BOJANOWO:
A town in the district of Ravditsch, province of Posen, Germany. A Jewish community of one hundred and forty-four souls dwelt in Bojanowo as early as 1793. They were under the protection of the Boyanowskis, the lords of the manor, who had founded the town in 1638. They received from the lords the privilege of free trade, the right to buy houses, and the right to pursue all handicrafts, for which they had to pay in per capita taxes twelve full-weight groschen to the king, eight thalers and ten silver groschen to the lord of the manor, and eight silver groschen to the city, for permission to reside in it. In the beginning of the nineteenth century Samuel Samwel Munk, "who knew how to read and write German, and was in the habit of reading German books and even journals in the hours that are neither day nor night," held the position of rabbi at Bojanowo, whence he was called to Wollstein (Graetz, "History of the Jews," index volume, p. 7, Philadelphia, 1898). The synagogue, built as early as 1793, was burned down during the great fire in 1857, but was rebuilt the following year. The Jewish cemetery was opened in 1817. In 1900 Bojanowo counted a Jewish population of only fifty-eight out of a total of 2,200.