Piaski-Lublin

Jews first arrived in Lublin in 1316, mainly for commercial purposes. 20 years later, they were officially allowed to settle in the outskirts of the city. Nevertheless, it took at least another 200 years before a basis for a real community in the city was formed. The large synagogue in the community was built in the mid-16^th century, and a number of permanent stores in the city were opened by Jews.

The study of the Bible, Talmud, and Kabbalah also flourished in Lublin in the 16^th century. Lublin became one of the most important Jewish religious centers in Poland. Rabbi Shalom Shachna, head of the yeshiva in Lublin and one of the greatest 16^th century religious figures, was granted a special title, "Doctor of Jewish Affairs," and was permitted to pass through all Polish cities in his travels, including those barred to ordinary Jews.

The Lublin Jewish community experienced a series of traumatic events in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. In 1648-1649, during the Cossack rebellion, dozens of Jews were murdered in pogroms in Lublin. Seven years later, during the Swedish-Polish war, Lublin suffered heavy damage. Large parts of the city were burnt, and the central synagogue in Lublin was almost completely destroyed. In addition, the Catholic religious leadership in Poland continued its general campaign against the Jews, especially in Lublin. It was decided in 1795 to expel the Jews from Lublin and move all of them to the suburbs.

In the mid-19^th century, the Jewish community in Lublin already numbered over 9,000 people. The social and political restrictions against Jews remained in force, but the Jews succeeded in accumulating great economic power. The largest enterprise in Lublin, a cigarette factory, was Jewish-owned, as well as 95% of the clothing and apparel businesses. Jews were employed at many workplaces in the city, leading to a major increase in support for the Bund socialist movement. By the end of the 19^th century, religious and secular Jewish schools, Jewish hospitals, and a broad range of political organizations – Zionist, religious and socialist - were active in Lublin.

At the end of WWI, over 35,000 Jews lived in Lublin, constituting approximately one third of the city's population. The socialists founded the Lublin Jewish workers union, the Zionists encouraged young people to immigrate to Palestine, and religious people founded the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, headed by Rabbi Meir Shapiro, in 1925. It was one of the most important yeshivas in Europe. All of the yeshiva's books were destroyed by the German army in 1940.

The Germans occupied Lublin on September 18, 1939. The Nazis established two ghettos in Lublin with a total population of 35,000. Leaving the ghettos was completely forbidden in April 1941, and the destruction of the city's Jews began. Starting in March 1942, 30,000 Jews from Lublin were sent to the Belzec death camp. The few remaining Jews in Lublin continued working in the factories, until they were sent to the Majdanek death camp in 1943.

On July 24, 1944, Lublin became the first city in Poland liberated by the Red Army. Between the end of WWII and 1950, 4,000 Jews returned to Lublin, but almost all of them left Poland because of fear of anti-Semitism. Today, a few dozen Jews are left in the city, most of whom are age 55 or older.