TARNOBRZEG

TARNOBRZEG (Dikow ), town in Rzeszow province, S.E. Poland. The city is referred to as Dzikow in the 1765 census. At that time 569 Jews paid the poll tax in the city and the surrounding villages. In 1655 all the Jews of Tarnobrzeg were massacred. A special prayer was recited annually in the synagogue at *Sandomierz on the anniversary of their death. There were 2,768 Jews (80% of the total population) in 1880; 2,840 (80.7%) in 1890; 2,537 (78%) in 1900; 2,642 (96.3%) in 1910; and 2,146 (67.7%) in 1921. In the latter half of the 19^th century, Ḥasidism had considerable influence in the community. Outstanding in the spiritual leadership of the community at that time was R. Meir Horowitz, author of Imrei No'am. The *Baron de Hirsch Fund established a school in Tarnobrzeg before World War i.

[Nathan Michael Gelber]

Holocaust Period

At the outbreak of World War ii there were about 3,800 Jews in Tarnobrzeg. The Germans occupied the town on Sept. 17, 1939, and immediately instigated pogroms. In October 1939 the Germans concentrated the Jewish population in the town market. They robbed the Jews of all their possessions and expelled them to the newly established German-Soviet border. Many were killed on the way but some succeeded in crossing into Soviet-occupied territory. In August 1941 part of the Jewish population returned to Tarnobrzeg. The final liquidation of the Jewish community took place in July 1942. After the war the Jewish community of Tarnobrzeg was not reconstituted.

bibliography:

R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun Tsifern (1958), index; E. Heller (ed.), Ẓydowskie przedsiębiorstwa przemysłowe w Polsce według ankiety 1921 roku, 5–6 (1923), 117, 142; I. Lewin, Przeczynki do historji literatury zydów w Polsce (1935), 15.