Remembering the Jews of Lubaczow

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Lubaczów, Poland
50° 10' N/ 23° 08' E

Other names: Libatchov, Libechuyv, Liubachev, Lubachov, Lubatchov, Lubichuv

Religious Life

Fifty Years Ago
I sometimes like to tell my children and grandchildren stories about life in prewar Poland. Jewish life in the shtetls of prewar Poland was not always easy. Those who could count on a stable income were considered fortunate. Those who could earn enough to observe the holidays in the Jewish calendar with the traditional meals and observances were considered indeed blessed. When things looked most hopeless, people would pray for the Coming of the Messiah, Indeed, "when the Messiah comes", is an expression tied to an event supposed to occur in some indeterminate future.

As the story goes, one day, one of the poorest Jews in the village burst into his home and joyously announced to his wife and family that finally, he had found permanent employment. At last, he would be able to support his family!

"Nu, what's the job?", asked his wife.

"It's simple", he answered. "The Jews of our village have come on such hard times that they are convinced that only the Coming of the Messiah can save us. So that we won't wait one second longer than we have to for our salvation the community has decided to hire me to sit on the roof of our town's Beit Ha-Knesset (synagogue). The moment I see a sign of the Coming of the Messiah, I'm supposed to alert the community so that we can all rush out to greet him and finally be saved".

"Now what", he said proudly, "do you think of that?" "I think", she said, "that things are so bad that you'll be out of work in no time."

While telling this story and thinking about the man on the roof of the Beit Ha-Knesset my thoughts took roe back fifty years when my favorite Beit Ha-Knesset was burned and destroyed by the Nazis and their local collaborators in the town where I was born and spent my youth.

The town was located in what was the Polish Ukraine. It was so small that it only appeared on some Polish maps. On these maps it was called "Lubaczow". To us Jews who lived there it was known as Libi Tashov. This is a translation from the Hebrew "libi tashov bi' tshuva" meaning, "My heart will repent".

Libi Tashov's Beit Ha-Knesset was completed while my grandfather Noah was the president of the Jewish community. At the time, the Jewish community ran out of funds and the community couldn't afford to finish the inside of the Beit Ha-Knesset. The community couldn't even afford to raise a fence around the Jewish cemetery. Without a fence cattle would wander in, graze and desecrate the cemetery.

My Grandfather Noah saw this as a challenge. So, after raising as much money as he could from the community, he decided to write to the House of Rothschild in Paris to describe Libi Tashov's predicament and ask for the Rothschilds' help. My Grandfather Noah was one of the few of his generation in the town who could read and write in languages other than Yiddish and Hebrew.

The Rothschilds' response was very encouraging. Not only were they ready to help, but they hired an Italian artist and dispatched him to the town. The artist spent months painting the ceilings with the signs of the Zodiac and the interior walls with scenes from the Bible, all in oils. The town's rabbi and learned supervised the work, and made suggestions to make sure that the art wouldn't transgress the Commandments of the Law against making graven images. For the Zodiac sign Virgo, the artist was asked to paint only an arm holding a bouquet of flowers. For a scene evoking the rivers of Babylon where the Jewish exiles sat crying as they remembered Jerusalem, he painted harps and violins hanging silently on the trees. By the shores of the Rivers of Babylon. In the Beit Ha-Knesset. In Libi Tashov. In Poland. Before the war.

Fifty years ago, on the Fifth day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, my grandfather Noah watched helplessly as the German Nazis and local ruffians set fire to the Beit Ha-Knesset and destroyed it and everything that was in it.

Joshua Heilman

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