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THE EARLY DAYS
THE HISTORY OF LUBOML'S JEWS
By Berl Kagan
The General Community
The town of Luboml, called Libivne [in Yiddish],
in the last few centuries a little-known Jewish
community of Russia-Poland, is one of the oldest
such settlements in Eastern Europe.
What befell Luboml's Jewish community is
no different from the fate of other such communities
in Russia-Poland: After occupying a recognized
place on the Jewish map, the settlement
suffered a steep decline.
It was by no means unusual for Jewish communities
in Eastern Europegreat Jewish urban
areas for many yearsto decline and, conversely,
for small, unimportant Jewish communities to
become in time centers of Jewish culture.
The truth is that Luboml never was a Jewish
metropolis, for it lacked two important criteria:
(1) Its location meant it had no prospects of
becoming an important center that would attract
masses of Jewish settlers. (2) It had no great
yeshiva to make it attractive as a Torah center.
But during Luboml's heydayevident from its
rabbis and their role in the Council of the Four
Landsthe town held a noteworthy position
among the Jewish communities of Volhynia.
Not only was Luboml an old Jewish community
in Russia-Poland, it was an early urban settlement
in general.
In the middle of the 14th century, Luboml
is mentioned in an agreement between the
Lithuanian Prince Algerad and Casimir the
Great. As a result of that agreement, Luboml
was handed over in 1366 as a leased estate to
the prince of Bielsk, Jerzy Nachimontowicz. It
is clear that if the town already served as an
1
object of commercial trade or as a gift, its origins
must be even earlier.
Luboml did not long remain in the possession
of Prince Nachimontowicz. In 1377, during
the reign of Ludwig of Hungary, the town and
entire district of Chelm reverted to the Polish
kingdom.
In 1392, King Wladislaw Jagiello spent some
time in Luboml. He reportedly liked it so much
that he had a cloister built there, which still stands
today. There is even conjecture that the very name
of the town came from Jagiello. While visiting the
locale, he is said to have remarked either Lubo mil
(sweet and lovely), or Lubo mitu (it's very pleasant
for me here)and that remained the official name
of the town.
There was also a small hill in town called
Jagiello's hill and, close by, a church. A legend
circulated among local Christians that the church
was connected with the hill, which was Jagiello's
fortress.
In 1569, Luboml was part of the royal domain
and Zygmunt III gave it as a wedding present to
his daughter when she married the wojewoda
[administrator] Wiechowski of Kiev, hetman of
the Cossacks.
In the closing decades of the 18th century,
Luboml became the property of the descendants
of Baron Branitzki. The new owners brought
order to the affairs of the town and surrounding
area. In 1782, the Branitzkis took in 26,470 zlotys
from Lubomla considerable sum for those days.'
In the second half of the 19th century, the
town experienced another economic slump.
Around 1820, all the estates around Lubomlwhich
had gone back to the Russian domain-