This is a postcard featuring a reproduction of a famous painting by Leopold Pilichowski of a street in a Jewish village in Poland on Shabbat. The picture shows a poor area with unpaved roads, no pavements, and crowded thatched roof houses that seem to have different kinds of makeshift additions. People dressed in Shabbat clothing are walking along the street. Many people are conversing with their neighbours and, in the bottom-right corner, two children seem to be sitting on the ground playing. The women are wearing long dresses and shawls, and the men are wearing long coats. The overall atmosphere is one of relaxation and comradery. The artist’s name and the words, “On Shabbat,” are written at the bottom of the postcard in Hebrew and French.
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Shabbat – Shabbat is the Jewish name for Saturday, the Jewish day of rest. According to Jewish tradition, this day commemorates the final, seventh day of God’s creation of the world. Shabbat is observed from just before sunset on Friday night until the appearance of three stars on Saturday night. The Talmud devotes an entire tractate to the rules of Shabbat and derives 39 types of forbidden activities. These include using electricity, writing, and other actions that are considered forms of creating. Shabbat is, instead, a day for family, community, prayer, and reflection. Traditionally Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles, reciting the blessings over wine, Kiddush, and over the two loaves of special Shabbat bread, challah, and enjoying a festive meal. Shabbat is marked in the synagogue by a special additional prayer, known as Musaf, and the reading of the weekly Torah portion. The end of Shabbat is marked by the Havdalah ceremony. In Israel, secular Jews also enjoy Shabbat by eating Friday night dinner with their family and friends and spending time together in the countryside or on the beach. Most workplaces are closed on Shabbat.
Leopold Pilichowski – Leopold Pilichowski (1869–1933) was a Polish Jewish painter who often used Jewish themes in his work. Pilichowski used his paintings as a form of social commentary and showed the poverty and difficulties of living in Poland at that time. He also depicted religious life by painting people studying Jewish texts and observing Shabbat and festivals. Pilichowski was an ardent Zionist and painted portraits of many of the Zionist leaders of his day such as Theodor Herzl, Max Nordau, and Ahad Ha’am.
Jewish Community of Poland – Jews have been living in Poland for over 1000 years at the invitation of the Polish rulers who recognised the value of their particular skills. Jews fleeing persecution in other countries found relative security in Poland, and by the middle of the 1500s, eighty percent of all Jews lived there. For the next 200 years, Jews enjoyed a certain amount of autonomy in Poland and the community flourished, becoming very influential and a centre of Talmudic learning. Yeshivot were established by the prominent rabbis of the period, and mysticism and, later on, Hassidism, had a great influence on Polish Jews. Following the Polish partition of 1795, the Jews came under the rule of Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Prussia, and many were subject to anti-Semitism, pogroms, and poverty. Despite this persecution, Poland remained an important centre of both Jewish religious learning and the new Jewish Haskalah (Enlightment) movement. Poland was the birthplace of many influential Jews in politics, law, science, literature, and economics. Many of the leading Zionist leaders first joined the Zionist movement in Poland. Jewish culture, including Yiddish literature and theatre, also thrived here in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The end of the nineteenth century saw the emigration of many Polish Jews to the United States and Palestine due to the repressive Czarist Russian rule. By the onset of World War II, over three million Jews were living in Poland; by the end of the war, about eighty-five percent of the community had been murdered. Poland was home to many of the most notorious ghettos, concentration camps, and extermination camps, where the Holocaust was carried out by the Nazis and their supporters. Poland also saw Jewish uprisings against the Nazi occupation, and many non-Jewish Poles endangered their lives protecting Jews. After the Holocaust, most Jewish survivors did not return to Poland but emigrated to other countries. Of those who did return to their homes, many found their property confiscated and some were even victims of pogroms. Under the post-war communist rule the small Jewish community remaining in Poland faced additional hardship. However, after the fall of the communist regime, the community underwent a Jewish cultural, social, and religious revival. Jewish community centres and synagogues were built, universities started offering courses in Jewish studies, and the POLIN Jewish museum, one of the largest in the word, was opened in 2013. Many Jews from all over the world visit Poland to learn about the history of the Polish Jewish community and about the Holocaust. According to estimates by the Joint and the Jewish Agency, there are between 25,000 and 100,000 Jews currently living in Poland, including the many Poles who have discovered Jewish roots in recent years.
