Throughout 1000 years of Poland, Jews have constantly been a part of its history. One of the first descriptions of the state ruled by prince Mieszko I was written by a Jewish merchant Ibrahim ibn Yaqub of Tortosa, however, he did not reach Poland personally. The information in his account was probably obtained during his stay at the court of Emperor Otto I and during his trip to Prague. According to him, the country ruled by Mieszko is “the most extensive of their [Slavic] countries. (…) it is abundant in food, meat, honey and arable land.” Mieszko’s state neighbours “Ruthenia in the east, Burus [Prussians] in the north”.
The process of Jewish settlement in Poland began at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. The first Jews came to Poland most probably from Lorraine. Later, as most of the Jewish settlers emigrated from Germany, it was Yiddish that became the language of Polish Jews.
During the reign of Prince Mieszko III the Old, in the second half of the 12th century, Jewish minters struck coins with an inscription in Hebrew. At the same time, the cathedral in Gniezno received the doors depicting scenes from the life of St. Adalbert, where Jewish merchants were presented in individual scenes. In 1264, the Duke of Greater Poland, Bolesław the Pious, issued the first privilege for the Jewish community in Kalisz. This document guaranteed legal protection for Jews and their property. They were also granted the freedom to engage in credit activity and trade as well as to have their own judiciary in internal affairs. The ruler also took care of synagogues and cemeteries. In 1334, the king of Poland, Casimir the Great, extended this law to the entire territory of Poland.
During the Middle Ages, Jews came to Poland like other settlers and stayed there willingly due to the persecution they had suffered in Western Europe. At the end of the thirteenth century, the King of England, Edward I, expelled all Jews with only movable property.
Pope Innocent III in 1215 ordered Jews to put a special sign on their clothes (the yellow circle was worn on by men, and two white stripes by women), however, Poland, unlike other parts of Europe, never implemented that. Still, in 1267, the papal legate unsuccessfully demanded that the Polish hierarchs should finally force the Jews to wear marked clothes and that they should live in separate city districts.
In the mid-fourteenth century, Europe was ravaged by the plague known as the “Black Death”. It also caused a wave of violent persecutions of Jews in Western Europe, especially in Germany. The Jewish population was accused of poisoning the wells, which was supposed to be the cause of the epidemic. The Kingdom of Poland, then ruled by Casimir the Great, who was interested in the development of trade and therefore did not allow such persecutions, turned to be an oasis of peace for Jews. In fact, his trusted banker was Lewko, Jordan’s son, a Jew from Krakow.
The following decades confirmed the uniqueness of Poland’s approach to the Jewish population, which resulted in the continuous influx of Jews to Poland who felt safe there. This is evidenced by the creation of a Jewish religious song beginning with the words: “O Poland, the royal land where we have been living happily for centuries …”. The period from the beginning of the 16th to the mid-17th century was referred to as the “golden age” of Jews living in Poland. This has been reflected in the Jewish tradition and culture.
The Jews themselves were very trusted by successive Polish rulers. For example, the famous Isaac of Spain was the court physician of kings Jan Olbracht, Alexander, and later Sigismund the Old who offered the Jews even more privileges. The aforementioned king, Sigismund the Old, equated Jewish merchants with Christians in customs duties and granted them the right to free trade throughout Poland. Around that time, Jews developed their own religious self-governments called kehillas. Meanwhile, in Spain, most of the Jews were being expelled and the rest were forced to convert to Catholicism.
From 1581, during the reign of King Stefan Batory, the Waad meetings, a self-governing body of the Jews of the Republic of Poland, were held, mostly in Lublin or Jarosław. The participants of the Waad were representatives of the kehillas and rabbis who dealt with the separation and collection of a tax from individual communities, called the Jewish poll tax; it also oversaw the internal organization of Jewish communities. More and more Jews settled in the provinces of Red and White Ruthenia. At that time, the territory of the Republic of Poland was inhabited by more Jews than any other European country – and this ratio remained until the 20th century.
In 1648, the Cossack Uprising, led by Bohdan Chmielnicki, spread through the entire south-eastern Republic of Poland. Cossacks defeated the Polish army several times slaughtering both Poles and Jews in the captured areas. In many cities captured by the Cossacks (including Bar, Tulczyn Niemirów, Połonne) appalling massacres of the clergy, Polish nobility and the Jewish population took place. Those who managed to survive ended up as captives by Tatars, who then sold them as slaves.
The “Great Encyclopedia”, published in the 18th century, describes Poland as the paradisus Judaeorum, that is, the paradise of the Jews. In the same century, Polish Hasidism appeared in the Republic of Poland, quickly gaining supporters in the entire society of Polish Jews.
The political crisis that overwhelmed Poland in the 18th century led to the reforms undertaken by the patriotic party. Andrzej Zamoyski, a member of the National Educational Commission, which was established in 1773, a year after the first partition of Poland, proposed the guarantee of personal and property inviolability as well as full freedom of religion for Jews. Apart from the Constitution on May 3, 1791, the four-year Sejm, debating in 1788-1792, adopted many legal acts, including the aforementioned proposal.
Jews also took part in the fight for the independence of the Republic of Poland. For example, in the uprising led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in 1794, Colonel Berek Joselewicz, created a squad of Jews who defended Warsaw’s Praga from the Russian army. Berek Joselewicz himself joined the Polish Legions commanded by General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and participated in many battles. Later, Berek Joselewicz served in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw and in 1808 he was awarded the order of Virtuti Militari. In 1809, he died in the Battle of Kock, fighting against the Austrians.
After the fall of the Republic of Poland, the vast majority of Polish Jews found themselves under the rule of Russia and Austria.