Jewish Apta

Jewish Apta through history

A large and important Polish kehilla: a member of the Council of Four Lands, a town of great Chassidic leaders, until its destruction in the Holocaust.

The destruction of the Apta community

20 October 1942

On this day the ghetto was surrounded and the Jews of Apta were deported to Treblinka.

Timeline

  1. 1538Community

    Four Jewish families live in Apta

  2. 1545Community

    First privilege for the town's Jews, from Hetman Jan Tarnowski, owner of the town

  3. 16th c.Community

    The first synagogue is built and land is set aside for a cemetery

  4. 1639Community

    First documentary mention of the cemetery

  5. 16th–17th c.Community

    Apta is a member community of the Council of Four Lands, and its delegates attend its sessions

  6. 1666Community

    The community pinkas is begun; it survived into the 20th century and was lost in the Holocaust

  7. 1707–1738Rabbis & Chassidus

    R' Yehuda Landau, father of the Noda BiYehuda, serves as parnas for the Council of Four Lands

  8. 1765Community

    About 2,000 Jews live in Apta, an unusually large community for its time

  9. c. 1790–1795Rabbis & Chassidus

    R' Moshe Leib of Sassov and R' Yaakov Yitzchak of Peshischa settle in Apta

  10. 1800Rabbis & Chassidus

    The Ohev Yisroel serves as rav of Apta

  11. 1827Rabbis & Chassidus

    The Ohr LaShamayim, rav of Apta, passes away on 25 Tammuz 5587 and is buried in an ohel in the cemetery

  12. TraditionRabbis & Chassidus

    In a time of plague the rav of the town wrote his name on an iron staff and had it placed in the attic of the shul, and the plague stopped

    Some say it was the Ohr LaShamayim, others the Ohev Yisroel. The staff lay there until the war years.

  13. 1931Rabbis & Chassidus

    R' Shalom Rokeach Hy"d, son of the Maharid of Belz, becomes rav of the town; his brother R' Aharon of Belz comes to Apta for his installation

  14. 1941–1942Holocaust

    The Germans set up a ghetto in Apta

    Organisation began in 1940; the ghetto was closed off by an order of 13 May 1942

  15. 1942Holocaust

    The cemetery becomes an execution site; about 300 Jews are murdered and buried there

  16. Oct 1942Holocaust

    The ghetto is liquidated: about 6,500 Jews are marched to the Jasice railway station and sent to Treblinka

    20 October 1942

  17. 1942–1945Holocaust

    During the German occupation the matzevos were torn out and used as building material; the rest were removed in October 1962.

  18. 1962After the war

    The authorities approve turning the cemetery into a park; a culture house, a kindergarten and an amphitheater are later built on part of it

  19. 1989–1991After the war

    A lapidarium of matzeva fragments is set up and registered as a protected monument

  20. 2012After the war

    A symbolic gate and information plaques on ul. Kopernika

  21. 2022

    Archival research and a radar survey point to the place of the Ohr LaShamayim's ohel, beneath the amphitheater seating

From the archive

The synagogue of Opatów (historic photograph).
The synagogue of Opatów (historic photograph).
Aerial photograph of Opatów, 1944.
Aerial photograph of Opatów, 1944.
Detail of a 1947 survey map of Opatów; the plot is marked "Kirkut", Polish for a Jewish cemetery.
Detail of a 1947 survey map of Opatów; the plot is marked "Kirkut", Polish for a Jewish cemetery.
The kever site and the candle table
25 Tammuz 5785To this day, people come to daven at the tziyun