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Olkusz

OLKUSZ (Heb. עלקוש), town in Kielce province, Poland. There was a Jewish settlement in Olkusz by the time of Casimir the Great (1333–70), who expropriated the gold and silver mines in Olkusz belonging to his Jewish banker Levko. In 1374, however, Olkusz obtained the privilege de non tolerandis Judaeis; Jews were barred from residing there and left for krakow. During the reign of John Casimir (1648–69), a Jew, Marek Nekel, was granted the first concession to quarry in the hills and was allowed to trade in metals (1658). An agreement between the Jews and the municipality concluded in 1682 granted Jews domiciliary and trading rights on condition that they helped to defray the town debts; they were accordingly granted the customary privileges by John Sobieski (Dec. 3, 1682) to enable their settlement. The Olkusz community came under the jurisdiction of the krakow kehillah, but in 1692, the community of Olkusz and other towns in the district seceded from krakow, a decision endorsed by the *Council of the Four Lands. In 1764 there were 423 Jews living in Olkusz. The economic position of the town deteriorated in the 18th century after copper mines in the district had been ruined by the Swedish invasion. A *blood libel involving the Jews in Olkusz in 1787 was the last such case to occur in Poland before its partition. The principal Jew accused, a tailor, was sentenced to death, but the leaders of the community managed to obtain the intervention of King Stanislas Poniatowski and secure a reprieve. Under Austrian rule (1796–1809), the number of Jews living in Olkusz diminished, and when it was annexed to Russia the prohibition on Jewish settlement in border districts applied. However, there were 746 Jews living in Olkusz in 1856 (83.4% of the total population), 1,840 in 1897 (53.9%), 3,249 in 1909 (53%), 2,703 in 1921 (40.6%), and in 1939 about 3,000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

K. Leszczyński, in: Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce, 9 (1957), 157; Balaban, in: Yevreyskaya Starina, 7 (1914), 163–81, 318–27. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sefer Zikkaron le-Kehillat Olkusz,(1972).


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.