Izbica, Poland

IZBICA Lublin district, Poland. The first Jewish families settled in the late 18th century and soon comprised over 90% of the population, numbering 3,019 in 1897 after many lost their homes and property in an 1863 fire. Izbica became famous as a hasidic center when Rabbi Mordekhai Yosef Leiner (d.1854) established a dynasty there. Supplying the Hasidim improved economic life. The Zionists and the Bund became active in the early 20th century. At the end of WWI, the local population and Polish troops attacked the Jews. Between the World Wars, most Jews lived in penury, with nearly half on relief in the late 1930s, supported by the Joint Distribution Committee and many receiving remittances from relatives in the U.S. Zionist activity continued unabated and 200 families, mostly Gur Hasidim, supported Agudat Israel. A new hasidic court was founded by Rabbi Tzevi Aryeh Rabinovitz, a scion of the Przysucha dynasty. After their occupation in September 1939, the Germans designated Izbica as a concentration point for Jewish refugees from western Poland. Three thousand Jews from Kolo and Lodz were brought there in December 1939. A Judenrat was set up in early 1940, and a regime of forced labor was instituted. Jews from Czechoslovakia and Germany were transferred there in spring 1942, bringing the Jewish population up to 6,500. On 24 March 1942, 2,200 Jews were deported to the Belzec death camp and on 1 May, 500 to the Sobibor death camp. Thousands more arrived in October 1942, mostly from Zamosc. On 22-30 October, 5,000 were deported to Sobibor; 500 were shot in the streets. Another 1,750 on their way to Sobibor passed through the town in November. The last 1,000 Jews were sent to Sobibor in January and April 1943.