The Jews of Medieval and Modern Poland

From the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, Poland was the principal center of Ashkenazic Jewish life. Attracted by protective charters granted by sovereigns, Jews developed there a dense communal life endowed with self-governing institutions such as the Council of Four Lands. The country became a major center of talmudic study, with numerous yeshivot, and was, in the eighteenth century, the birthplace of Hasidism in its southern provinces. The Khmelnytsky massacres in the mid-seventeenth century and the partitions of Poland in the eighteenth century profoundly disrupted these communities. On the eve of the Second World War, Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe—more than three million people—virtually all of whom were annihilated during the Shoah.

Sources & resources

• The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe ↗
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan