Rabbinate

Rabbinical Highlights

SOURCES:

PINKAS HAKEHILOT POLIN – Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Poland V.1 Lodz and its Region 1976

A CITY WITHOUT A RABBI DOES NOT EXIST

Initially, Zychlin’s Jewish community was a subpart of the Kutno or Gostynin religious structure.  By 1766, however, Zychlin was independent with religious governance run by key “homeowners”.  

Shlomo ben Avraham was one of the town’s first rabbis in the early 1800’s. Rabbi Efraim Fishel (of Strykov) was also prominent then, however when he died in 1824, a few of his followers named his successor as Szmuel Aba Zychlinski who became very prominent during this time. He was also known as the Alter Rebbe of Zychlin. The son of a rabbi, he developed quite a following when he moved to Zychlin in 1844.  Aba was the founder of the Zychlin Hasidic movement, a branch of Peshischa Hasidism which began to take shape in the latter half of the 1800’s when more Hassidic rabbls moved into Zychlin. Aba was known as a miracle worker. He also spent time in jail, accused of practicing practical Kabbalah. The Pinkas Hakehillot Polin chapter on Zychlin notes, “The common people flocked to him. In his area of control and influence, especially the “enlightened” cities and towns of the Prussian occupation, Rabbi Shmuel Abba fought the harbingers of progress, the people of education and reform.”  Rabbi Aba died in 1879. Zychlin’s Jewish cemetery holds a relatively recent memorial for Rabbi Szmuel Aba (see Cemetery Page)

Moshe Natanel Zychlinski  followed in his father’s ootsteps, serving as Grand Rabbi of Zychlin. He died in 1912.

For a brief period, Rabbi Iciek Majer Elechnowicz (b. Feb 7 1868 Biezun; d. Dec 26 1909 Zychlin) was chosen as the rabbi in Nov 1902. He was formally approved Jan 1903 as the Rabbi of Zychlin (1903 – 1909).* He was the son of Szulik (Solomon) Elechnowicz and Malika nee Lipszyc. Yearly salary was 400 rubles. (Source: A City Without a Rabbi Cannot Exist)

After WW I, the rabbi of Zychlin was Yechiel Yitzchak Rappaport (Mizrachi Party). Political dissatisfaction by members of the Agudat party lead to undermining of his rabbinic role and they denounced him to the Polish authorities in 1920 as a Bolshevik—leading to prison time!

In subsequent years, Aba’s grandsons and great grandsons also became Grand Rabbis of Zychlin.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zychlin_(Hasidic_dynasty). 

The Zychlin Yikzor book includes portraits of two of Aba’s descendents, shown below.

Grand Rabbi Menachem Yedidah Zychlinski (1872-1940) and his brother Grand Rabbi Saadyia Hanoch Zychlinski (1875-abt 1940). They were both followed by Rabbi Shmuel Avraham,  the son of Rabbi Menachem Yedidah, who served as the head of the Hasidim until Purim 1942. He was one of the last Rabbis of Zychlin—murdered by a firing squad on the day before the liquidation of the ghetto and the deportation of all the Zychlin Jews to their death. Another Rabbi who served until perishing at the hands of the Nazis, was Avraham Mordechai Alter (b. 1872). He was a Ger Hasid and was considered a great scholar.

All were murdered in the Holocaust.  

Photo on left: Sefer Zychlin, New York Public Library Digital Collections, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/c228c820-2328-0133-d661-58d385a7b928#/?uuid=c1d5aed0-2328-0133-6337-58d385a7b928 Photo on right: Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot, https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e177246/Photos/The_Rabbi_of_Strykow_Lodz_Province_Poland_1900