Yitzhak Grünbaum (1879-1970), a member of the Legislative Parliament and the Parliament of the First, Second, and Third Term of the Second Polish Republic, and one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence of Israel, earned his place in Płock’s history as the initiator […]
Borys Kowadło – photographer, was born on December 2, 1911 in a house at 4 Bielska Street, in the family of Dawid and Ruda nee Asz. His father was a ritual slaughterer. Borys Kowadło was a student at the photo studio of his brother-in-law Abram […]
Icek (Izaak) Bernsztajn – lawyer, teacher and publicist, was born on November 13, 1899 in Płock (in the house at 15 Kwiatka Street) in the family of Tobiasz and Sura. In 1918, he entered the seventh grade of the Philological Middle School of the Men’s School Society in Turek, and in June 1920 he received his secondary school certificate. On July 24, he joined the army as a volunteer, serving actively until November 28 of that year. He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Warsaw. He taught religion at the Jewish school in Płock. He was also the author of many works, including: “Rozprawy o psychologii i pedagogice” [“Discourses on psychology and pedagogy”], “O okresie dojrzewania w życiu naszych klasyków” [“On the period of adolescence in the lives of our classics”], “Żydowska literatura i nauka na rzecz idei Królestwa Izraela” [“Jewish literature and science for the idea of the Kingdom of Israel”].
During the German occupation he lived in the Warsaw Ghetto. He was a collaborator of Emanuel Ringelblum, he wrote for the chronicle of the Warsaw ghetto. Two of his essays were found in the Ringelblum Archive: “Warszawa – 1941 r.” and “Kelsmski Kaznodzieja”. He died together with his family in the ghetto, in precisely unknown circumstances.
As he wrote in his essay “Głód w Warszawie” [“Famine in Warsaw”]:
“I saw a black cart today; the open door allowed me to see a coffin with a body. A woman, deprived of strength, hurried after it, sobbing to herself. The street was full of people who looked at her and heard her cries, surprised but silent. She ran, dragged herself behind the coffin, like a wounded bird, and everyone around her stared. My friend told me today that of his neighbors’ eight-person family, only two people remained: a mother and her son. He didn’t know which of the two will be taken first by hunger. And they walk around like this, mother and son, with yellowish, dried bodies, glowing like phosphorus…”
We publish the biogram of Icek Bernsztajn on the 82nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Yaakov (Jakub) Guterman – painter and illustrator, born in 1935 in Warsaw, the son of Simcha and Ewa née Alterowicz. His hometown is Płock, where he lived with his parents in a one-story house at 64 Sienkiewicza Street. Jakub’s father ran a knitting workshop and […]
We are entering the seventh year of JewishPlock.eu – the most important online source of information about the history of the Płock Jewish community! On the website you will find family albums, biograms, information about places related to the Jewish community of the city of […]
An extraordinary publication on the history of the Jews of Płock has been published – it is a source study of the “Pinkas Hakahal” – chronicle of the Jewish community in Płock in the years 1762-1818, originally preserved in the collection of the Jewish Historical Institute, undertaken by our friend Pnina Stern. The beautifully designed book was published in Hebrew in Israel. Congratulations to the author of the study!
Below we publish an abstract of the work written by Pnina Stern:
The “Pinkas Hakahal” of Płock is the book in which the decisions of the leadership of the Jewish community of Płock in the years 1762-1818 were recorded. The manuscript is in the archive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (Pinkas Płocki AŻIH114/1). Nobody knows how it got there or when. Its existence became public only in 2007.
About 240 of the 270 written pages are in Hebrew integrated with some Yiddish and some Aramaic. The Hebrew in the Pinkas is typical of the Ashkenazi Hebrew that was used at that time.
Most of the non-Hebrew pages are in old Polish. Four pages are in Medieval Latin and about two pages are in old German. The parts, which are in Polish, Latin, and German, are merely receipts for loans or payments of debts by the community.
The topics dealt with in the Pinkas are the election, which took place once a year in the intermediate days of Passover; the list of the people appointed to different community tasks; community regulations; inner-community and other taxes; real estate matters, and social matters. Great attention was given to supervising the way that the elected people dealt with matters and fulfilled their duties.
It is obvious that the synagogue had a most central function in the life of the community. It was, of course, the place for religious ritual. However, it was also the place where important community matters were announced like the buying or selling of real estate, and where the banning ceremony of disruptive community members took place.
This academic edition of this Pinkas includes a transcription of the text of the manuscript plus annotations. It also includes supplementary tools – a historical introduction; an explanation of features of the Pinkas, and of the difficulties in deciphering it; a dictionary of concepts and an explanation of words taken from foreign languages; a translation of place names into their original language; a dictionary of abbreviations and initials in Hebrew, Polish, and Latin; a Yiddish glossary; an Aramaic glossary; charts of the functions in the community, and how people were chosen for those functions; and an index of the important subjects that are discussed in the Pinkas.
The importance of the manuscript is great because it is almost the only authentic source on the life of the Jewish community of Płock in the second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. It can shed light on the leadership and the administration of other Jewish communities in Poland at that time. The impression that the reader gets from reading the Pinkas is of a lively, active, vivid, autonomous Jewish community.
Pnina Stern
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Adam Neuman-Nowicki (1925-2021) – a native of Płock, author of the book entitled “Struggle for life”. In connection with this special occasion, the Nobiscum Foundation prepares a new guidebook – “In the footsteps of Adam […]
Lejbusz Pszenica, Szmul Dawid Pszenica, Chana Ryfka Głowińska z domu Żychlińska, Azriel Szlama Pszenica, Dwojra Gitla Pszenica, Estera Tauba Pszenica, Gnanczy Pszenica, Abram Hersz Pszenica, Bina Pszenica, Małka Pszenica, Beniamin Hersz Niedźwiedź, Naftali Markus Frendler, Hinda Frajdla Grynbaum, Szmul Majer Luszyński… Many Jews from Płock […]
The house at 64 Sienkiewicza Street in Płock, where Symcha Guterman lived with his wife Ewa and son Jakub, was entered into the register of monuments! We are very happy and hope that in the future, when the building is renovated, a plaque commemorating Symcha Guterman will be placed on its facade!
First, there was a text by Gabriela Nowak-Dąbrowska in the Płock edition of “Gazeta Wyborcza” (published thanks to Anna Lewandowska), then two requests for interpellations regarding the building to the chairman of the Płock City Council, and finally a request for interest in the matter of entering it into the register of monuments addressed to Mrs. Dorota Zaremba from Płock delegation of the Mazovian Provincial Conservator of Monuments. We would like to thank Mrs. Dorota Zaremba and Monika Zaręba for taking care of such an important matter for us and carrying out the process of entering the building into the register!
You can read about the history of the building and Symcha Guterman on our website:
At the beginning of September, we invite everyone to the premiere of a documentary film produced by the Nobiscum Foundation on the initiative of Arieh Bomzon and Sandra Brygart Rodriguez – descendants of the Bomzon and Brygart Jewish families from Płock. The film shows their […]
