Jewish Student Association of Rigorisants in Lviv (1918–1933)

Abstract

After the end of the First World War in the year 1918, Jewish Student Association of Rigorisants in Lviv, established in the year 1868, was reactivated. The members of this organisation were the students of John Casimir University, Lviv Polytechnic School, and also of the High School (Academy) of Veterinary Medicine.

In accordance with the Statute, the objectives of the Association were connected with self-assistance, and they included: managing a student's halls of residence and a canteen, providing financial loans, conducting a library and a reading-room, looking for extra work for students and assistance within the scope of medical care.

Officially, the Association was not involved in political activity; in a matter of fact, all the students, and that means: Polish, Ukrainians and Jews, were at that time interested in social and political issues, whilst some of them were actively engaged in such an activity. The students being the members of the Jewish Student Association of Rigorisants,  were involved in the Zionism movement, the objectives of which included national rebirth and rebuilding the Jewish state in Palestine.

The Association was functioning upon the basis of financial means in the form of membership fees, donations and voluntary payments made by of the community of Jews. Financial support was provided by the Jewish intelligentsia: physicians, chemists, lawyers, notary publics and teachers from Lviv, Drohobych, Stryi, Stanislau, Kolomyia and Tarnopol