Tykocin Tour – Jewish Shtetl

Tykocin. Great Synagogue.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Tykocin synagogue was the second largest and most magnificent synagogue in the Polish Kingdom, after the synagogue of Krakow. As early as the sixteenth century cemetery was established, which now is the oldest preserved Jewish cemetery in Poland.

The town became popular as an important center of Talmudic culture and studies. In Tykocin lived many famous rabbis and Torah experts (including Mordechaj Titkiner, Szmuel Eliezer Eidels „Maharszal”, Aron Charif).

From here also derived Rywka Tiktiner (Rebeka Tykocińska), daughter of Rabbi – Jewish scholar and writer creating in Hebrew and Yiddish, the author of a novel work entitled Meneket Riwka, which tells about the role of Jewish women and her place in contemporary social system. This book was published after the author’s death in 1609 in Prague. Rywka Titkiner was a unique person, because in the culture of the Ashkenazi Jews of that time women did not study Torah and were not involved in science. 

Tykocin. Kaczorowska Street.

A district inhabited before the war by the Jewish population was made up of a number of houses in the same style. By successive generations were adjusted to needs.

 If the owner worked in trade – entrance doors were double doors and led directly to the street.

 If carried out activities of craftsmen – expanded back of the building and cellars.

 Under number 1 is on the Kaczorowska a house in which we can easily find traces of the former owners. Above the door on the right side is the Star of David made from the laths. To this day, in the middle are preserved tiled stoves, furniture or even sanitary area with a stool on the bucket of water and a basin for washing.

 Zyskind Olsztajn, a heir of the house, sold it in 1946 to a man who during the war took the property and had there a store with metal articles.