Kozienice AUD is a town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 in central Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 with 21,500 inhabitants (1995). It is the capital of Kozienice County (Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 Powiat kozienicki).

Description

It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship

Masovian Voivodeship

-Administrative division:Masovian Voivodeship is divided into 42 counties : 5 city counties and 37 "land counties"...

 (since 1999); previously, it was in Radom Voivodeship

Radom Voivodeship

Radom Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in years 1975–1998, superseded by Masovian Voivodeship...

 (1975-1998) and in Kielce Voivodeship

Kielce Voivodeship

Kielce Voivodeship is a former unit of administrative division and local government in Poland.-1921-1938:Kielce Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in years 1921-1939. Back then, it covered a large chunk of central part of the country, including such...

 (1919-1939, 1945-1975).

Near Kozienice, in Świerże Górne

Swierze Górne

Świerże Górne is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kozienice, within Kozienice County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Kozienice and south-east of Warsaw....

, there is a large thermal power station

Power Station Kozienice

The Kozienice Power Station is a coal-fired thermal power station in Świerże Górne near Kozienice, Poland. It is Poland's second largest power station with an installed capacity of 2,820 MW....

.

Kozienice is in the Radom district, almost four miles from the Vistula

Vistula

The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....

, surrounded by forests, water, villages, and towns such as Zwoleń

Zwolen

Zwoleń is a town in Poland, in Mazowsze Voivodeship, about 30 km east of Radom. It is the capital of Zwoleń County. Population is 8048 .- People :* Stanisław Chomętowski* Jan Karol Tarło* Stanisław Tarło...

, Gniewoszów

Gniewoszów

Gniewoszów may refer to the following places in Poland:*Gniewoszów, Lower Silesian Voivodeship *Gniewoszów, Masovian Voivodeship...

, Magnuszew

Magnuszew

Magnuszew is a village in Kozienice County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Magnuszew. It lies approximately north-west of Kozienice and south-east of Warsaw....

, Mniszów

Mniszów

Mniszów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Nowe Brzesko, within Proszowice County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Nowe Brzesko, south-east of Proszowice, and east of the regional capital Kraków.-References:...

, Ryczywół, Garbatka, and other smaller settlements.

Kozienice gives its name to the protected area

Protected area

Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international...

 called Kozienice Landscape Park

Kozienice Landscape Park

Kozienice Landscape Park is a protected area in east-central Poland, established in 1983, covering an area of .The Park lies within Masovian Voivodeship. It takes its name from the town of Kozienice....

.

Jews in Kozienice

Kozienice had a Jewish community with a long history. Kozienice is pronounced as "Kozhnitz" in Yiddish

Yiddish language

Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...

. In the early 19th century, the Kozhnitzer Magid Yisroel Hopsztajn was one of the pioneers of Hasidism

Hasidic Judaism

Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...

 in Poland. He established the Kozhnitz dynasty

Kozhnitz (Hasidic dynasty)

Kozhnitz is the name of a Hasidic dynasty founded by the Kozhnitzer Maggid, Rebbe Yisroel Hopsztajn. Kozhnitz is the Yiddish name of Kozienice, a town in present-day Poland.-Lineage:...

. In 1856, there were 2,885 people in Kozienice with 1,961 Jews, and in 1897, there were 6,882 people and 3,700 were Jews. Before World War II, about 15,000 souls lived in this region. The Jewish community lived there for about 400 years. The two main industries there were tourism, with Jewish pilgrims visiting the Maggid's tomb, and shoe manufacturing.

Jewish references and links

• Sefer Zikaron li-Kehilat Kozhnitz (The book of Kozienice; The birth and the destruction of a Jewish community); Editor: Baruch Kaplinski, Tel Aviv – New York, The Kozienice Organization, 1985 (English, 677 pages),
• Former Residents of Kozhnitz in Israel, 1969 (Hebrew and Yiddish, 516 pages).
• jewishgen.org, Kozienice