We Remember Janow
Sokolski
|
A Sketch of the wooden Synagogue |
The Janow Sokolski Synagogue, Photo by Szymon
Zajczk |
|
Synagogue Interior - Photo by Szymon Zajczk |
The Menorah, from Moshe Verbin's Catalogue |
|
A Wooden Synagogue in Poland, destroyed by the Nazis during WWII. |
|
Pictures of the old wooden and destroyed
Synagogue of Janow Sokolski. Donated by Allen B. Saxe 27.11.99 (email: absaxe
"at" earthlink.net – replace "at" by @ to avoid
spam)..
Moshe
Verbin: Wooden Synagogues in the 17th and 18th Century
Allen
Saxe writes:
The
pictures were photographed by Szymon Zajczk of blessing
memory.There is an excellent biography of him in the book Images Before My
Eyes, A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland,1864-1939. It should
be available at any bookstore or major library. He was the major photographer
of
From Moshe Verbin catalogue:
"The synagogue was built in the second
half of the 18th century and was burnt down by the germans during the second
world war.
Its
dimensions: 19x 19.5 m, hight: 16 m.
The
women 's sections were at the northern and southern parts of the ground floor
as well as the gallery over the learning rooms at the west. The almost square
men's synagogue was on a lower level than the entrance room and was covered
with an octagonal dome with its center coming down a little into the
hall."
Moshe Verbin: Model of the Synagogue
of Janow Sokolski
Welcome to the Zechariah Family By Allen B. Saxe
The Feel of History
| Janow Sokolski | The Synagogue | Bunim and Sara Scharja | Sima and Jacob Lev | Yeshiva Years | Leaving Janow | The Letters | The Shoah | The Saxe Family | Eight Generations | The Family Tree | Appendix 1-Letters | Appendix 2-Records | Links
From the
book: "Jewish Bialystok and
Surroundings in Eastern Poland, by Tomasz Wisniewski, published by
Ipswich Press (
Janow Sokolski
Population 4920 (in 1993).
49 km north of
Jews began to settle in Janow as early as the 17th century, and by 1719 the
bishop of Vilno, Konstanty Brzostowski, had granted them permission to build a
synagogue (which was constructed in 1740). The town's census in 1775 counted
214 Christian residents and 221 Jews. In 1897, 1797 (or 78 percent) of the town's
2,296 residents were Jewish.
In the book of Gary Mokotoff " Where
Once We Walked" it is written that there were 1027 Jews living in the
town in 1921.
Just prior to World War II,
nearly 1,100 Jews lived in this small, poor town known for its hotel, which was
owned by the Jew Chmiel Rudawski.
Rabbis in Janow from 1880
until WWII included Nissin Perelsztejn, Jehoszua Kralusz,
and Zalman Kosowski.
The town's wooden
synagogue, which prior to World War II was renovated and maintained by the
State Office for Historical Buildings, was burned and destroyed by the Nazis.
A Jewish cemetery remains
in the northern part of Janow (On the way to Kuplisk and Kamienica). The
cemetery - which is not fenced in any way - contains about 200 mazevas as
well as the remains of a brick gate.
Jewish families named in
the 1928 guide: "Medicine doctors and pharmacy: Chassin Ruben, Shapiro
Maria, Goldstein Gershon. Butchers: Bobrowicz Chaim, Nowokolski
Mendel."
***
Note:
Thanks
to Stanley Diamond and Arne J.
Pearlstein for their comments and corrections, now added to the article. Anyone
who has more information/old photos/articles/sources on this lost Jewish
Community is kindly requested to contact me.
Ada Holtzman - Tel Aviv - 9.12.99
Other Sources:
1.
Boznice Bialostocczyzny,
Heartland of the Jewish Life Synagogues and Jewish communities in Bialystok
Region, Tomasz Wisniewski rys. Jaroslaw
Wojtach, David,
2. Janow,
Studium historyczno-urbanistyczne, opr. J. Kubiak, Warszaw 1974 (BBIDZ
Bialystok).
3.
St. Szyroki, Monografia parafii
janowskiej w dekanacie sokolskim woj. Bialostockiego 1936.
The
Business Directory of Janow Sokolski
Published
at
Treblinka: The End
Treblinka
Death Lists/Kelbasin Collection Camp - The Nizkor Project
Allen B.
Saxe adds:
"The
Nizkor Project identifies transports from
Allen Saxe: "Jacob Lev, Simcha Scharja Lev, Abram Lev,
Shandel Lev of blessed memory. They along with my grandparents and
millions of others were killed during the shoah. They perished at
Treblinka".
Allen Saxe: My Grandparents: Sara and Bunim Scharja of Blessed
Memory,Perished in Holocaust, Treblinka.
Aftermath…
On
Dear
I have received a note from the Museum Director that my request for a monument
for JANOW
SOKOLSKI has been approved
and that the stone inscription will be done this summer.
I appreciate your support, direction and assistance.I hope we will meet in
Allen B.Saxe
Message from Allen
B. Saxe
(email: absaxe "at" earthlink.net
– replace "at" by @ to avoid spam).
(
As a youth I spent
hours going through the top drawer of my parents’ dresser where they kept the
family photographs and letters from
Over the past
several years, I have documented the history of JANOW SOKOLSKI and my family. It
was with deep pain that I learned that the death and destruction of the Jews of
Janow along with millions of others was at Treblinka. Treblinka’s sole purpose
was to kill. It was not a concentration camp or a labor camp; its mission was
to kill our families as fast as possible.
A stone monument has
now been placed at Treblinka to memorialize this community. Hopefully my work
and the work of many others like Stanley Diamond and Arnie
Pearlstein whose families came from Janow will tell the full story of the
community. Ada Holtzman of Tel Aviv has encouraged
and assisted me. Tomasz Wisniewski of
JewishGen has become
a primary resource for Jewish historical and genealogical research. I urge all
to use it and support it finan.
Remembering JANOW SOKOLSKI assures that the story will
continue. As I searched the past, I located family in the
Allen B.
Saxe
Charlotte, NC
Message from Allen B. Saxe (April 1st
2007, posted in BialyGen Forum)
A Symbolic Stone for Janow Sokolski added after Allen B. Saxe's efforts.
Treblinka, May 2000.
AJGS Cemetery Project:
The Jewish Cemetery of Janow Sokolski
We Shall Remember!
Last updated on September 27th,
2012