ROZDOL

ROZDOL (Pol. Rozdół; in Jewish sources ראזלו), town in E. Drogobych district, Ukraine; formerly in E. Galicia within Austria and independent Poland. For many years the owner of the town, Rzewuski, waged a struggle against the province of Bratslav, which claimed the right to collect taxes from the Jews of Rozdol. In 1751 the tax tribunal in Radom decided in favor of Rzewuski and the Jews were ordered to pay their taxes to him. In the 17th century, a large number of the Jews in the town became followers of Shabbateanism (see shabbetai zevi ), influenced by Rabbi Fishel, who claimed he was the messiah descended from Joseph, and that Jonathan eybeschuetz was the Messiah descended from David. After appeals to the civic authorities, R. Fishel was expelled on the ground that he was insane. According to an inadequately based theory, the founder of Ḥasidism, israel b. Eliezer Ba'al Shem Tov, was the rabbi of Rozdol who participated in the disputation against the frankists held in lvov in 1759. On the eve of the partition of Poland and its incorporation into Austria in 1772, there were 639 Jews in Rozdol (1765). The Jewish population increased during the 19th century and by 1912 numbered 2,262 (about 50 percent of the total population). During World War I it declined, and in 1921 numbered 1,725 (about 45 percent). After World War I Jewish public activity expanded in the town which was known for its party conflicts, mostly between Ḥasidim and Zionists. The Germans occupied Rozdol on June 23, 1941. Most of the community was deported to Belzec death camp on September 4–5, 1942. The remaining Jews, who worked for German enterprises, were sent on September 30 to Stryi, where they were probably killed with others on February 3, 1943. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Pinkas ha-Kehillot Poland, vol. 2 – Eastern Galicia (1980). (Shimshon Leib Kirshenboim)