Ropczyce

 ( Cities And Towns In Subcarpathian Voivodeship ) 

In the following administrative changes of the region of Galicia in 1885, 178 powiat () were created in the existing 19 administrative areas ( cyrkułs) and Ropczyce was made the county seat of its own |county. The last reorganisation occurred in 1867 saw the reduction of administrative areas and the number of counties set to 74. Ropczyce remained as the county seat of its county. At the end of 1867 the population of Ropczyce county was 58,975 people, the first starosta; elder or mayor of the reorganised county of Ropczyce was Wilhelm Mehoffer ( father of Józef Mehoffer, Polish painter). Ropczyce remained part of Galicia until 1918, when it became again part of independent Poland (Second Polish Republic).

According to the 1921 census, the town had a population of 3,002, of which 89.3% declared Polish people nationality and 10.4% declared Jewish nationality.

The earliest information about Jews settling in Ropczyce dates back to 1564. It was noted then that four Jewish families, i.e. about 30 people, lived on the farm of the Gryf family. In 1604, King Sigismund III Vasa granted Ropczyce with a law, following which only two Jewish families (of a district’s leaseholder and of a tax collector) were allowed to live in the town, however, they were strictly forbidden to

The 17th century was the time of the town’s stagnation and downfall. Ropczyce was plundered by Sweden troops in 1655 and conclusively devastated in 1657 by the army of George II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania. Many houses in the town were deserted and ruined after the wars. As nobody paid for them, the local authorities tried to occupy the houses with new inhabitants. However, Polish people townsmen were not interested in it, and so Jews were the buyers, despite the fact that the ban on their settling in the town was still in effect. The law was broken for the first time in 1675, when the Town Council allowed Józef Szmul, a Jew, to acquire a house at the Market Square under condition of renovating the building. In exchange for that, he was exempted from paying taxes for two years. Mańko, Sławomir. "Ropczyce: The Chassidic Route", page 11. Polish Jews Heritage 2008.

At the end of the 18th century, Ropczyce became a significant center of Chassidism after the famous Naftali Zvi Horowitz (1760–1827) settled in the town (He was born on 22 May 1760, the day that the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidism, died). He was the son of Menachem Mendel Rubin, the rabbi of Lesko and a follower of two great Tzadik: Elimelech of Leżajsk ( Lizhensk) and Menachem Mendel of Rymanów. Tzadik Naftali Zvi Horowitz was the author of, among others, Zera Kodesh (a collection of comments to the Torah, published in 1868), and Ohel Naftali (a collection of sayings, published in 1911). Cohen, Chester G. "Shtetl Finder: Jewish Communities in the 19th and early 20th centuries", page 84. Heritage Books, 1989. At the end of his life, he left Ropczyce and settled in Łańcut where he died on 8 May 1827 (corresponding to 11 Iyar 5587) and where he was buried. Sheim uSheirit, Chapter 25, 'Ropshitz' Asher of Ropczyce was the next tzadik of the town. The sons of Naftali Zvi Horowitz also became tzadikkim : Eliezer Horowitz – in Dzików near Tarnobrzeg, and Jakub Horowitz (named The Small Baal Shem Tov , usually translated into English as , due to numerous miracles that he performed) – in Kolbuszowa and later in Mielec. Mańko, Sławomir. "Ropczyce: The Chassidic Route″, page 12. Polish Jews Heritage 2008.''

Up until World War II Ropczyce was a shtetl () with a significant Jewish population. There is a Ropshitz Hasidic dynasty.

The Germans occupied Ropczyce in September 1939 and immediately began brutalizing the Jewish population, at that time around 1000 people. They burned the synagogue and shortly began to conscript Jews for forced labor. Many Jewish refugees from nearby villages came to Ropczyce during the next two years. In May, 1942, 75 men were deported to a labor camp in Pustków. In June, there was another roundup where 23 people were murdered on the spot and others were sent to Pustków. Later in the month, the remaining Jews were forced into an overcrowded ghetto. In July, the Germans shot 28 people, children and the elderly, and took the rest of the Jewish population to Sędziszów Małopolski. Several hundred were shot there and the rest sent by train to Belzec where they were immediately gassed. The number of survivors among the Ropczyce Jews is unknown.