RAWICZ

RAWICZ (Ger. Rawitsch), town in Poznan province, W. Poland. The first settlement of Jews in Rawicz took place soon after the founding of the town in 1639. In 1648 complaints were lodged against Jewish merchants who were then expelled. They returned soon thereafter, only to be expelled again in 1674. By 1698 an organized community was in existence and in 1719 it received a Freibrief ("letter of privileges") regulating the rights and taxes of its members. By then the community totaled 12 families. A ḥevra kaddisha was founded in 1728 and the first rabbi, Menahem Mendel Gradenwitz, was appointed in 1755. Its bet din was headed by learned talmudic authorities, including R. Solomon b. Dov Baer (1786–93), later to be the community's rabbi. In 1774 a bet midrash was founded. Services were held in a private house until a synagogue was built in 1783. The community (35 families in 1739) flourished, and after a fire in leszno (1790) absorbed many refugees, including R. akiva eger , who lived there for one year. The local Jews were mainly shopkeepers, tailors, livestock merchants, and artisans. In 1797 the community had 198 families, and by 1835 there were 401 families (a total of 1,574 persons, or about 50% of the total population). A new synagogue was built in 1889 when the community was at its economic peak and served by a long line of scholarly rabbis, including its last one, the scholar John Cohn (1893–1920). The Jewish population subsequently declined to 363 in 1905. The town suffered during World War I, and under Polish rule the community was subjected to discrimination which induced many to leave for Germany; only 15 remained in 1933. The cemetery and synagogue were both destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. markus brann , the historian, and arthur ruppin , the Zionist leader, were both born in Rawicz. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Cohn, Geschichte der juedischen Gemeinde Rawitsch (1915); A.B. Posner, The Annals of the Community of Rawitsch (Heb. and Eng., 1962).