Brezovica lies in the Torysa valley below the eastern foothills of the mountains Levočské vrchy. The settlement developed on the old road leading from Šariš to Spiš, usually referred in the period materials as the “via magna” – the great road. Later, after the establishment of the villages of Tichý Potok and Blažov with the adjacent settlements of Dolina, Čertež and Ždiar, Brezovica became an important business crossroads. The inhabitants were engaged in wheelwrighting, carpentry and the production of wooden tools. At one point, the village boasted with 7 mansions and a Renaissance manor house from the 17th century and there was also a synagogue. It was a wooden log building probably built after the issuance of a tolerance edict by Joseph II. The exact year of construction and destruction of the synagogue is not known, but it probably stood there at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. It disappeared just after World War II, when it served as a hay barn for a short time. Before the war, the village was a home to a large Jewish community, as evidenced by the large Jewish cemetery. Jews came to the village in the second half of the 18th century from Galicia, Poland. The Jewish population grew relatively fast at that time and Brezovica became the seat of a Jewish rabbinate. In 1904, there were about 216 Jews living in Brezovica with smaller communities in Blažov, Dolina, Tichý Potok, Nižný Slavkov, Vysoká and Brezovička. In addition to the existing yeshiva, which was attended by many outstanding rabbis, there was also a school teaching selected crafts.
