This is a postcard with a black and white photograph from the late nineteenth century of the Lodz Craftsman’s School Talmud Torah. The main building, the Lodz Talmud Torah, is a large, four floor building with smaller buildings adjacent to it. It is the predominant building on the block. The two small shops in the bottom right-hand side of the photograph seem to be closed. People are walking along the street in front of the school. Beneath the photograph is the caption, “Lodz Craftsman’s School Talmud Torah” written in German and Ukrainian. On the side of the photograph is the handwritten greeting, “With greetings, Max Heidrich.” The handwriting is very stylized and appears to be carefully written.
The city of Lodz, situated west of Warsaw, Poland, was an important Jewish centre with about a quarter of a million Jews when this postcard was printed.
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The Jewish Community of Lodz, Poland – The Jewish community of Lodz was founded in 1793 when 11 Jews settled in the city. By the beginning of the nineteenth century a small wooden synagogue had been built to serve the community. Under Russian rule, Lodz became an important industrial centre and the Jewish population grew immensely. The local authorities allocated two streets where Jews were permitted to live. Jews were forced to send their children to regular schools and were forbidden to wear traditional clothes. In 1848 these restrictions were abolished and Jews settled throughout the city, although many still concentrated in the former Jewish quarter. Jews established retail and other businesses and also owned textile mills, which was the largest industry in Lodz at this time. Lodz attracted Jews from Russia and from other cities in Poland and the Pale of Settlement. Most members of the Jewish community were poor and Orthodox, but secular and political organisations such as the Bund and Jewish labour unions, Zionist groups, and the Polish Socialist Society also thrived in the city. Many Jewish communal institutions were active in Lodz such as synagogues, schools, and charitable organisations. Lodz was also a centre of Jewish literary, theatrical, and artistic activity. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Lodz had become a city with a population of a quarter of a million Jews, making it the second largest Jewish community in Poland. In 1939 the Nazis occupied Lodz and anti-Jewish restrictions were immediately implemented, synagogues were burned, and Jewish leaders were killed or sent to concentration camps. Jews were forced to live in the ghetto and were later deported to concentration and death camps; very few of Lodz’s Jews survived the Holocaust. When the Soviet army captured Lodz in 1945, there were only 870 Jews left in the city. The Jewish community attempted to rebuilt itself after the war, with the return of many survivors and repatriates from the Soviet Union, but many soon left for Israel and other countries. In 2016, around 600 Jews lived in Lodz. The community has two synagogues, other religious institutions, educational organisations, and schools.
Talmud Torah - The Talmud Torah was a religious school elementary school in Europe which gave Jewish boys a grounding in Torah and Talmud. It prepared students for further studies in a yeshiva. European Talmud Torah schools were supported by the community and educated students from less affluent backgrounds.
