
The Plato/Flato family from Przasnysz, Poland
"In remembrance of those who lived among us".
- PRZASNYSZ – CMENTARZ ŻYDOWSKI W PRZASNYSZU video
- Przasnysz / Prosnitz Yiskor Book Memoirs & Stories (JewishGen.org)
- Jewish Records Indexing - Przasnysz
- History of Jews in Przasnysz
Przasnysz [%CB%88p%CA%82asn%C9%A8%CA%82] is a town in Poland. Located about 110 km north of Warsaw, was one of the most important towns in Mazovia during the Middle Ages.
Jews appeared in Przasnysz in the 16th century and emerged as an organized community over the 18th century. The late 1880s saw the kehilla reach its peak, with the number of its members at 4,500 (52% of the town’s population).
In 1820 the Jewish quarter in Przasnysz was demarcated. It encompassed the Horse Market as well as Błonie, Zduńska, Mała Warszawska, Kacza streets. Densely populated, it had to be enlarged by absorbing Świętokrzyska and Makowska streets. The hardships of wartime being over, the kehilla gradually rebuilt the infrastructure.
In the interwar period it had a cemetery, an orphanage, a bathhouse and a cheap canteen. The re-creation of the synagogue was completed in 1928 and the costs were covered by rabbi Eljahu Purzycki, who had sold his house and allocated 10,000 zl for that purpose. He also funded a large aron kodesh.
Mendel Lewkowicz served as rabbi till 1924 and was followed by Icchak Parzęczewski (1939-1942, previously rabbi in Głowno, Łowicz and Ruda Pabianicka).
The kehilla was strongly influenced by orthodox supporters of traditional Judaism as well as Hasidim from Góra Kalwaria and Aleksandrów.
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The Jewish Cemetery in Przasnysz (45 Leszno Street) was established in the 18th century. The last recorded burial took place in 1939.
During the Second World War, the Germans devastated the cemetery. They used matzevot to pave the roads in the town. After the war, the southeastern part of the cemetery was taken over by Przasnysz Public Utility Company. The rest was intended as a park.
In the area of 1.44 ha, 33 tombstones have been preserved , the oldest of which come from the second half of the 19th century. The matzevot were made of granite and sandstone. They bear typical ornamentation and tombstone inscriptions in Hebrew and Yiddish. Fragments of the cemetery wall have been preserved.
In 1986, the Society of the Enthusiasts of Przasnysz Land (with its seat on 1 Maja Street) conducted tidying up works in the cemetery. A few preserved matzevot were brought from the damaged Jewish cemetery in Chorzele, of which a lapidarium was built.
Also a monument was erected with Hebrew and Polish inscriptions:
"In remembrance of those who lived among us".
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- Abraham Lichtstein - Av Beis Din (head of the rabbinical court) of Przasnysz
- Haskel Prager (né Łucki) (b. c. 1876 – d. c. 1940) - liberal Jewish community leader
- Alfred Borkowski (born 1930) - doctor and writer
- Adam Bień (born 14 December 1899 - died 4 March 1998) - Polish resistance leader, imprisoned by the Soviets
- Czesław Czaplicki (b 1922 - died 2006) - resistance leader
- Moisei Freidenberg (1858—1920) — Russian inventor and journalist
- Józef Stanisław Ostoja-Kotkowski (born 1922 - died 1994) - artist