Professional and Social Activities of Karaims Coming from Lithuania to the 20th Century Warsaw

Abstract

Karaims coming from Trakai, Panevėžys, Vilnius or Kaunas started settling in Warsaw in the last decades of the 19th century. Most likely the very first Karaims to settle there were producers and merchants of tobacco industry who had come from the Crimea. They liked to employ their compatriots from Lithuania.
I would like to present several businessmen, tradespeople, civil servants, university professors and students who willingly led their life in Warsaw and, still keeping in touch with their native soil, became reliable and faithful citizens of Poland. As it is impossible for me to mention all of them, I chose those really close to my heart and memory, mainly my relatives and some other people I can remember. Among them Szymon Chorczenko (1868–1923) and his wife, Rafał N. Jutkiewicz (1872–1953) and his wife Raisa née Bezekowicz, Emil Kobecki (1868–1943) and his wife Maria Ławrynowicz, Ananiasz Zajączkowski (1903–1970) and his wife Nadzieja née Jutkiewicz, Izajasz Jutkiewicz and his wife Nadzieja née Dubińska, Michał Kobecki and his wife Elwira née Kapłanowska, Aleksander Dubiński and his wife Anna née Nowicka, Michał Maszkiewicz, Ananiasz Rojecki, Szymon and Zofia Firkowicz. Their activities and participation in the life of Karaim society in Warsaw earned them gratitude and respect of younger generations.
Chronologically, the history of Karaims settling in Warsaw and the area can be divided into several periods: before the outbreak of the First World War, between the two World Wars, years of the Nazi occupation, and finally the People’s Republic of Poland when the group of Karaim newcomers from Lithuania was the largest as a result of territorial changes.
During each of those periods, members of the Karaim community in Warsaw had to face various challenges. Between the Wars, they made efforts to validate the Status of the Karaim Religious Association, during the war they helped people in need, for instance, offering refuge. The Organisation Committee of Karaim Religious Association exerted themselves to validate the Status again, to obtain a special place for religious and social purposes. A rule, widely recognised among Karaim people actively engaged in the work, said that the higher position you have in society, the more helpful you should be and the more your compatriots can expect of you.
The most important feature of all those periods was a special bond with the land of our ancestors, a tie which was not only formal, but deeply felt, a bond of belonging to the religious community of Trakai, of participating in religious, spiritual and cultural life over there. Thanks to this special bond we have survived as a group, and nowadays we can take part in new cultural initiatives.