The Jews in Lublin - Biblioteka Multimedialna Teatrnn.pl - Brama ...

Anna Krachkovska (Lviv)*
The Jewish Community of Lviv from the 16th to 18th Century:
The territory and the Legal Status
The Jews are the oldest national minority of Ukraine. The history of early modern
Lviv (1527-1772) is considered to have begun with the important events of 1569,
when, with the agreement of the Lublin Union, Lviv became geographically situated
in the heart of Poland. Polish political events then influenced all the aspects of the
development of Lviv as a city 1 .
The year 1527 was successful for the Jews of Lviv, and whole Poland because Sigizmund
the First gave equal rights to Jewish merchants, as compared to the Christian
merchants. In 1551 and in 1571 Sigizmund-August gave special privileges to the Jews.
The legal part of these decrees provided them with the jurisdiction of the Governor of
the Province and the King. The decrees were the beginning of total Jewish autonomy.
The "golden age" of Polish, and hence Lviv Jews began in the very middle of the 16th
Century and lasted until the middle of the 17th Century.
From the very beginning the Jewish people lived in Lviv in the city centre and in
the Krakow suburb. The Krakow suburb was situated in the district of the Castle hill 2 .
The Old Rus Lviv was situated near Zholkevska street. The "Old Rynok" was at the
heart of it. At the cross-roads of Zholkevska and Bokhnycha streets there was a ditch
with a road across it leading to the Old Rynok. There was a ghetto in the suburb, to the
west from the ditch, reaching Poltva 3 . The suburb district changed more often than the
city centre district because the unprotected suburb suffered from numerous invasions.
In the 17th Century the territory of Jewish district included Sanska (Bozhnycha),
Mstyslava Udaloho (Old Castle), Pidmurna (Smocha), Ovocheva (Ovotsova), Lazneva,
Old (Tsybulna) streets and the part of Bohdan Khmelnytskyy street (Zholkevska)
near the Old Rynok Square.
There was a large synagogue of the suburb district in Sanska (Bozhnycha) street. It
was built not later than the 16th Century. A fire in 1632 ruined the synagogue. Later the
synagogue caught fire several times: in 1648 during Bohdan Khmelnytskyy's attack, and
in 1664 as the result of the massacre in the suburb district by Jesuit collegium students.
Student of Humanitarian Faculty of Ukrainian Catholic University.
1 DOLYNSKA M.:. Lviv:prostir i meshkantsi (istoryko-urbanistychnyy narys). Lviv 2005, p. 37.
2 MELAMED V.: Yevreyi vo Lvovie (XIII -pervaya polovina XX veka). Lviv 1994, p. 182.
3 BALABAN M.: Dzielnica żydowska: jej dzieje i zabytki. Lwów 1909, p. 16.
33