Lost Treasures: The Wooden Synagogues of Eastern Europe The Artwork of Bill Farran

Sierpc, Poland - Original Linocut

Yiddish name: Sheps, Sherpts

The earliest mention of a Jewish presence in the town dates to 1739. By 1800, the Jews were two-thirds of the population of Sierpc. The shtetl was a center of industry and commerce, and inhabitants of the surrounding villages visited the town on market days. But the Jewish majority did not last very long. In the year before the start of the Second World War, Jews accounted for only 30 per cent of the population. The wooden synagogue of Sierpc was destroyed by fire and a new synagogue was built in 1895, in the same location.

Avraham Tac, a Holocaust survivor, visited his hometown of Sierpc in 1945, and wrote in Sierpc’s Yizkor (Memorial) Book, “The Jewish Street, starting from the old Beit Midrash, sported a new sidewalk that led over the hills. However, this was not an ordinary sidewalk. Oh, no! Gravestones from our cemetery were used to pave the sidewalk.”

Purchase a print

Original linocut prints are 8x10 inches, and are available either unmatted or in an 11x14 matte.

I also offer matted 5x7 digital prints. These prints are created from high-res digital images and come in an 8x10 matte.