Page created December 2005; updated March 2010. Copyright © 2005.
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This photo was taken March 29, 2005. They are renovating the synagogue in Rymanow! The photo is courtesy
of Marek Silarski. According to Marek, after 60 years there will be a temple again in Rymanow.
They are renovating the building and plan to re-dedicate it.
(editor) thanks for the photo Marek and Debbie....it is very exciting!!
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How exciting!
Schedule of Events:
Exchange of photographs and sharing of impressions of the reunion that took place in Rymanow, Poland in August. Summary of reunion and decisions for future actions for the group.All those who are interested in continuing to meet are invited to travel at noon to Mitzpe Ramon and stay in The Youth Hostel on Friday and Saturday (January 16 and 17 ) or in private homes. Kosher cuisine is available there. Click here to E-mail the Youth Hostel. If you need more information, please email Malka Shacham Doron.
If you want to take part in a meeting please contact Michal Lorenc (m.lorenc@mediapartner.com.pl)
and specify the arrival date, number of people and events you want to take part.
Please hurry, because it is a limited number of guests for certain events!
We will assist you in finding accommodation.
See you in August in Rymanow!
Please send any photographs or descriptions of the event so we can post them here!
If you want to take part in a meeting please contact Michal Lorenc (m.lorenc@mediapartner.com.pl)
and specify the arrival date, number of people and events you want to take part.
Please hurry, because it is a limited number of guests for certain events!
We will assist you in finding accommodation.
See you in August in Rymanow!
For more information, please contact Michal Lorenc of the Rymanow Society by clicking:
For the third time in the history, in August we will commemorate Jewish society
of Rymanow - take a part in common prayers, concerts, Yiddish lessons, work
shops, March of Living from Rynek to Wroblik and many, many more. The most
important moment of this meeting will be Kabbalat Shabbat - Greeting Shabbat in
the Rymanow's Synagogue followed by traditional Shabbat dinner on August 13th.
Please join us this year, feel the atmosphere of your ancestors hometown, walk
through the streets of Rymanow where the members of your family grew up. Our
guest will be well known Israeli performer and singer Mendy Cahan from YUNG
YiDiSH in Jerusalem. He will teach us Yiddish and a few nigguns. All in a warm,
friendly atmosphere!
We’ve just got the info from Morris (Moshe) Barth family – they are coming in a big group of 8 people! Morris is from the 1st generation, he survived the ghetto.
The meeting will take place from 11 to 15th of August (4 nights) - we do have a schedule for 12, 13 and 14th of August.
Please let me know if you are interested - we have booked already rooms for our
guests in the motels in Rymanow - I have to confirm the reservations.
If you want any information just send me an email
This invitation is for all Rymanowers!
Please join II Rymanow Jewish Society Remembrance Days – 12 and 13th of August 2009 - which will feature:
You have to be with us this August, a must see meeting for every Rymanower and all Friends of Rymanow.
If you want any information just send me an email by clicking on my name:
13th of August is the 66th anniversary of Rymanow ghetto liquidations. On this day 66 years ago one of the oldest and most creative Jewish community in Poland ended its existence. On the 12th and 13th of August 2008 “Rymanow Encounter” Society wants to commemorate Rymanów Jews by symbolic and unconventional activities.
The program includes ecumenical prayers at the cemetery where the most famous Galician Tzadiks are buried, sightseeing renovated Rymanów synagogue, Remembrance March along the last ghetto route (Rymanow-Wroblik), Yiddish song concert, biographic film show about Henryk Slawik and other interesting events.
Former inhabitants of Rymanów as well as their Israeli, American and European families are going to be invited. Many of them have already confirmed their arrival. Among the invited guest there are Rymanów inhabitants, local and regional authorities, Foreign Ministry representatives and also Israeli Ambassador.
We are proud to invite everyone who may be interested in multicultural Rymanów and for whom the tradition, culture and religion of Rymanów Jews is important. Join the Remembrance March and pay the tribute to exterminated community. Let our meeting help the better understanding and acquaintance. “Rymanów Encounter” Society
If you want any information just send me an email
It came suddenly, an Invitation to join with others at the 50th anniversary of the
destruction of Rymanow; my grandfather was born there, and likely died there,
and I had seen photographs but never touched the soil.
We arrived in Rymanow...it was beautiful...
we were a group of 24 who came from Israel, USA, Germany and Switzerland
but only one was born in Rymanow…(photo above is the refinished Rymanow
Synagogue). ..All the rest were 2nd or 3rd generation…so
there was only one who could tell us of his memories…he left to the States in 1939
at the age of 15.
At the municipality they say that the pre war records were all destroyed so I could not find any new information on our Kornreich family…beside the 4 brothers (2 in Israel and 2 in the States) there were 2 sisters… I think both were married and at least one of them had a son...i don't know if they lived in Rymanow or grandfather stayed there alone…
In the pictures you can see the entrance to Rymanow, some streets and main square..
the synagogue
and cemetery....
and the ceremonies there…
the main square
from where the Jews were forced to march to another village rail station,
then were locked in coaches for 3 days and transported to their death…
if anyone of the family was still in Rymanow they probably were part of this march …
we took this march too…
you can see that many polish people participated in all the ceremonies…
the last pictures are the school, the doctor's house, 3 gossiping citizens
and the countryside view…
Goodby to Rymanow....beautiful Rymanow
Varda Steiglitz also went to Rymanow and sent us the following photographs:
In November of 2005 I received this message from Micha Lorenc:
My name is Michael Lorenc and my family is from Rymanow. I live in Poland, close to the Katowice. We are organizing the society now at Rymanow. The goal of the society is to preserve
the Jewish heritage at Rymanow. We would like to organize the First Days of Jewish Culture at Rymanow 10-11 of July 2005. We create the program now, but we know it would be: 2 concerts (Yiddish songs and klezmer concert), exhibition of the postcards and the pictures from 1900-1943, festival of the documental movies about Jewish Galicia, common prayer of the Rabbi and catholic priest at the Jewish cemetery. It’s a plan but we work really hard to make it happen. Best wishes from Poland, Micha Lorenc email: m.lorenc@mediapartner.com.pl
Subsequently I received the photographs: what a wondrous sight:
Micha then wrote:
I’ll let you know about the Society very fast, after weekend. You and all “Folks” are welcome next year at Rymanow! It’s the right time.
And,
Dear friends,I’m sending the pictures from the prayers at the Rymanow’s synagogue. It was at 28th of June 2005.
And finally, Micha wrote:
Finally the 10th of December we organized the meeting at Rymanow and we send all the documents to the local court. The Society is called Spotkanie-Rymanow what means “Meeting-Rymanow”, meeting of the cultures and religions, meeting of our dreams and thoughts. We want to create the positive spirit around the city, we have to take care about the Synagogue and Cemetery, we would like to involve the young people from Rymanow. Just after the registration at the court we will start very fast!
You are welcome to Rymanow, there are the people who are waiting for you. Rymanow and it’s past just deserve it!Best wishes from Poland,
Michal Lorenc
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Barbara told us of her great-grandfather, Yisrael Cohen, born in Rymanow, who emigrated
to the U.S. In 1912 he made this papercut, based on the Mizrach
from the Rymanow Synagogue; today it hangs in her home.
Barbara's family all belonged to the Rymanower Young Mens' Benevolent Society. When talking to the 90-year-old president of the Stanton Street Shul, Bernie Sauerhaft, she learned that the Rymanower YMB had merged at some point, along with several other Galician landsmanschaft, into Stanton St.
Today her son, Yussi Pollak, is the Rabbi of the Stanton
Street Shul on the Lower East Side. Barbara wrote: "My ggp lived on Willet
Street, where my gp lived when they were first married and had their first couple of kids.
They later moved to Rivington Street,before eventually moving to Brooklyn.
Anyway, I wanted to share with you the full cycle my family has come.
To think that my child is now the rabbi at a shul his ggf might have attended!
Please keep in touch. I will be sharing this website with others in thefamily.Keep up the good
work Barbara Cohen Pollak"
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As it appeared in The Jewish Press, August 4th, 2006, with the permission of the author.
While the Ukraine was the birth place of the Chasidic movement, Poland and especially the Galicia area soon became the hub for most Chasidic activity after only two generations. Many of the renowned early Chasidic Masters were travlers until Rebbe Elimelech of Lejask settled down in one place and became known as the Rebbe of Lejask. His students also took up residence in specific towns, connecting each branch of Chasidisim to a specific local. Today there is no Chasidic leader that is not affiliated with the name of a shtetl even if there has been no connection to the town since the Shoah.
Recently there has been a movement to return to the ancestral home of the Chasidic movements to recover, and restore any sign of their heritage that had been left behind. Many cemeteries have been restored and Ohalim, mauseleums of important Rebbes have been rebuilt and pilgramages have been made to the sites on important dates, such as Yahrtziets.
Last week I had the privlage to sit down and talk with Rabbi Avraham Reich, Rabbi of Cong. Menachem Zion Yotzie Russia in Boro Park Brooklyn. Rabbi Reich is a seventh generation direct descendent of the legendary Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rymanow. During our conversation that engineered enough material for numerous articles, Rabbi Reich told me of the state of affairs in his ancestral home town of Rymanow.
The cemetery has been mostly cleaned up and the Ohalim had be rededicated thanks to many individuals such as Rabbi Mendel Reichberg who has done much work throughout Poland. But the former synagogue was in a sorry state of affairs. There are many pictures taken where there trees gorwoing out of the central section of the synagogue with only the outer walls remaining.
Rabbi Reich said that he had always had an interest in the town due to his family history, but he was moved to action by the reminiscences of a Mr. Yosef Margolis who was born in Rymanow and came to talk to the Rabbi of his childhood memories. There was a custom that people coming to Rymanow to commemorate the yahrtziet of Rabbi Menachem Mendel would stay overnight in the town. Mr. Margolis told of how on the 19th of Iyar of each year thousands of people would come to Rymanow. How there would be no room left for all the people that wanted to sleep in the town and that people would wind up sleeping on rooftops or even in the streets. Mr. Margolis explained that the reason for this mass pilgrimage was that it was said that miraculous cures would accure to people in need who would spend the night in the town after commemorating the rebbes Yahrtziet.
Mr. related how he himself was an eyewitness to a cure. There was a man who came to Rymanow as a cripple and after sleeping overnight in the town he went home with out the use of his wheelchair.
Rabbi Reich had of course heard all the stories before but this was the first time he had heard a story first hand from an actual eyewitness.
He decided to do whatever possible to recreate the custom. He started the process of reclaiming the ancient synagogue in Rymanow. In 2003, Poland passed a law enabling Jewish communities to reclaim Communal property including synagogues giving Rabbi Reich the opportunity to begin realize his dream, and work began to renovate the synagogue.
Actual records for the synagogue building say it is older but the earliest known date for the building is 1593. During the renovations workers came across two stones that geologically did not match those of the area or those of the other stones used in the construction of the synagogue. Rabbi Reich excitedly explained that according to Family Tradition there were stones from the Beit Hamikdash, incorporated in the building of the synagogue. These stones, Rabbi Reich explained, "Look like the easily recognizable, Jerusalem stone that we are familiar with today."
The stones were re-incorporated into the building of the synagogue in a section where a mikvah is being built
The tradition of pilgrimages is also being re-established. This passed year there were over 200 Jews from around the world. They came from Israel, The US, England, Belgium Switzerland France.
A highlight of this years trip was a Bar Mitzvah celebration of a young man whose birthday coincides with the Yahrtziet of the Rebbe. It was the first Bar Mitzvah celebrated in Rymanow since the Shoah.
Rabbi Reich can be contacted at 718-851-8954
by Schmuel Ben Eliezer (Bshir3@aol.com)
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For those researchers who may have ancestors buried in major New York area cemeteries, an exciting new development in 2006! The following cemeteries have put their lists online and you can browse them at your leisure, either by town name or surname.
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Rachel is the grandoughter of Mendel and Sheindle Frenkel who lived in Rymanov. They had two doughters: Ester and Yente, and I am Yente's doughter. Last year we, a group of 17 Rymanov descenders visited Rymanov. Our guide was Yosef Rottem who was born in Rymanov and still remembers the Jewish life there. It was very exciting
and one last photo, recently received from Rachel (who got it from Michael Lorenc);
"This house doesn't exist anymore...it was the house of one of the last Rabbis in Rymanov,
Rabbi Zvi Chaim Horowitz. He was born in 1885 and passed away in 1939. His son,
Rabbi Moshe Eliezer remained in Rymanov until the extermination of the jews in town,
he was shot on the death march from Birkenau to Aushwitz on the 10th shvat 1945,
close to liberation."
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In August i received the following email from Janice (Malego) Steinhagen of Griswold, CT . I thought i'd pass it along to all our readers.
I cannot tell you how moved and heartened I am to learn that the temple in Rymanow is being restored. My husband Erich and I traveled through the village in 1987, en route to visit with my cousins in nearby Targowiska. They seemed very much taken aback when we begged them to stop the car so we could look inside the building. It was a heartbreaking sight - broken beer bottled littered the place, the windows and roof were gone; all that remained were the beautiful murals that hinted at its past glory.
Both Erich and I are cradle Catholics, as are my Polish relatives (my mother's father came from Targowiska); but it was deeply unsettling to us to realize that my ancestral homeland still, with all its own suffering over the centuries, habored a particularly ugly streak of anti-semitism. Thus we were heartened to meet a relative who lived in Rymanow, a Pan Bielecki (Mr.Bielecki, I didn't record his first name in my journal). He was gentlemanly and clearly well-educated and was something of a scholar of local history, running a small museum in his house across the street from the synagogue. It was he who took us into the cemetery, telling us of how the Nazis took potshots at the tombstones. He clearly had a sense of respect for this sacred space, and he led us to the mausoleum, which he explained was the tomb of a Jewish leader of some significance.
The concrete structure had bars on the windows and a padlocked
chain on its door - and yet when we looked in the window,our hearts
caught at the sight of a single lighted candle, burning alongside
some fresh summer flowers and a small pile of folded slips of paper.
These, Pan Bielecki told us, were prayer intentions
for which the
rabbi's intercession was being requested. That simple, startling
sight of a burning candle in a locked concrete room seemed to me a
powerful symbol of hope, and evidence that the Jewish faith
survived, however secretly, in this tiny Polish town.
We will certainly keep the restoration of this beautiful sacred
space in our prayers. Thank you so much for maintaining this website
and making this information available.We've talked of returning to
Poland someday, and I hope and pray that when we do, we will be able
to see the Rymanow temple in all its glory, a symbol of healing,
defiance and faith against all odds. May God bless you and your work.
If you have an answer, please click here to send me an email.
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