Obecność Żydów w Warszawie w XVI-XVIII wieku
The Presence of Jews in Warsaw in the 16th to 18th Centuries

Summary/Abstract: Since 1527, Warsaw enjoyed a privilege forbidding Jews from settling in the town and the suburbs. They were only allowed to be in Warsaw during Sejm meetings and when taking their petitions to the royal court. From the turn of the 17th century more and more Jews were settling in private estates surrounding Warsaw, and later in the town itself. Around the mid-18th century they formed self-government structures, which constituted a germ of the future community. Officially the authorities did not recognize the existence of the community, but in practice they willingly communicated with the Jewish community via the structures established by it. In Praga, the Warsaw district on the right bank of the Vistula, the existence of the Jewish community was only recognized by the authorities in 1775, while on the left bank this did not happen until after 1795. For those confessing the Judaic faith the most important thing was that from the middle of the 18th century they could satisfy their religious needs thank to gradual formation of self-government structures, whose powers encompassed the most important areas of life.

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