Mikvah discovered in basement of former strip club in Poland

(JTA) — Before the Holocaust, the population of the town of Chmielnik, Poland, was around 80 percent Jewish. Sephardic Jews, having been expelled from Spain during the Inquisition, settled in Chmielnik and eventually built a synagogue in 1638.

After the war, only four Jews remained. Today, the building houses a museum of the town’s Jewish life and history.

Now another Jewish heritage site has been discovered, in an unlikely place.

A few years ago, Marian Zwolski, a businessman from Chmielnik, purchased a former nightclub that has been closed for 15 years. When he opened the door to the basemen...