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Radom

RADOM, city in Kielce province, Poland. The first Jews to visit Radom mainly traveled there as representatives of the Jewish communities at the sessions of the Polish Sejm (Diet) or to negotiate with the tribunal of the treasury, which met at Radom between 1613 and 1764. Jewish residence in the city was banned in 1633, 1724, and 1746; a few Jews settled in the suburbs and numbered 67 by 1765. They were later permitted to reside in a special quarter. The settlement began to develop after 1814, and an organized community was formed; a cemetery was established in 1831 and the first synagogue built in 1884. The community increased from 413 in 1815 (about 16% of the total population) to 1,495 in 1856 (23%); 11,277 in 1897 (37.6%); 24,465 in 1921 (39.7%); and 25,159 in 1931 (23.3%). Before World War I and during the period between the two world wars Jews played a considerable role in the development of commerce and industry in Radom, both as entrepreneurs and employed workers. Jewish organizations in 1925 included a merchants' and artisans' bank and trade unions; there were numerous welfare institutions, including the hospital, founded in 1847, and an old age home, founded in 1913. Religious and secular educational and cultural needs were met by yeshivot, the first founded in 1908, the talmud torah, and prayer houses (shtiblekh) for the ḥasidic community, as well as schools of various types, including a high school, and five libraries. Periodicals published in Radom during the inter-war period were the Yiddish daily Radomer Tsaytung until 1925; the weekly Radomer Lebn, later Radomer-Keltser Lebn; Radomer Shtime; and Trybuna (in Polish). The first rabbi of the community officiated at the beginning of the 19th century. Rabbis of note were Samuel *Mohilewer and Simḥah Treistman (1904–13), later rabbi of Lodz.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Halpern, Pinkas, index; A. Rutkowksi, in: BŻIH, 15–16 (1955), 75–182; 17–18 (1956), 106–8; Sefer Milḥamot ha-Getta'ot (19542), index; Sefer Radom (1961), a memorial book published in Heb. and Yid.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.