KORNIK

KORNIK (Pol. Kórnik ; Ger. Kurnik ), town in Poznan province, W. Poland. Documentary evidence points to the presence of Jews in the town from 1618. In 1687 and 1713 the *Great Poland Council convened in Kornik. A privilege granted by the local nobleman allowed the Jews permanent residence and the right to trade in cloth, livestock, etc. against payment of special taxes. Communal records, beginning from the early 18^th century, existed until World War ii and included the special statutes of the tailors' guild, which was founded in 1754 with 44 members and still had 51 members in 1853. A small wooden synagogue was erected in 1736, and a larger one in 1767. According to the 1765 census, there were 367 Jews in Kornik, some of whom owned houses outside the Jewish quarter. After the Prussian occupation a provincial assembly met in Kornik in 1817 with the aim of submitting to the government suggestions for improving the lot of Poznan Jewry. Among Kornik rabbis was R. Israel Moses b. Aryeh *Loeb who served from 1781. A schoolhouse was built in 1846. During the 1848 revolution the Jews were attacked by the rebels. In 1808 the Jewish community numbered 566 (36% of the total population), increasing to 1,170 (43%) in 1840. From then on their number continually diminished due to migration to larger cities, falling to 399 (15%) in 1871, 220 (9%) in 1895, 111 (4.4%) in 1905, 92 (3.6%) in 1910, 57 (2.6%) in 1921, and only 36 in 1939. They were expelled by the Germans to Lodz and Kalisz in December 1939, sharing the fate of the local Jews.

bibliography:

R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun Tsifern (1958), index; B. Wasiutyirski, Ludność żydowska w Polsce w xix i xx wiekach (1930), 167; G. Loukomsky, Jewish Art in European Synagogues (1947), 37, 64; A. Warschaur, Die staedtliche Archive in der Provinz Posen (1901), 118; azdj, 63 (1899), 521; Mitteilungen der Gesamtarchive der deutschen Juden, 4 (1913), 110; A. Grotte, Deutsche, boehmische und polnische Synagogentypen (1915), 14, 17, 39, 41, 51–60; Deutsche wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift fuer Polen, 13 (1929), 139ff.; Mitteilungen zur juedischen Volkskunde, 3 (1907), 67f.; E. Callier, Powiatpyzdrski w xvi stuleciu (1888–91), 141; L. Lewin, Die Landessynode der grosspolnischen Judenschaft (1926), 33, 46, 98, 104ff.; A. Heppner and I. Herzberg, Aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der Juden und der juedischen Gemeinden in den Posener Landen (1909), 585–90; M.K. Piechotkowie, Bóżnice drzewniane (1957), illustrations nos. 100, 101.

[Encyclopaedia Judaica (Germany)]