From Czarny Dunajec to Samuel Felix in Isep

Who was Samuel Felix, to whom teenage Jakub Horowitz from Czarny Dunajec went in 1916?

Courtesy of Aleksandra Bury, who specializes in the history of the Jewish community in Żywiec, we have been able to gather more information about Samuel Felix, the person to whom the teenage Jakub Horowitz from Czarny Dunajec moved during World War I. We know more about Jakub's story from a postcard recently received by the Jewish Czarny Dunajec from his relatives.

The enigmatic record of his new address: "Jakub Horowitz bei Samuel Felix, in Żywiec, Isep" has been partially explained. As Aleksandra Bury discovered, Samuel Felix ran a dry cleaning and fabric dyeing business in Isep as early as the early 20th century, as a branch of Zygmund (then spelled with a "d") Fluss's business from Kraków. The advertisement below comes from the “Przewodnik Powiatu Żywieckiego” (Żywiec County Guide) from July 1901.

In 1906, the "Industrial and Commercial Directory of the Kingdom of Galicia" noted that Samuel Felix ran a "dyeworks for blue printed fabrics". Further confirmation that he ran the dyeworks independently can be found in documents from 1928 (Rafał Caputa, Dokumenty rozproszone w: Studia Judaica Biblioteki Żywieckiej. Materiały i opracowania do dziejów Żydów na Żywiecczyźnie, w: red. I. Jeziorski, Studia Judaica Biblioteki Żywieckiej, Biblioteka Żywiecka, nr 4, Społeczny Instytut Historyczny, Żywiec 2004, s. 88.). In 1933, Samuel Felix also served as treasurer of the Chevra Kadisha Burial Society.

It is unknown how long Jakub Horowitz stayed in Isep with Samuel Felix and where he later went. We know that he was already living in Bochnia before the war and likely died there. Finally, a brief explanation of the name Isep. Originally, it meant a mound of stones or sand washed up on a riverbank. Isep, near Żywiec, was actually located at the mouth of the Koszarawa River into the Soła River. The village of Isep was initially a single-village commune, from 1934 it belonged to the Sporysz commune, and in 1950 it was incorporated into the administrative boundaries of Żywiec (there is also a village called Isep in Tarnów County).

Aleksandra Bury is currently working on the book "They Were From Here" - the history of the former Jewish community in Zabłocie, Sporysz, and Isep (within the boundaries of present-day Żywiec) from the end of the 19th century to the outbreak of World War II.