Tomaszów Lubelski

• Name — Tomaszów Lubelski • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Type1 — Voivodeship • Subdivision Name1 — Lublin • Subdivision Type2 — County • Subdivision Name2 — Tomaszów • Subdivision Type3 — Gmina • Subdivision Name3 — Tomaszów Lubelski (urban gmina) • Established Title — Established • Established Date — 16th century • Established Title2 — Town rights • Established Date2 — 1621 • Founder — Jan Zamoyski • Named For — Tomasz Zamoyski • Leader Party — PiS • Leader Title — Mayor • Leader Name — Wojciech Żukowski • Elevation M — 280 • Area Total Km2 — 13.29 • Population As Of — 2013 • Population Total — 19,365 • Population Density Km2 — auto • Time Zone — CET • Utc Offset — +1 • Time Zone Dst — CEST • Utc Offset Dst — +2 • Postal Code Type — Postal code • Postal Code — 22-600 • Custom Label Sec1 — Car plates • Custom Data Sec1 — LTM • Website — www.tomaszow-lubelski.pl

• Illustration — Historic County Sejmik The town was founded at the end of the 16th century by Jan Zamoyski as Jelitowo. It is known by its current name since 1613 when it was renamed after Zamoyski's son, Tomasz. It obtained its city charter in 1621. It was administratively located in the Bełz Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province of Poland. The area around the city saw serious fighting in 1914 during World War I. On 17–26 September 1939, during the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland which started World War II, the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski was fought between Poland and Germany. The town was bombed by the Germans and eventually found itself under German occupation. The town's Jewish community, which numbered over 5,600 in 1939 at the start of the war, was persecuted by the occupiers in the Holocaust. The Nazi Germans first placed the Jews in a ghetto established in the town, then exterminated them in 1942 at Bełżec extermination camp located a few km. south of the town. The Jewish community ceased to exist. In 1975–1998, the town was administratively located in the Zamość Voivodeship. There is an Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas in the town, built in the Russian Revival style, constructed between 1885 and 1890 using state funds allocated by the Russian government for such purposes. The church remained continuously open during World War I, the interwar period, and World War II. Pastoral activities were interrupted only by Operation Vistula and the forced resettlement of Orthodox Ukrainians from Tomaszów. Until 1957, the abandoned church was used by dairy plants and gradually fell into disrepair. That year, the Orthodox parish in Tomaszów Lubelski was reinstated, and a provisional renovation of the building was carried out. More extensive restoration work took place in the late 1980s and early 21st century.

In the town there are two faculties of Catholic University of Lublin (Legal and Economic Sciences). It has two high schools (Bartosz Głowacki High School and Władysław Sikorski High School), three technical colleges, two gymnasiums and two primary schools.

International Folk Festival Roztocze is a popular annual music festival organized since 1990. Since 2008 the town council organizes reconstructions of Battle of Tomaszów.

Tomaszów is the home for the football team Tomasovia.

There are two main newspapers published weekly in Tomaszów Lubelski. First of them, ReWizje Tomaszowskie, is financed by the town council. Second of them, Tygodnik Tomaszowski, belongs to a private company.

Tomaszów Lubelski is twinned with: • Grigiškės, Lithuania • Kivertsi, Ukraine • Zhovkva, Ukraine

• Mordechai Yosef Leiner (1801–1854), Hasidic thinker • Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, (1787–1859), Hasidic thinker • Joanna Pacuła (born 1957), actress • Leon Pinsker (1821–1891), Zionist activist • Zygmunt Sochan (1909–1998), footballer and member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II • Monika Skinder (born 2001), cross-country skier • Moshe Wertman (1924–2011), Israeli politician • Marek Zub (born 1964), football manager • Wojciech Żukowski (born 1964), member of the parliament, Law and Justice