Skelivka (Felshtyn)

Sambir district, Lviv region


Old Jewish cemetery, 2019		New Jewish cemetery, 2019

Lviv region - list of settlements and location of objects

Skelivka (Felshtyn), 2023

Sources:
- Jewish Cemeteries Initiative. Skelivka Old Jewish Cemetery

Photo:
- Benjamin Lukin, Center for Jewish art. Skelivka (Felsztyn, Felshtyn, Skelevka)
- Jewish Cemeteries Initiative

The Jews began to settle down in Skelivka in the early 17th century. In 1880, 590 Jews were inhabitants of the village.

The Jews of Skelivka were involved in trading and crafting.

The local community became independent in the late 18th – early 19th century.

In the early 19th century, Aharon Itzhak (died in 1860) served as a rabbi.

At the turn of the 19th century, the Jewish population reached its peak of 690 (51,9% of the total population).

In the interwar period, the economic condition of the Jewish community declined.

In the summer of 1942, most of the local Jewish population was expelled to the Belzec death camp through the Sambir ghetto.

Felsztyn, as the settlement is called in Polish, was founded in 1374 by King Ludwik Węgierski, on lands granted by Duke Vladislaus II of Opole to the Herburtowie noble family, and received town privileges under the Magdeburg rights in 1380.

Additional privileges were granted to the town in 1488 by Kazimierz Jagiellończyk and in 1551 by Sigismund II Augustus. The name was historically variously spelled as Fulsztyn, Folsteyn, Felstin, Fullensteyn, Fulsthine and Fulstin (1593). Its name comes from the town of Bohusov in present day Czech Republic, until 1950 called Fulstejn in Czech, also belonging to the Herburt family. Another Felsztyn was founded in Podolia, known in Ukrainian as Hvardiiske.

In the interwar years, Felsztyn had a mixed population of Poles, Ukrainians and Jews.
After World War II, some Lemkos from Poland were moved to the renamed Skelivka.


Synagogue in Skelivka, 1997. Iin 1960s, it was rebuilt as a store	Former Jewish houses in Skelivka, 1997