The firstJewish settlers arrived to Nowy Sącz probably in the 15th century,however, the regular settlement falls on the period from the second half of the17th century, when an independent Jewish community was created inthe town. The first brick synagogue was built over a hundred years later, in1780. The greatest blossoming of the Jewish community in Nowy Sącz took placein the 19th and 20th century. The Jews were an element ofa colourful mosaic in the religious and social life of the town. In addition tothe main synagogue, in the interwar period called the Municipal Synagogue, whenthe Jews were 1/3 of the inhabitants of the city, there were about 20 smaller prayerhouses in Nowy Sącz. The more affluent social classes were subject to gradualassimilation and social changes. Mystical Hasidic piety flourished nearby. Itwas Nowy Sącz where there was the house of the Halberstam Tzadik dynasty’sancestor called Chaim Sandzer - Chaim from Nowy Sącz, author of the outstandingwork Divrei Chaim [Words of Chaim]. The vast majority of the Sącz Jews diedduring World War II. Few who had survived, left at the turn of 1968-69. Sincethe 1990s, the only Polish Hasidic prayer house, located in the building of BajsNusn – Nathan’s House and founded by the Haside Nathan Krisher at the turn ofthe 19th and 20th century, has been open again.