Eliyahu ("Book of the Demeanors of Elijah,"
1932), and a novella on Maimonides which was published in 1929. He was
succeeded by his son-in-law R. David Feigenbaum, who perished in the
Holocaust. (Sh.L.K.) Holocaust Period and After. Under Soviet rule (1934-41)
the Jewish communal bodies were disbanded. Private enterprise was gradually
liquidated as merchandise was sold and no new stock made available.
Cooperatives were set up for the skilled craftsmen. Educational institutions
were reorganized, and a Yiddish-language school set up. The Jewish orphanage
was combined with its Christian-run counterpart and placed under the
municipality. On In the latter half of 1942 an underground
resistance organization was formed in the ghetto. Cells were established,
arms acquired, and contacts sought with the partisans on the outside. On Within four days the community was destroyed.
Some groups of Jews fled to the forests and joined the Jewish Partisans who
operated in the vicinity. In the late 1960s there was a Jewish population of
about 60 (12 families). The former Great Synagogue was turned into an
electric power plant. A mass grave of Jewish victims massacred by the Nazis
was repeatedly desecrated and a road
was built through its site. (Ar. W.) Bibliography: Pinkes fun Funf Fartilikte Kehiles: Pruzhana, Bereza... (1958), 3-323,
599-690. C. Extract from Encyclopaedia Hebraica,
Supplementary Volume 2, Pruzana, a town in the Brisk district of the Rabbi Joel Sirkis (see Habah-according to the initials of his book Bait Hadash (New Home) and Rabbi David Ben-Shmuel Halevi (see
Hataz-according to the initials of his book Turei Zahav (Golden Columns))
were active in Pruzana and so was Rabbi Eliyahu Feinstein (1842-1929), one of
the last rabbis and the author of Halichot Efyahu: There was widespread Jewish-Zionist cultural activity in the town.
There was an elementary school, Tarbut institutions, the Y.L. Peretz Yiddish
school and two Yiddish weeklies. In 1941, the Germans entered Pruzana and imposed
a high ransom on the Jews. In September, the ghetto was established and about
3,000 Jews from Bialystock and 2,000 more from nearby settlements were
brought into the ghetto. In the second half of 1942, an anti-Nazi underground
was formed and when it was detected all 10,000 Jews in the ghetto were sent
to the death camps in four days; only a few were saved. In the 1960s, there
were about 12 Jewish families in Pruzana. Bibliography: |