LEBORK

LEBORK (Pol. Lębork; Ger. Lauenburg), town in Pomerania, N. Poland. In 1753 a plan for founding a Jewish town (Judenstadt) near Lebork was proposed by the stettin (Szczecin) city council. Its purpose was to concentrate the rich and privileged Jews in one place and to compete with nearby Danzig (gdansk ). Initial government response was favorable, as were the answers to queries addressed to the local gentry and to the Jews, who were to be the main financiers of the project. The plan was shelved because of the opposition of the king, who claimed that an increase in the number of Jews was always harmful to Christians. It was only in 1787 that a Jewish settlement is first recorded in Lebork consisting of 36 persons. The community grew to 244 in 1840 and 371 (4.9% of the total population) in 1880. In 1827 a school was founded and in 1863 a ḥevra kaddisha. In 1932 the community (239 persons) maintained a synagogue, cemetery, school, and three charitable organizations. In 1939 only 104 Jews remained in the town; the community was not renewed after the war. M. horovitz served briefly (1874–78) as rabbi. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: U. Grotefend, Geschichte und rechtliche Stellung der Juden in Pommern… (1931), passim; FJW, 77; S. Stern, in: JSOS, 11 (1949), 139f.; PK.