WYSZOGROD

WYSZOGROD (Pol. Wyszogród; Yid. Vishegrod), town in Warszawa province, eastern central Poland. A Jewish settlement in Wyszogrod is mentioned for the first time in 1422, when Jews received authorization from Prince Ziemowit IV (c. 1352–1426) to engage in commerce and crafts and to establish their own institutions. During the 16th century Jews established workshops for weaving. In the second half of the   18th century a synagogue was erected, built of stone in the late baroque style according to plans by the architect David Friedlander; it was destroyed by the Nazis in 1939. In 1765 the 684 Jews paid the poll tax, and 1,410 Jews paid the poll tax in 208 surrounding villages. The community numbered 2,883 (90% of the total population) in 1808; 2,458 (73%) in 1827; and 2,841 (74%) in 1857. From the mid–19th century many Jews moved from Wyszogrod to Plock and Warsaw; in 1897 there were 2,735 (66%) Jews in the town and in 1921, 2,465 (about 57%). During the 1920s eight of the 12 members of the municipal council were Jews. Because of the town's location on Poland's principal waterway, the Vistula River, Jews there engaged in interurban trade. Their position deteriorated, however, on the eve of World War II as a result of antisemitic pressure and boycott propaganda. N. Sokolow was born in Wyszogrod. The last rabbis to hold office were David Bornstein (until 1922) and Naphtali Spivak, both of whom died in the Holocaust. (Shimshon Leib Kirshenboim) -Holocaust Period At the outbreak of World War II there were about 2,700 Jews in Wyszogrod. On Nov. 19, 1942, the Jewish community was liquidated when the Jews were expelled to Czerwinsk and Nowy Dwor, and from there deported to the treblinka death camp. After the war the Jewish community was not reconstituted. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Halpern, Pinkas, index; R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun Tsifern (1958), index; B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 22; S. Pazyra, Geneza i rozwój miast mazowieckich (1959), passim; I. Schiper, Dzieje handlu żydowskiego na ziemiach polskich (1937), index; A. Kubiak, in: BŻIH, 8 (1953), 77, 89–91.