Jewish Families from Bobowa, Poland

This project seeks to collect all of the Jewish families from the town of Bobowa, Poland, also known as Bobov, Bobova.

Gesher Galicia - Bobowa

Background

Bobowa [b%C9%94%CB%88b%C9%94va] (Yiddish: באבאוו‎) is a town in the Gorlice County, Poland. It is located 18 kilometres from Gorlice, on the Biała Tarnowska river. It was formerly a village, granted town status on 1 January 2009, lying approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of Gorlice and 83 km (52 mi) south-east of the regional capital Kraków.
Bobowa is located along Regional Road nr 981, it also has a rail station on the electrified line which goes from Tarnów to the border with Slovakia at Leluchów.

History

The Jews were brought to Bobowa by Michał Jaworski in 1732 in order to improve the town's collapsing economy. A synagogue was erected in 1756 serving the needs of 44 families. In 1900 the Jewish population of Bobowa numbered 749.

Before the Holocaust in Poland, the town was home to a yeshiva, notable as a historic centre of Hasidism, created and led by the tsadik of the Bobov dynasty. It was also the home of Gen. Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski who became "President of Poland for a day" in 1939.

During the Second World War Bobowa became a "concentration village" where the Jews from the surrounding area were imprisoned. The General's brother Kazimierz was the mayor and was able to save at least one Jew. Almost all were finally killed.

One of the few survivors, Professor Samuel P. Oliner of Humboldt State University, California, describes these events in his autobiography Restless Memories. He devoted his academic career to the study of altruism, having himself been rescued by a Polish peasant woman called Balwina.

Jewish Cemetery

After the war Grand Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam (1907 – August 2, 2000) re-established the Bobov (Hasidic dynasty) in America. He was the son of Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam (1874–1941) of Bobov (Bobowa), who died in the Holocaust.
Initially based in the neighbourhood of Borough Park in Brooklyn, New York, it now has branches in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn; Monsey, New York; Montreal; Toronto; Antwerp; London and Israel and is under the leadership of Rabbi Shlomo's son Rabbi Ben-Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam.

People

1. Wojciech Bobowski
2. Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski
3. Bronisława Wieniawa-Długoszowska

Rabbis of Bobowa

1. Shlomo Halberstam (first Bobover rebbe)
2. Ben Zion Halberstam
3. Shlomo Halberstam (third Bobover rebbe)
4. Naftali Halberstam
5. Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam
6. Mordechai Dovid Unger

See also:

Bobov Hasidic Dynasty

History

First Rebbe of Bobov

Originated with Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam who was the grand son of Grand Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz, in the Galician village of Bobowa.

While most of the early yeshivos ("Talmudical academies") originated in Lithuania, the 19th century saw the opening of similar institutions in Poland. The first yeshiva in Poland was established by the first Bobover Rebbe in 1881 in Vishnitsa where he was rabbi then; and it later moved with him to Bobov.

Second rebbe of Bobov

His work was continued by his son, Grand Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam, author of Kedushas Tzion. The Bobov Yeshiva was originally situated only in the town of Bobov itself. However, under his guidance the Chasidus grew in numbers, with Hasidic youth flocking to Bobov. Subsequently as many as sixty branches of the Yeshiva under the name "Eitz Chaim" were established throughout Galicia.
During World War II the Bobov Hasidic movement was destroyed, the Second Rebbe himself perishing in the Holocaust together with thousands of his followers.

Third Rebbe of Bobov

Barely 300 chasidim survived, and the Rebbe's son Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam took it upon himself to rebuild Bobov. He first settled in the West Side of Manhattan; later moving to Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, The Yeshiva was located on the west side of Brooklyn Avenue at 184 Brooklyn Avenue between Park Place and Prospect Place; it later moved to Borough Park. Rabbi Shlomo was known as a very wise man and a Gaon in Midos (Giant in good manners/attributes) and a true gentleman. He was noted for his steadfastness in not taking sides in disputes. This brought him great popularity and respect.

Over the more than fifty years that Rabbi Shlomo was Rebbe of Bobov; he founded and built a vast network of synagogues, chasidic schools for boys and girls (yeshivas), high schools (mesivtas) and post high school houses of learning. Besides schools, a summer camp for boys was founded in 1957 in the Catskills' Ferndale, NY, and a girls camp "Camp Gila" was founded a couple years later. These institutions span the globe. At the time of his death in August 2000, he was mourned by more followers than his father had in pre-War Poland. His Hebrew date of death was the first of Av the same as that of Aaron the Biblical High Priest (Numbers 33:38), which was noted by many for their similar characteristics of "loving peace" (Oheiv Sholom Veroidef Sholom - Loved peace and pursued peace) (Pirkei Ovos 1:12).

Fourth Rebbe of Bobov

With Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam's death, his son Rabbi Naftali Halberstam Naftali Zvi Halberstam succeeded him. Rabbi Naftali Zvi died on March 23, 2005 (12 days in Adar II, 5765) at age seventy-four leaving a wife, two daughters and two sons in-law; Bobov45 Ruv Rabbi Yehoshua Rubin and Bobov45 Rebbe Grand Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Unger; as well as his brother Bobover Rebbe Grand Rabbi Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam and five sisters.

In 2005 after Grand Rabbi Naftali Halberstam of Bobov died; There was a dispute And a few people left and started on their own in a new Center in Brooklyn on 45th Street, under the leadership of Grand Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Unger the son in law of the Fourth Bobov Rebbe Grand Rabbi Naftali Halberstam Zt"l, and was later at an arbitration panel known as a Beth Din. The Beth Din gave out a decision that Grand Rabbi Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam brother of the previous Rebbe is the Bobover Rebbe And that Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Unger could call himself Bobov45, Worldwide and that Bobov must pay Bobov45 6.5 Million Dollars within the next 5 years .

Fifth Rebbe of Bobov

Rabbi Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam, son of Bobover Rebbe Grand Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam is the Current Bobover Rebbe.

In addition to those books revered by all Hasidim, the Bobover Hasidim particularly treasure Kedushas Tzion by the second Bobover Rebbe (published by the third Bobover Rebbe), Likutei Kerem Shlomo by the third Bobover Rebbe.

Links

1. Bobov-45
2. Books about the Rebbes of Bobov