Nowy Targ, Poland KehilaLink

Very few photos can be found of the main synagogue, located at 17 J. Kazmierska Street, and the Chassidic shtibl, as they appeared before their destruction and transformation into a cinema and locksmith's shop, respectively. Photographs of what they looked like June 2016 are also shown, taken by a visitor from the USA, Sally Mizroch.


Photo of the Original Main Synagogue on 17 Jan Kazmierska Street. Because links to the VirtualSztetl sometimes change, this is from where I copied the photo of the Main Synagogue.	*Photo of the Chassidic shtibl* in Nowy Targ on Szfalarska Street, 19.** This image was copied from Virtual Sztetl, because the links on their website change faster than updates to this site. As of this upload, the original photo is available on their site.
The Tatry Cinema, photo by Sally Mizroch, June 2016. The following is adapted from Virtual Sztetl's description: The original brick building was built around the beginning of the 1900s, on a neo-baroque rectangular plan, and had electric lighting. On the east wall was an elaborate Aron ha-Kodesz. During World War II the Germans destroyed the synagogue. After the war, the destroyed building returned to the remnant of the Jewish community. Unable to renovate it, the authorities took it over and the "Tatra" cinema, was opened, is still functional. During the renovation of the synagogue, the original appearance of the building was completely obliterated as is obvious in comparing the pictures.	Sally Mizroch's photo of the abandoned locksmith's shop on Szaflara Street 19. Photo taken June 2016. According to information on the Virtual Sztetl website, after the war, the "synagogue building was completely renovated and ... adapted to the needs of the locksmith's workshop." The building as it appears in disrepair is apparently abandoned and falling into ruin. The original synagogue was built in the early 1900s on a rectangular plan; "... the main façade had three windows and a semi-circular door. After the reconstruction ... the windows and doors were changed. Only the rectangular attic lofts have survived from the original design."

Prenumeranten

An interesting source of information are prenumeranten. These are people who paid early subscriptions to Jewish scholarly texts. So if you had studied in a yeshiva (Jewish seminary) and knew or recognized the great rabbis and scholars of the day, you would be interested in acquiring and reading what these erudite people had written -- mostly in Hebrew but occasionally in Yiddish. Hence, these pre-subscriptions to help pay for the publication of such works.

HebrewBooks.org has a wealth of such books that have been digitized and can be searched for titles or names of authors as well as providing the opportunity to download the entire books. Generally at the ends of such books, the author would show his appreciation for the people who had subscribed and would include their names under the heading of the town where they lived. To help in identifying which books to even check for these in Sefer Prenumeranten, Berel Kagan (or Cohen) compiled a wonderful compendium of 800 towns and the books that have prenumeranten for these towns. His book is also available for searching or downloading on HebrewBooks.org by clicking on the link above. The book's title in English is "Hebrew Subscription Lists." (For more information on prenumeranten, JewishGen has an infofile, prenumeranten)

The book has an introduction and explanation at the rear of the book and an alphabetical listing by town names in English with the corresponding numerical value for the town. Nowy Targ is referen List in KaganBook

ced by its old German name of "Neumarkt", ניימארק But it is important to select the one the indicates it is near Krakow and not in Germany or Czechoslovakia. The town "code" is then 5311. Three books were listed there, but only two of them still had the prenumeranten lists. "Hachanat Lev Tefillah" that should have had 11 names had no prenumeranten pages in the versions found at HebrewBooks.org[/1/]. Sometimes, with subsequent reprints, the lists may vary. Sometimes the results yield interesting information about the people listed there. Berl Kagan includes the name of the rabbi of the town, Chaim Dov STROCH. The latter was Nowy Targ's second rabbi. For more about Rabbi STROCH or STORCH, see Family page.

It is interesting to note that in Sources 1 and 3 shown below, exactly the same people are listed and in the same format. Some names of towns could not be identified in transcription.
The book identification number in Hebrewbooks.org for source 4 is 40136.

Notes:

/1/ 22 January 2018: Thanks to Yoel Hirsch, who located the prenumeranten for Hachanat Lev Tefillah, the missing names in can now be seen in Source 5. But there are actually 13 and not 11!

Aryeh deBei Aliyah, by Aryeh Leibush Lipschitz, unknown date,
Jerusalem, 159 pp.
Also published, 1880, Przemysl, 154 pp.
"1"

Sefer Tehilim
compiled by Yoel Bloch, Ofen (i.e., Budapest), 1863, 225 pp.
"4"

Hachanat Lev LeTefila
by Shlomo Aryeh Lev Weinshelbaum, (from Blendow, Poland), published, Bilgoraj, 1927
"5"

Aryeh deBei Aliyah, by Aryeh Leibush Lipschitz, 1874, Przemysl, 352 pp.
"2"

Toldoth Abraham, by Samuel David Eisenberg, 1881, Przemysl
359 pp.
"3"

Last Name, First	Source #	Information
BRON, Lieon	5
ENGLÄNDER, Shimon	5
FEIT, Baruch Zvi	4	In Dunaietz
FRIEDMAN, Moshe	5
GLAUBAUF, Yisrael	4
GLÜCKSMAN, Shmuel	1, 3, 4	In 4, under Dunaietz
GLÜCKSMAN, Shmuel (#2)	5	Cannot be the same as the one above, since he died 1891, and is buried in Nowy Targ.
GOLDFINGER, Yakov	2, 4
GOLDMANN, Shlomo	1, 2, 3, 4
Kalman	4	Shochet, (not clear if Kalman is a given or family name)
GREIMAN, Shmuel	5
GÜNSBERG, Yisrael Zvi	5	Brother-in-law of the author
GÜNSBERG, Meir	5
KAHANE, Chaim Yosef	5	From ? (אגראדאווע)
KLEINZAHLER, Aryeh Leibush	1, 3	Shochet
KORNGUT, Abraham David	1, 3	son of Yitzchak
KORNGUT, Chaim	4
KORNGUT, Y.	5	From ? (כאכאלאב)
KORNGUT, Yitzchak	1, 3	Czarny Dunajec
KRUMHOLTZ, G.	5	From Ostrowski?
LANGER, Shmuel	4
MANDEL, Aharon	1, 2, 3, 4
MESSINGER, Mendel	4	In Dunaietz
NACHMAN, Yosef Mendel	5
REISZ, Moshe	1, 3, 4	In 4, under Dunaietz
STROCH, Rabbi Chaim Dov Ber	5	Chief Rabbi of Nowy Targ
UNGER Brothers	4	In Dunaietz
WOLF, Binyamin	1, 3	Shochet of Jardonow
WULKAN, Yosef	5

Rabbis, Religious Authorities, and Shochets

Prior to Rabbi Yaakov Yokel HIRSCH becoming the rabbi in Nowy Targ, they seem to have had other "Religious Authorities" referred to in German as Religionweiser. Yoel HIRSCH, a descendant of the aforementioned rabbi, found listings in three editions of "Statthalterei-Gebietes fur Galizien" for the years: 1862, 1866, 1868. Here are the little excerpts from pages in those editions:

Nowy Targ seems to have been in need of a shochet from time to time. In several consecutive issues of the weekly newspaper, HaMitzpah (printed in Krakow, Poland in Hebrew between the years 1904-1914, 1917-1921) they posted an advertisement for a shochet in December 1905-January 1906. They posted the same in the Machzikay Hadat Newspaper that was founded by Rabbi Shimon Sopher (son of the Chatam Sopher) in 1897 and continued until the beginning of WW I, in 1914.

It is amazing at the stringent requirements they had for such a position, and how much they expected such a man to do. Unfortunately, we do not know who tried out and who was accepted for this position. This example is from the 6 January 1906 issue of the second newspaper.

Translation:
"The community of Neumarkt Galicia seeks an expert shochet who can also serve to lead prayer services, having a pleasant voice, can also read the Torah, and be a mohel (circumciser), and whose age is between 24-30.

He should be Galician-born and have recommendations from famous contemporary gaonim (scholars).

His salary will come from the community's fund, 1,200 Crowns per year. At this time, this salary is "provisional" for the year, and if he decides to quit, we won't stand in his way.

Anyone who is interested should send a letter to the signator below or come here in person also for an interview with the chief rabbi, before 1 February 1906. This is also to advise you that travel expenses will only be reimbursed for the person selected.

Cemetery

For more about the HIRSCH family, see the Family menu item

At the end of June 2016, Sally Mizroch who has ancestry in Nowy Targ, traveled from Seattle, WA, to Nowy Targ, Poland. One of her goals was to visit and photograph the cemetery and its remaining stones. Among the few that actually remain, was that of one of Nowy Targ's rabbis, Rabbi Yaakov Yokel HIRSCH. He authored a scholarly book called "Birchat Ya'akov" or, "Jacob's Blessing." He was the son of Mordechai Zeev Wolf HIRSCH, of Lviv. The cover page is at right and may be seen in its entirety at the HebrewBooks.org website, item 751, or click on the image at right.

This rabbi was the first of Nowy Targ's rabbis.

He arrived in Nowy Targ in 1862 and served until his death in 1880.

He was succeeded by Rabbi Chaim Dov-Ber STROCH, who came in 1885, and served until his passing in 1932 -- a 46 year span of religious leadership.

Rabbi Hirsch's original stone was destroyed by the nazis during World War II.

The stone was renewed in 5766 (2006) by his grandson, Rabbi Avraham Aba HIRSCH, and his children (may they live well).

To see a complete set of the Sally Mizroch's cemetery photos, she has made them available on Flickr. The data from the inscriptions has already been extracted.

Nowy Targ, Poland

The Synagogues

Prenumeranten

Notes:

Rabbis, Religious Authorities, and Shochets

Cemetery

18 July 2021


1862: Here we see Joachim (Chaim) KORNGUT serves as the Religions Authority while Rabbi Jacob (i.e. Yaakov Yokel) HIRSCH is serving in Gorlice.	1866 Joachim KORNGUT died in 11 May 1864, so now Moses PERLMAN is the Religious Authority and Rabbi HIRSCH is still in Gorlice.	1868: Jacob HIRSCH is the Religious Authority.