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Siemiatycze

SIEMIATYCZE, town in Bialystok province, E. Poland. Up to the 19th century Siemiatycze was the private property of Polish nobles; from 1807 until 1915 it was ruled by Russia. Jews are first mentioned as customs and tax farmers in Siemiatycze in a document of 1582. In 1700 R. Gedaliah of Siemiatycze and his brother Moses joined the movement of *Judah Ḥasid ha-Levi advocating the return of the Jews to Ereẓ Israel. Their journey was described by R. Gedaliah in a pamphlet entitled Sha'alu Shelom Yerushalayim (published in Reshummot, 2 (1922), with a foreword by Zalman Rubashov Shazar). Siemiatycze, one of the most prominent communities in the Council of the Four Lands, grew and developed economically in the first half of the 18th century becoming independent of the Tykocin (Tiktin) community in matters of taxation. When the ruling duchess, Anna Jablonowska (1728–1800), built a road through the Jewish cemetery, which was very close to her palace, the community protested; this long caused resentment, and she sought to pacify the Jews by building a beautiful synagogue (1755; still standing in 1971) near the former site. At the end of the 18th century a copper mill was founded under Jewish direction. There were 1,015 Jews in Siemiatycze in 1765; 3,382 in 1847; 4,638 (75.4% of the total population) in 1897; and 3,718 (65.3%) in 1921. Some earned their livelihood in crafts and industry, but the majority engaged in trade, particularly in forest products and grain. At the end of the 18th century, Jewish merchants from Siemiatycze traded as far as Leipzig and Frankfurt. From the 1860s Jewish merchants and contractors developed the local weaving industry. Between the two world wars Jewish industrialists set up a factory producing glazed brick tiles which employed a work force that was 50% Jewish. Jewish craftsmen worked in clothing, leather, lumber, metal, building, glazing, and coach-building. The Jewish economy was also supplemented by vegetable growing in the period of economic depression between the two world wars. It was also assisted by the Jewish Cooperative Peoples' Bank and by Gemilut Ḥasadim societies in the city.

In 1905 czarist police attacked Jewish youngsters strolling in the forest on Rosh Ha-Shanah, wounding ten of them and killing one. The next day young Jewish revolutionaries organized themselves into "fighting units," disarmed the police, and controlled the town for three weeks. Jewish *self-defense units were set up in Siemiatycze. They also showed their strength when Siemiatycze reverted to Poland after World War I and they prevented attacks by pogromists. At the beginning of the 20th century the revolutionary movements, with the *Bund in the forefront, won support among the Jewish workers' and craftsmen's unions. Between the two world wars undercover Communist groups were also influential in the town. A Zionist society, *Ẓe'irei Zion, was founded in 1902 and opened a library. The various Zionist parties were all active there in the interwar period. Between the two world wars there were in the town a primary yeshivah and later a Beit Yosef yeshivah; a Yiddish elementary school (up to 1924); a Hebrew *Tarbut and a Yavneh school. The last rabbi of Siemiatycze was Ḥayyim Baruch Gerstein, a leader of the Mizrachi movement in Poland who perished in the Holocaust.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Halpern, Pinkas, index; R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun Tsifern (1958), index; J. Berger, Księżna Pani na Kocku i Siemiatyczach (1936), passim; E. Ringelblum, Projekty przewarstwowienia Żydów w epoce stanisławowskiej (1935), 55; Z. Auerbach, in: Yevreyskaya Starina, 4 (1911), 563; B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 83; Kehillat Semiatich (Heb. and Yid., 1965).


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