Jew began settling in Góra Kalwaria (Calvary Mountain) in 1795, and by a century later they had attained more than 50% of the city’s population. The Tsadik Isaac Meir Rothenberg Alter, brother-in-law to Menahem Mendl of Kotzek, settled here in 1859. The Jews called Góra Kalwaria “Gur”, or the “New Jerusalem”, so well-known were the tsadik Alter and his dynasty. During the occupation, all the Jews of Góra Kalwaria were transferred to the Warsaw Ghetto, and from there to Treblinka.
Albert Londres’s account
Albert Londres visited Albert Londres in 1929: “Two thousand inhabitants, but one of the navels of eastern Jewry. Here, the famous zadick [sic] Alter, successor to Baal Shem Tov, the one who took the Zohar across the Carpathian Mountains in a car, sought contact with God, just like our fans of wireless radio seek the airwaves.”
Albert Londres, Le Juifs Errant est Arrivé (The Wandering Jew Has Arrived). (Paris: Le Serpent à Plumes, 2000).
Today, the edifices of two synagogues remain, at Pijarska Street 5 and 10-12, converted today into the stores. The Jewish cemetery dates to 1826 and often receives visitors from the United States.