KHOLM (CHELM):
Russian district town in the government of Lublin. Its Jews are mentioned in various documents of 1550 to 1569. In the latter year the delegate from Kholm to the Diet of Lublin complained of the growing power of the Jews and proposed that "the Jews and Gipsies be treated according to the Constitution." On Easter Day, 1580, while a church procession was in progress the burgher Timosh, with many companions, all armed with various weapons, attacked the synagogue during religious service. They threw stones through the windows, fired shots into the building, broke down the doors, damaged the roof, and wounded many of the congregation. A formal complaint against the rioters was lodged by the Jewish elders Pinkus, Saul, Avram Pestich, and Kalman, their statement being corroborated by the noble Foma Stano. The estimated loss to the synagogue was 2,000 gold ducats.
On May 1, 1582, Saul Novakhovich, Shlioma Yakubovich, Marek, Jacob the Doctor (Rabbi), and Bysko complained of the principal of the Kholm school, stating that he came drunk to the synagogue while the Jews Were engaged in prayer, and that he shouted, mocking the singing.
During the Cossack uprising of 1648-49 most of the inhabitants of Kholm were killed, among them about 400 Jews. In 1666 the delegate from Kholm to the Diet of Warsaw was instructed to demand the confiscation of land owned by the Jews without legal title thereto, and formerly the property of the Dominican monks.
In 1897 the Jews of Kholm numbered about 12,500 in a population of 19,236. The town is a commercial center of considerable importance; and practically all the commerce is in the hands of Jews.
- Regesty i Nadpisi, i., Nos. 284 et passim.
The following is a list of the rabbis who officiated in Kholm since the second half of the sixteenth century:
Simon Auerbach; Solomon Zalman (mentioned in Solomon Luria's Responsa, No. 101); Elijah b. Judah Aaron (called Elijah Ba'al Shem; pupil of Solomon Luria); Samuel Edels (1610-14); Eliezer Perles; Isaac b. Samuel ha-Levi (until 1627); Moses Katzenellenbogen (son of Meïr Wahl; d. 1689); Saul Katzenellenbogen (son of Moses Katzenellenbogen; d. 1691); Jekuthiel b. Hosha Aaron of Lublin (d. 1697); Hillel b. Jonah ha-Levi (called from Kholm to Wilna in 1690; grandson of Eliezer Ashkenazi; d. 1690); Meïr b. Benjamin Wolf (d. 1718); Solomon b. Simḥah Rapoport (d. 1763); Zebi Hirsch b. Selig; Saul Margolioth (d.1801); Samuel (gave his approbation to the "Leḥem Yehudah" in 1704); Solomon (author of "Merkebet ha-Mishnah"; d. 1756); Isaac b. Mordecai ha-Levi (until 1776; d. 1799; grandson of Joshua Reitzes, "the martyr"); Hirsch b. Joseph (author of a treatise on the improvement of the position of the Jews in Poland and on the ways to make them useful citizens of their fatherland; 1789); Ḥayyim b. Jacob (author of "Kokebe Ya'aḳob"; d. 1820); Isaac b. Joseph (author of "Mishnat Ḥakamim"); Joseph Kezis (d. 1830); Löb Neuhaus (son of Joseph Kezis).
- L. Rabinowitz, in Ha-Meassef, p. 154, St. Petersburg, 1902;
- J. Lewinstein, Dor Dar we-Dorshaw, Warsaw, 1898.
