History of the Jews in Ukraine
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Jewish communities have lived in the territory of Ukraine for centuries and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions. While at times they flourished, at other times they faced periods of intense antisemitic discriminatory policies and persecutions.
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[edit] Kievan Rus'
Jewish settlements in Ukraine can be traced back to the 8th century. Jewish refugees from the Byzantine Empire, Persia, and Mesopotamia, fleeing from persecution by Christians throughout Europe, settled in the Khazar Khaganate.
The 11th century Byzantine Jews of Constantinople had familial, cultural, and theological ties with the Jews of Kiev. For instance, some 11th-century Jews from Kievan Rus participated in an anti-Karaite assembly held in either Thessalonica or Constantinople.
[edit] Halych-Volynia
In Halychyna, the westernmost area of Ukraine, the Jews were mentioned for the first time in 1030. From the second part of the 14th century, they were under the patronage of the Polish kings and magnates. The Jewish population of Halychyna and Bukovyna, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was extremely large; it made up 5% of the world Jewish population.
[edit] Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
From the founding of the Kingdom of Poland in the 10th century through the creation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, Poland was one of the most tolerant countries in Europe. It became home to one of the world's largest and most vibrant Jewish communities. The Jewish community in the territory of Ukraine during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the largest and most important ethnic groups in Ukraine.
[edit] Cossack Uprising and the Deluge
The Ukrainian Cossck hetman to reBohdan Khmelnytsky incited the Cossacks to revolt by telling them that the Poles had sold them as slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews." At that time it is estmated that the Jewish population in Ukraine was 51,325[1]. In the name of Orthodox Christianity the Cossacks massacred a huge number of Jews, Roman Catholics and Uniates during the years 1648–1649.
The precise number of dead may never be known, but estimates range from fifty thousand to several hundred thousand Jews killed: 300 Jewish communities were totally destroyed.
[edit] Rise of Hasidism and internal struggles
The Cossack Uprising until after the Swedish war (1648–1658) left a deep and lasting impression on the Jewish social and spiritual life.
In this time of mysticism and overly formal rabbinism came the teachings of Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or BeShT, (1698–1760), which had a profound effect on the Jews of Eastern Europe. His disciples taught and encouraged the new fervent brand of Orthodox Judaism based on Kabbalah known as Hasidism. The rise of Hasidic Judaism had a great influence on the rise of Haredi Judaism all over the world, with a continuous influence through its many Hasidic dynasties.
[edit] Imperial Russian and Austrian rule
The traditional measures of keeping Imperial Russia free of Jews failed when the main territory of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was annexed during the partitions of Poland. During the second (1793) and the third (1795) partitions, large populations of Jews were taken over by Russia, and Catherine II of Russia established the Pale of Settlement that included Congress Poland and Crimea.
During the 1821 anti-Jewish riots in Odessa after the death of the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople, 14 Jews were killed. Some sources claim this episode as the first pogrom, [2] while according to others (such as the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1911 ed.) say the first pogrom was the 1859 riots in Odessa. The term became common after a large-scale wave of anti-Jewish violence swept southern Imperial Russia, including Ukraine, in 1881-1884, after Jews were wrongly blamed for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.
In May 1882, Alexander III of Russia introduced temporary regulations called May Laws that stayed in effect for more than thirty years, until 1917. Systematic policies of discrimination, strict quotas on the number of Jews allowed to obtain education and professions caused widespread poverty and mass emigration. In 1886, an Edict of Expulsion was applied to Jews of Kiev. In 1893-1894, some areas of the Crimean peninsula were cut out of the Pale.
When Alexander III died in Crimea on October 20, 1894, according to Simon Dubnow: "as the body of the deceased was carried by railway to St. Petersburg, the same rails were carrying the Jewish exiles from Yalta to the Pale. The reign of Alexander III ended symbolically. It began with pogroms and concluded with expulsions."[3]
 A Jewish father teaching a child in 19th century Podolia. |
 Sholom Aleichem, a Yiddish writer who portrayed life in the Pale |
 The victims of a 1905 pogrom in Yekaterinoslav |
[edit] Political activism and emigration
Counterrevolutionary groups, including the Black Hundreds, opposed the Revolution with violent attacks on socialists and pogroms against Jews. The concessions came hand-in-hand with renewed, and brutal, action against the unrest. There was also a backlash from the conservative elements of society, notably in spasmodic anti-Jewish attacks — around five hundred were killed in a single day in Odessa. Nicholas II of Russia himself claimed that 90% of revolutionaries were Jews.
Persons of Jewish origin were over-represented in the Russian revolutionary leadership. However, most of them were hostile to traditional Jewish culture and Jewish political parties, and were eager to prove their loyalty to the Communist Party's atheism and proletarian internationalism, and committed to stamp out any sign of "Jewish cultural particularism".
[edit] Ukrainian People's Republic
Anti-Jewish pogroms continued to occur during the Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing Russian Civil War. An estimated 70,000 to 250,000 civilian Jews were killed in the atrocities throughout the former Russian Empire in this period.
During the establishment of the Ukrainian People's Republic (1919-20), pogroms continued to be perpetrated on Ukrainian ethnic territory. In Ukraine itself, the number of civilian Jews killed during the period was estimated to be between 35 and 50 thousand. Archives declassified after 1991 provide evidence of a higher number; in the period from 1918 to 1921, "according to incomplete data, at least 100,000 Jews were killed in Ukraine in the pogroms." [4]
Disputes among scholars continue over Symon Petlura's association with these pogroms.
- Further information: Symon Petliura
[edit] Jewish Colonisation of Crimea
In 1921 Crimea became an autonomous republic. In 1923 the All-Union Central Committee passed a motion to resettle a large number of the Jewish population from Ukrainian and Belorusian cities to Crimea. 50400 families were moved. The paln to further resettle Jewish families was again confirmed by the Central Committee of the USSR on Juy 15, 1926 assigning 124 million roubles to the task and also receiving 67 million from foreign sources[5].
The Soviet initiative of Jewish colonisation of Crimea was opposed by Symon Petlura[6] which he regarded as a provocation. This train of thought was supported by Arnold Margolin[7] who stated that it would be dangerous to set up Jewish colonies there.
The actions of the Soviet government for the supported colonization of Crimea with Jewish families by 1927 led to a growing anti-semitism in the area[8].
In 1944 it was suggested to Stalin to form a Jewish Soviet Socialist Republic in Crimea however the idea was not materialised[9].
For names and maps of Jewish settlements Jewish Agricultural Colonies of South Ukraine and Crimea
[edit] Early 20th Century
In 1905 a series of pogroms erupted at the same time as the 1905 Revolution against the government of Tsar Nicholas II. The chief organizers of the pogroms were the members of the League of the Russian People (commonly known as the "Black Hundreds").[10]
In June 1906 a pogrom in Bialystok, in which eighty people were killed, marked the end of three years of sporadic anti-Jewish violence.[11]
From 1911-1913 the anti-Semitic tenor of the period was characterized by a number of blood libel cases (accusations of Jews murdering Christians for ritual purposes). One of the most famous was the two-year trial of Mendel Beilis, who was charged with the murder of a Christian boy (Lowe 1993, 284-90). The trial was showcased by the authorities to illustrate the perfidy of the Jewish population.[12]
From March-May 1915, in the face of the German army, the government expelled thousands of Jews from the Empire's border areas, which coincide with the Pale of Settlement (Pinkus 1988, 31; Baron 1964, 188-91).
The February 1917 revolution brought a liberal Provisional Government to power. On 21 March/3 April, the government removed all "discrimination based upon ethnic religious or social grounds".[13] The Pale was officially abolished. The removal of the restrictions on Jews' geographical mobility and educational opportunities led to a migration to the country's major cities.[14]
One week after the 25 October/7 November 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the new government proclaimed the "Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples [Nations] of Russia," promising all nationalities the rights of equality, self-determination and secession. Jews were not specifically mentioned in the declaration, reflecting Lenin's view that Jews did not constitute a nation.[15]
In 1918 the RSFSR Council of Ministers issued a decree "On the Separation of Church from State and School from Church", depriving religious communities of the status of juridical persons, the right to own property and the right to enter into contracts; nationalized their property; banning their assessment of religious tuition. As a result, religion could be taught or studied only in private.[16]
1 February, 1918
- The Commissariat for Jewish National Affairs is established as a subsection of the Commissariat for Nationality Affairs. It is mandated to establish the "dictatorship of the proletariat in the Jewish streets" and attract the Jewish masses to the regime while advising local and central institutions on Jewish issues. The Commissariat is also expected to fight the influence of Zionist and Jewish-Socialist Parties.[17]
27 July 1918
- The Council of People's Commissars issues a decree stating that anti-Semitism is "fatal to the cause of the ... revolution". Pogroms are officially outlawed.[18]
20 October 1918
- The Jewish section of the CPSU (Yevsektsia) is established for the Party's Jewish members; its goals are similar to those of the Jewish Commissariat. The Yevsektsia is at the forefront of the anti-religious campaigns of the 1920s that lead to the closing of religious institutions, the break-up of religious communities and the further restriction of access to religious education.[19] To that end a series of "community trials" against the Jewish religion are held. The last known such trial, on the subject of circumcision, is held in 1928 in Kharkov.[20] At the same time, the body also works to establish a secular identity for the Jewish community.[21]
In July of 1919 the Central Jewish Commissariat dissolves the kehilahs (Jewish Communal Councils). The kehilahs had provided a number of social services to the Jewish community.[22]
From 1919-1920 Jewish parties and Zionist organizations are driven underground as the Communist government seeks to abolish all potential opposition.[23]
31 January 1924
- The Constitution of the USSR is confirmed. The USSR consists of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR), Ukraine SSR, Belorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SSR.[24] The Commissariat for Nationalities' Affairs is disbanded.[25]
29 August 1924
- An official agency for Jewish resettlement, the Commission for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land (KOMZET), is established. KOMZET studies, manages and funds projects for Jewish resettlement in rural areas.[26]
January 1925
- A public organization, the Society for the Agricultural Organization of Working Class Jews in the USSR (OZET), is created to help recruit colonists and support the colonization work of KOMZET.[27] For the first few years, the government encourages Jewish settlements, particularly in Ukraine. Support for the project dwindles throughout the next decade.[28]
In 1928, in an effort to establish a Jewish territorial region, KOMZET sends a number of Jews to the confluence of the Bira and Bidzhan Rivers in the Far East. Colonization of this area will help to create a buffer between the Soviet Union and the Far Eastern countries, and to stimulate development in the remote region.[29]
8 April 1929
- The new Law on Religious Associations codifies all previous religious legislation. All meetings of religious associations are to have their agenda approved in advance; lists of members of religious associations must be provided to the authorities.[30]
In 1930 the Yevsektsia is dissolved,[31] and there is now no central Soviet-Jewish organization. Although the body had served to undermine Jewish religious life, its dissolution leads to the disintegration of Jewish secular life as well; Jewish cultural and educational organizations gradually disappear.[32]
When the Soviet government reintroduced the use of internal passports in 1933, "Jewish" is considered a nationality for these purposes.[33]
7 May 1934
- Birobidzhan Province, the Far Eastern area where Jews are being encouraged to settle, is granted the status of an Autonomous Region in an effort to revitalize the settlement program. Between 1928 and 1934, fewer than 20,000 Jews migrate there; approximately 60 per cent return in the same period.[34]
In 1938 OZET is disbanded, following years of declining activities.[35]
As the Soviet government annexes territory in Poland, Romania and the Baltic states,[36] roughly two million Jews become Soviet citizens.[37] Restrictions on Jews that had existed in the formerly independent countries are now lifted.[38] [The Baltic states had begun their brief period of independence as democracies.[39] Policies of "Latvianization" and "Lithuanization" also caused friction with all minorities, although the Lithuanian government at the same time supported minority-language schooling.[40]] At the same time, Jewish organizations in the newly-acquired territories are shut down and their leaders arrested and exiled.[41] Approximately 250,000 Jews escape or are evacuated from the annexed territories to the Soviet interior prior to the Nazi invasion.[42]
[edit] World War II
See: Controversy regarding the Nachtigall Battalion
Total civilian losses during the war and German occupation in Ukraine are estimated at seven million, including over a million Jews shot and killed by the Einsatzgruppen.
[edit] Post-war
[edit] The post-Soviet era
At present Ukraine contains the third-largest Jewish community in Europe and the fifth-largest Jewish community in the world. The majority of Ukrainian Jews live in four large cities: Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Odessa[43].
Ukrainian Jewish Committee was established in 2008 in Kiev with the aim to concentrate the efforts of Jewish leaders in Ukraine on resolving strategic problems of the community and addressing socially significant issues. The Committee declared its intention to become one of the world’s most influential organizations protecting the rights of Jews and "the most important and powerful structure protecting human rights in Ukraine"[44].
Rabbis Yaakov Dov Bleich of Kiev and Shmuel Kaminetzky of Dnipropetrovsk are considered to be among the most powerful foreigners in the country.[45]
In November 2007, an estimated 700 Torah scrolls confiscated from Jewish communities during the Soviet Union's Communist rule were returned to Jewish communes in Ukraine by the state authorities.[46]
There is a growing trend among some Israelis to visit Ukraine with a "roots trips" to follow the footsteps of Jewish life there[47].
Among the place of interest are usually mentioned Kiev, where it is possible to trace the paths of Sholem Aleichem and Golda Meir; Zhytomyr and Korostyshiv, where one can follow the steps of Haim Nahman Bialik; Berdychiv, where one can trace the life of Mendele Mocher Sforim; Rivne, where one can follow the course of Amos Oz; Buchach - the path of S.Y. Agnon; Drohobych - the place of Maurycy Gottlieb ans Bruno Schulz[47].
[edit] References
- ^ Orest Subtelny. History of Ukraine. p. 599. University of Toronto press. 1994. ISBN 0-8020-0591-0
- ^ Odessa pogroms at the Center of Jewish Self-Education "Moria"
- ^ "The newest history of the Jewish people, 1789-1914" by Simon Dubnow, vol.3, Russian ed., p.153
- ^ Kiev District Commission of the Jewish Public Committee for Relief to Victims of Pogroms. State Archive of the Kiev Oblast. Fond FR-3050 by Vladimir Danilenko, Director of the State Archive of the Kiev Oblast.
- ^ Сергійчук, В. Український Крим К. 2001, p.150
- ^ Петлюра С. Статті, листи, документи - Н. Й. 1979 - Vol 2, p. 428
- ^ Margolin A. "The New Palestine", December 1926 also Тризуб, 1927 ч. 14 p. 13-14
- ^ Сергійчук, В. Український Крим К. 2001, p.156
- ^ Віктор Даниленко ПРОЕКТИ ЄВРЕЙСЬКОЇ АВТОНОМІЇ В РАДЯНСЬКОМУ КРИМУ
- ^ Baron 1964, 67.
- ^ Lambroza 1987, 266; Pinkus 1988, 29.
- ^ Pinkus 1988, 30.
- ^ Korey 1978, 90.
- ^ Insight on the News 21 May 1990b, 17.
- ^ Sawyer 1979, 14-15.
- ^ Soviet Jewish Affairs Autumn-Winter 1990, 27.
- ^ Korey 1978, 79; Pinkus 1988, 58-59.
- ^ Weinryb 1978, 306.
- ^ Survey Jan. 1968, 77-81.
- ^ Rothenberg 1978, 172-73; Levin 1988, 78-80.
- ^ Pinkus 1988, 62.
- ^ Levin 1988, 81.
- ^ Schechtman 1978, 113; Levin 1988, 90-91.
- ^ Carr 1950, 401, 413.
- ^ Pinkus 1988, 59.
- ^ Levin 1988, 131; Schwarz 1951, 162-63.
- ^ Pinkus 1988, 64.
- ^ Levin 1988, 131-51.
- ^ Baron 1964, 230-236.
- ^ Problems of Communism May-June 1973, 10-11.
- ^ Pinkus 1988, 62.
- ^ Rothenberg 1978, 177-78.
- ^ Pinkus 1988, 57.
- ^ Pinkus 1988, 74-75.
- ^ Pinkus 1988, 65.
- ^ Dmytryshyn 1965, 210-14.
- ^ Rothenberg 1978, 180; Altshuler 1993, 85.
- ^ Soviet Jewish Affairs Summer 1991, 53-54.
- ^ Schneider 1993, 181-82.
- ^ Nodel 1974, 230-31.
- ^ Baron 1964, 294.
- ^ Gitelman 1993, 4.
- ^ RISU on Jewish Communities
- ^ Ukrainian Jewish Committee Established to Address Jewish Issues in Ukraine, RISU
- ^ Ukrainian rabbis seen as 'powerful foreigners'
- ^ Ukraine President Orders Return of 700 Torah Scrolls Confiscated by Communist Government, RISU News
- ^ a b mile in their shoes, By Moshe Gilad, RISU
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Chabad-Lubavitch Centers in Ukraine
- Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine
- RISU Portal on Jewish Communities in Ukraine
- Jewish Agricultural Colonization in the Ukraine
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