ZOLYNIA KEHILLA AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS

	Partial headstone, now on display at the Jewish museum in Lancut, is that of "a modest woman who followed the ways of our holy fathers," Gada, daughter of the rabbi Yaakov Avigdor the Cohen. The rabbi was a "More Tsedek" or "righteous teacher." Thanks to Gedalia Fensterheim of Israel for this recent photo.

The biographies and genealogies of leading rabbis of the destroyed Jewish communities of Europe is a growing field of research. Bits and pieces of Zolynia's rabbinical and religious history are recorded. Particularly in rural towns and villages, religious leaders played a central role in Jewish daily life.

The concept of the kehilla (kehillot is the plural form), an officially recognized local Jewish community, dates to medieval times in Poland. In 1789, Austrian Emperor Joseph II divided Galicia Province into 140 official Jewish communities or kehillot to keep vital records, supervise education and collect special taxes among the Jewish population. All permanent Jewish residents of a town were members of its kehilla. Each kehilla was headed by a kahal, a three-man governing board elected by the men Jewish community, and a Chief Rabbi who was officially recognized by the government as the person in charge of keeping the vital records. Often, the kahal had employees and staff, which might include (depending on the kehilla's size and wealth) additional rabbis, scribes and even a few civil servants to work in the Jewish neighborhood as street cleaners or watchmen. Over time, as the government wanted more and more to end the separateness of the Jews from the rest of Austrian society, the kehillot were stripped of their civil powers (for example, as of 1875 Jewish birth, death and marriage records were kept by civil authorities, but were still kept within the recognized Jewish community).

The kehillot would exist throughout the period of Austrian rule and into the period of Polish independence, being officially disbanded in 1927. After a few years of conflict between the ideas of Zionists and orthodox leaders on how Jewish institutions should be governed, in 1930 the government established powiat (county) boards that would hire rabbis. Zolynia was within the Lancut powiat.

The Zolynia Jewish community was organized out of the Lancut community in the second half of the eighteenth-century. In 1900, the following smaller villages were within the Kehilla of Zolynia Miasteczko:

Bialobrzegi
Biedaczow
Brzoza Stadnicka
Chodaczow
Czarna
Dabrowki
Gwizdow
Korniaktow
Laszczyny
Rakszawa
Smolarzyny
Zalesie
Smyslowka
Zolynia Miasteczko
Zolynia Wies

Zolynia was the home to a number of rabbis related to famous hassidic rabbinic dynasties.

From about 1848 to about 1860, Zolynia was the home of Reb Yosef-Moshe Teicher, a famous Torah scholar (see the box at the bottom for more information).

By 1880, Reb Avraham Yosef Igra sometimes transliterated as "Eigra") settled in the town with some of his followers. He was the son-in-law of Reb Mordechai of the Nadvorna dynasty (many leading hassidic rabbis assisted sons and sons-in-law to settle in other communities, extending their influence). A well-known tzaddik or holy man, Reb Avraham Yosef was known to "fast from one Sabbath to the next," according to rabbinic records, and for his philanthropy toward the poor. Hundreds of his hassidik followers visited the "Rebbe of Zholin," and some settled in the town. After a few years he and many his followers moved to Kishinev (he died in Cracow in 1918).

Avraham Yosef's rabbinical position in Zolynia was inherited by his son, Aharon Moshe (a conflicting account says that Aharon Moshe was the son of Rabbi Mordecai Leifer of Nadvorna, which would make him Avraham Yosef's brother-in-law). When Aharon Moshe moved to Lancut, he was followed by two more rabbis of the Nadvorna dynasty, Reb Chaim Naftali and then Reb Yoel, the son of Avraham Zerach Heller. In the 1890s, Reb Yaakov Cohen was a rabbinical scholar serving under the senior rabbi. At the beginning of the 20th century, Rabbi Naftali Chaim Horwitz was elected rabbi, and Eli Horwitz was Zolynia's rabbi in 1912. In the years just before the Second World War, Aron Kornreich was Zolynia's rabbi.

Many thanks to Tomer Bruner of Israel, who sent the above information about his great-grandfather, Rabbi Yosef-Moshe Teicher of Zolynia. It is based on Rabbi Zwi-Emilech Teicher's preface to Imrei Yosef, a book written by Rabbi Yosef-Moshe Teicher, his father.