STASZOW

STASZOW (Pol. Staszów; Rus. Stashev), town in Kielce province, central Poland. The Jewish settlement there developed from the beginning of the 18th century. In 1765 there were 609 Jews paying the poll tax in Staszow and 169 in the surrounding villages. Jews in this period were occupied in tailoring, hatmaking, goldsmithery, glaziery, and soap manufacture. Between 1823 and 1862 Jewish settlement in the town was restricted by the authorities of Congress Poland. The Jewish population numbered 2,062 (52% of the total) in 1827; 3,246 (64%) in 1857; and 4,885 (62%) in 1897. In the second half of the 19th century Jews in Staszow established tanneries and factories for shoes and clothing, and engaged in small-scale trading. Owing to the residence there of the ẓaddik R. Israel (1763–1831), son of R. Meir ha-Levi Hurwitz of Apta, the influence of Ḥasidism within the community was strong. There were 4,704 Jews living in Staszow (56% of the population) in   1921. In 1932 antisemites perpetrated a pogrom against the Jews of the town. The community's institutions included battei midrash, two yeshivot, schools, two hospitals, and libraries. The celebrated ḥazzan Joseph (Yossele) Rosenblatt was born in Staszow. (Shimshon Leib Kirshenboim) -Holocaust Period On the outbreak of World War II there were about 5,000 Jews in Staszow. The Germans entered the town at the end of June 1941. A ghetto was established in June 1942, in which 5,000 Jews from Staszow and 2,000 from its vicinity were concentrated. The Jewish community was liquidated on Nov. 8, 1942, when hundreds of Jews were murdered and the remainder deported to belzec death camp. During these deportations many Jews fled to the nearby forests and succeeded in hiding there. After the war the Jewish community of Staszow was not reconstituted. Organizations of former residents of Staszow are active in Israel, the United States, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego, 11 (1890), 286; R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun Tsifern (1958), index; B. Wasiutyński, Ludnosć żydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 31; Sefer Staszow (1962, Heb., Yid., and Eng.).