08/07/2021
GALITZIANER IN DROHOBYCZ with guests from Moldova.
We have visited the largest synagogue of Galicia and picturesque courtyards.
The hometown of Bruno Shultz is incredible.
Short story is here:
First accounts of Jews in Drohobycz date back to 1404. Only Jews who leased salt mines were allowed to settle in the town; the rest resided in the suburbs. The government initially pretended not to see where the Jews lived. Jews were allowed to settle in the vicinity of the mines but were refused the right to have a separate Jewish cemetery, which for many years rendered it impossible to establish an independent kehilla in Drohobycz.
King Władysław Jagiełło handed over supervision over the salt mines in Drohobycz to a Jew named Wołoczka[1.1]. He was also nominated a quantity surveyor of Drohobycz for the king. Meanwhile, another Jew called Detko or Dziatko, who also leased a salt mine in Drohobycz, was granted permission from the king in 1425 to deliver salt to the royal court and to trade salt with Turkey and Kiev.
In 1500 the town council of Drohobycz was allowed to tax salt mining and production of alcoholic beverages (such as beer or vodka). A taxation and privileges system was established, which served to regulate Jewish entrepreneurship. There must have existed a Jewish kehilla in Drohobycz by then, as it was represented in the Jewish self-government convention in Rzeszów. In 1554 a salt mines leaseholder, Jakub Juditz, was given the right to levy a tax on vodka producers in Drohobycz. Because of that, two Jews from Drohobycz – Samuel Markowicz and Icchak Jakuzow – went to court and appealed to King Zygmunt II August to decide which one was to levy a tax on propination. Eventually the town won the court case.
In 1578, 3,600 Jews resided in Drohobycz. The same year, King Stefan Batory issued the privilege de non tolerandis Judaeis, which banned Jews from residing in Drohobycz or its vicinity, and even banned them from trading during town fairs.
In 1618, Drohobycz was ruined by the Tatars. The town deteriorated. That is when two Jews from Lviv, Icchak Nachmanowicz and Icchak ben Mordechai Markowicz, leaseholders of the royal grounds near Drohobycz, made all possible efforts to make the Jewish community return to Drohobycz. In 1635 the Russian provincial governor, Jan Daniłowicz, allocated 30 morgens of royal grounds for a Jewish settlement. The Jewish district in Drohobycz was named Na Łanie (On the Field). Jan Daniłowicz also granted permission to establish a Jewish cemetery. The town was gradually rebuilt. In 1645 the king released the town from paying taxes.
