Źródła do dziejów żydowskiego szkolnictwa początkowego w Będzinie

Abstract

The sources collected in the State Archive in Łódź, in Zespół Dyrekcji Szkolnej Łódzkiej, concern the initial period (1872—1881) of functioning in Będzin the Jewish beginning school. The notes, protocols, requests or applications made by teachers, mayor or the so called Jewish community of the town present the attitudes and actions of one side only, the so called applicants. These were addressed at the authorities of Łódzka Dyrekcja Szkolna in Łódź and contain information on the problems the Jews from Będzin struggled with, the mutual relations between two teachers from these schools: I. Goldberg and H. Blicher, the attitude of Russian authorities towards the issues bothering the Jewish community. They also confirm diversification in the society existing among the Jews, their traumas, possibilities of taking decisions that are important for the general public within the scope of school issues, as well as ways of solving many problems. They also point to the fact that some citizens of the Moses’ belief through their smartness and abilities, could overcome many obstacles in order to reach an important goal of their lives. The authors of these requests, applications and complaints also revealed data concerning among other things the number of town inhabitants professions performed by them, and the level of affluence of particular religius‑cultural groups in Będzin. The presentation of these sources is preceded by a short introduction showing the circumstances of the formation and first years of work of this Jewish institution. Before each document there is information on the contents of sources, their dating and way of writing. The information in the documents included here, on the other hand, is supported by the footnotes explaining the meaning of some names and phenomena as well as showing the relationship with the already‑mentioned issues. The sources presented were hand written in Russian. When translating them, the author of the article wanted to make their Polish translation as similar as it is possible to the recording presented in the original version, that is, specific vocabulary and the way the authors of the documents transmitted different problems to school authorities.