Place
Kozhnitz קוז'ניץ
A town near Warsaw where the Maggid of Kozhnitz preached for half a century—the first Chassidic court in Poland proper.
Around 1766 Rabbi Yisrael Hopstein became maggid—the community's preacher—here, and remained so until his death in 1814. In that half-century Kozhnitz became the first Chassidic court beyond Galicia and Ukraine: from here Chassidism entered Poland, and from here came Peshischa, Belz and Ger.
The Maggid's son and grandsons continued the court; the community of Kozhnitz perished in 1942. The Maggid's wooden synagogue has not survived, but his grave in its ohel stands, and people come to it.
On the timeline
Related
The Maggid of Kozhnitz—Rabbi Yisrael HopsteinThe Bnei Yissaschar—Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of DinovChiddushei HaRim—Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Avodat Yisrael by the Maggid of Kozhnitz — the teaching of the Kozhnitz court
Scholarship
- The standard reference works and encyclopedias — the Maggid from c. 1766 to 1814, the descendants, the destruction of the community in 1942
Basis: documents and evidence.