Ostrowiec

OSTROWIEC (also Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski), town in Kielce province, Poland. In 1755, the rabbi of Ostrowiec, Ezekiel b. Avigdor, took part in an assembly of the *Council of the Four Lands. Previously Eliezer b. Solomon Zalman Lipschuetz, author of responsa Heshiv R. Eliezer ve-Si'aḥ ha-Sadeh (Neuwied, 1749), had served as rabbi there. The community increased from 1,064 in 1827 to 2,736 in 1856 (80% of the total population) and 6,146 in 1897 (62.8%). In 1921 it numbered 10,095 (51%). Most of the Jews in Ostrowiec lived in conditions of extreme poverty. A pogrom was instigated there by factory workers in 1904. The Jewish loan fund in Ostrowiec had a membership of 474 in 1924, of whom 344 were storekeepers, tradesmen or peddlers, 97 artisans, and 33 in miscellaneous professions.

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