Rypin, Poland
Rypin, the ancestral home of the Binnard family, is today located in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. The population in 2009 was 16,950.[1]
The town has been in existence for hundreds of years. In the 18th Century it became a center for district courts, an army camp, and a salt warehouse.[2] At that time, when other Polish towns tried to restrict Jewish settlement, Rypin encouraged it, believing Jewish traders and merchants would help improve its economic situation.[3] In 1779 the town granted its Jewish residents certain privileges, including the right to conduct trade, to have their own butcher and baker, to own land, to have their own rabbinical court and religious academy, and to establish their own cemetery. They were granted a quarter of the city, Targowo Street.[4] These privileges lasted only a short time. In 1797 their taxes were raised and new taxes were levied on non-residents, marriage licenses, rabbinical documents, and occupations. Men from 14 to 90 had to pay an army tax. The community lost the right to choose their own leaders and religious officials, and to have their own butchers.[5] After the defeat of the Prussians by France in 1806, Rypin came under the control of the Duchy of Warsaw.[6] At that time, Jews represented over 75% of the population (315 out of 405 residents). As the century progressed, the town grew, but the percentage of the inhabitants who were Jewish decreased. In 1857, about the time the Binnards were immigrating to America, the total population was 2,272, with 1156 or 48% being Jewish.[7] When World War II broke out, most Jewish residents of Rypin either fled or were killed by the Nazis. There had been three Jewish cemeteries in the town. There are no records for the earliest two, which existed in the 1700s. The third, which was probably established in the 1800s, was destroyed by the Nazis, with the stones used to pave sidewalks. In 1989 some of the stones were recovered and preserved in a monument on the old cemetery grounds.[8] _________________________ [1] “Rypin,” Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rypin : accessed 29 April 2014). [2] Shimon Kanc, Sefer Ripin (Tel-Aviv: Irgun yotse Ripin be-Yisrael, 1962), 17. [3] Ibid, 21. [4] Ibid, 21-22. [5] Ibid, 23. [6] Ibid, 24. [7] Ibid, 28. [8] “Rypin,” Cmentarze zydowskie w Polsce (http://www.kirkuty.xip.pl/rypin.htm : accessed 21 March 2014). |