Jews lived in Strzyżów from the late 16th/early 17th century, constituting about 50% of the town’s population for centuries. The brick synagogue was built in the second half of the 18th century (today, it houses a branch of the Museum of the Strzyżów Region); next to it stood two houses of prayer, a mikvah and a cheder. For more information about the Jewish community in Strzyżów, see https://sztetl.org.pl/en/towns/s/143-strzyzow/99-history/138086-history-of-community.
There were also three cemeteries in Strzyżów: the oldest one, established in the 17th century, another one from the 18th century (both were destroyed during World War II); the last one, near Żarnowska Góra, existed from 1850. It was precisely this last cemetery that became the most frequent subject of Weiss’s studies. Devastated during the occupation, it is now cleared up and fenced, several dozen recovered matzevot were put back up (the Germans had used them to pave the market square), and the ohel over the grave of Rabbi Alter Zeew Horowitz was rebuilt. (See Z. Rusek, D. Skóra, "Społeczność żydowska w dawnym Strzyżowie i okolicy – historia i wspomnienia" [The Jewish Community in Old Strzyżów and its Vicinity – History and Memories], Strzyżów 2010, pp. 45–49).
The landscape sketches from the Jewish cemetery (MPOLIN-M, MPOLIN-M ) are complemented by studies of individual matzevot, including the "Study of a Matzeva III" (other drawings from the series: "Study of a Matzeva I", "Study of a Matzeva II", and "Study of a Matzeva IV" are part of the collection of the Zygmunt Leśniak Museum of the Strzyżów Region). As Jacek Friedrich pointed out, "their documentary or even inventory character, devoid of any artistic problematisation, may enforce understanding it as a manifestation of a deeper interest in Jewish distinctiveness and cultural specificity. However, even these inconspicuous drawings cannot be judged with certainty as expressing any kind of Weiss’s individual attitude towards what is Jewish" (J. Friedrich, "Żydowskie tematy Wojciecha Weissa", in: "Żydowskie tematy Wojciecha Weissa", exhibition catalogue, Historical Museum of the City of Kraków, Kraków 1999, p. 9). The researcher’s intuition is confirmed by the fact that Weiss drew only decorative reliefs, ignoring Hebrew inscriptions. He was intrigued by the symbolism, he drew this matzeva twice (also as "Study of a Matzeva IV") with a representation of a broken tree, a pelican pecking at its own breast, and a rosette with the Hebrew letters "pet" and "nun", meaning "here rests". The iconography shows that it was a woman’s tombstone; it was on women’s graves that matzevot with the image of a pelican tearing its feathers (wounding its own chest to feed its hungry chicks with blood) were put up as a symbol of motherly love and dedication. The broken tree means, in turn, that the life of the deceased was too short: it is a symbol of a sudden or premature death.
Renata Piątkowska
