Jews in Tykocin
Jews arrived here in 1522, invited by Olbracht Gasztolt, the governor of the Vilna and Troki (Trakai) regions, to enhance local trade and handicraft. The undertaking was supported by two Polish
kings: Stefan Batory, who granted Jews the privilege of settlement in 1576
and Ladislaus IV, in 1633.
The Tykocin kahal achieved great significance. It encompassed every Jewish community within a radius of 150 km and played an important role in the Diet of Lithuanian Jews. In the second half of the 19th century Tykocin began to lose out to its competitor Bialystok and the town started to fall into decline.
In the 19th century Jews formed over 60% of the population, but because the railway line avoided the town an economic crisis ensued, causing people to emigrate. Before the outbreak of the Second World War Jews constituted 44% of the population, approximately 2,000
people. One of the ways they made a living was from the production of
tallitim.
There was a Hebrew school as well as the Zionist youth movement He-chalutz.
The last rabbi was Abraham Zwi Pinchos.
The Holocaust reached Tykocin on 5
August 1941 when the Germans shot dead 1,400 people and deported the rest to the Bialystok Ghetto. The largest Jewish presence was in the neighbourhood of the Jewish market and the Great Synagogue in the western district of Kaczorowo, along ul. Holendry and ul. Pilsudskiego. The community
institutions: the rabbi's house, smaller houses of prayer, and the ritual
bath all concentrated around the spot where the River Motlawa flows into the
River Narew.
A walk in Tykocin, taking around an hour, is an indispensable part of the
trip. The most interesting streets are ul. Pilsudskiego and ul. Kaczorowska.
In ul. Pilsudskiego, opposite the synagogue, you will find a plaque
commemorating Markus Zamenhof, the father of Ludwik. The house at ul.
Kaczorowska 1 is adorned with the Star of David.
The Tykocin Jewish cemetery
is located in ul. Pilsudskiego and surrounded by aconcrete wall. The fairly
large site contains numerous toppled gravestones with the illegible
inscriptions. By the road to opuchowo there is a place marked with
a memorial, where the execution of Jews by the Nazis took place in 1941.
