LECZNA

LECZNA (Pol. Lęczna; Rus. Lenchna; Yid. לענטשני), town in Lublin province, E. Poland. Jews are first mentioned in 1501. In the years 1668, 1678, 1681, and 1685 the delegates to the councils of the four lands of Poland and the Council of Lithuania convened in Leczna. At the triennial fairs held in Leczna during the 18th century, local Jewish merchants and those from other towns traded mainly in livestock. In 1765 the number of Jewish poll tax payers under the jurisdiction of the Leczna kahal amounted to 724, of which 491 were in the town proper. Among the Jewish villagers, 55 families earned their livelihood as leaseholders and innkeepers. In 1864 the Russian authorities executed the commander of a Polish revolutionary unit, Lieutenant Rachmiel Bornsztejn, in Leczna. The community numbered 1,506 (60% of the total population) in 1827; 1,679 (64%) in 1857; 2,446 (65%) in 1897; and 2,019 (63%) in 1921. Before the outbreak of World War II there were about 2,300 Jews in Leczna. Two large-scale deportations to death camps took place in Leczna, on Oct. 23 and Nov. 11, 1942. Only 330 Jews were left in a forced-labor camp, which was liquidated on April 29, 1943, when the prisoners were sent to sobibor death camp or Trawniki camp. After the war, the Jewish community of Leczna was not reconstituted. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Halpern, Pinkas, index; S. Dubnow (ed.), Pinkas ha-Medinah (1925), index; R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun Tsifern (1958), index; A. Eisenbach et al. (eds.), Żydzi a powstanie styczniowe, materiały i dokumenty (1963), index; I. Schiper (ed.), Dzieje handlu żydowskiego na ziemiach polskich (1937), index; B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 34. (Raphael Mahler)