LESHNEV

LESHNEV (Pol. Leszniów), town in Tarnopol district, Ukraine. Jews first settled there in the early 17th century, and the Jewish cemetery dates from that era. The synagogue, built in the second half of the 17th century, had an Attic roof and pseudo-Tuscan columns. The town was economically dependent on the nearby city of Brody. Under the influence of the ḥerem proclaimed against the Ḥasidim in Brody, in 1772 an assembly of "select members of the community," including the local rabbi, Menahem Mendel b. Jacob, and R. Akiva of Vladimir-Volynski, passed a decree against the Ḥasidim, which was signed by all the participants. The Leshnev community numbered 696 (32% of the total population) in 1880; 513 (26%) in 1900; and only 179 (about 10%) in 1921. The decline was caused by the decline of the economy and emigration. (Encyclopaedia Judaica (Germany) -Holocaust Period With the German conquest of the town at the end of June 1941 attacks against Jewish life and property began. Many fell at the hands of the Ukrainian population. Jewish youth were taken to labor camps in the surrounding area, and many met their deaths there. On November 2, 1942, the Jews were confined to a ghetto. Later some of the Jews were transferred to the Brody ghetto and were sent from there to extermination camps. On April 17, 1943, the remnants of the Leshnev community were liquidated. A few managed to escape from the ghetto and found shelter in the surrounding forests. After the war, Jewish life was not reconstituted in the town. (Aharon Weiss) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Balaban, Zabytki historyczne Żydów w Polsce (1929), index; Dubnow, Ḥasidut, 1 (19602), index; Sprawozdania Komisji dla badania historyi sztuki w Polsce, vol. 5; B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 139.