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Read MoreGolovanevsk
Golovanevsk is a district center of Kirovograd region. Population is 5 982 people (2016). In the XIX – early XX centuries, it was a shtetl of Balta uyezd, Podolia gubernia. Jews lived in Golovanevsk starting in the late XVIII century. In the shtetl there were two synagogues in 1889, a private male training school in 1909, and a Jewish savings and credit society in 1912. Get Directions In 1905, a pogrom nearly happened in the shtetl. 15 Jews from Golovanevsk were fiercely beaten at the fair in the neighboring village of Troyany (now Zaporozhye region – editor’s note), a Jewish market was looted. After that event there was great anxiety among Jews of the shtetl. The non-Jews who came from Troyany after the fair to the village were beaten severely. A man was sent to Balta in order to buy 15 revolvers for the shtetl. Khaim Ostroy organized a self defense detachment in the village. He collected money from wealthy Jews and bribed some officers in Balta, so they sent 100 soldiers to guard the shtetl. Thus, the pogrom was prevented in 1905. Civil War pogroms On December 18, 1917 a pogrom took place in Golovanevsk. It was stopped by the forces of the self-defense detachment. Nine non-Jews were killed. In 1918 Chaim Ostroy organized a Jewish self-defense unit that numbered several hundred armed people. The unit successfully protected the county population from pogroms and attacks of gangs. Thanks to the self-defense detachment, Golovanevsk became an asylum where thousands of Jews fled from nearby shtetls that had been seized by pogroms. Because of the overcrowding, a typhus outbreak occurred in the shtetl killing hundreds of people. Unfortunately, the self-defense detachment couldn’t confront huge military forces. In August 1919, the detachment was defeated by the Volunteer Army under the command of General Slaschev. Khaim and Yakov Ostroy were shot on Saturday, 12 days before Rosh ha-Shana. As a punishment for the fierce opposition of the detachment, the White Guards massacred 200 Jews in Golovanevsk. However, the local Roman Catholic priest hid the families of the detachment fighters, and consequently many Jews survived including Esfir, Khaim Ostroy’s daughter. It happened on August 4, 1919. Boris Shmidt and Yakov Zaydman, members of the detachment, testified about the Ostroys’ murders in the Golovanevsk People’s Court which took place on the 28th of October 1931. The pogroms caused a wave of internal emigration. According to statistical data, 43 families of Jewish refugees from Golovanevsk lived...
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Read MoreUshomir
Ushomir is a village in Korosten district, Zhytomir region. The village’s population is 1323 (as of 2019). Ushomir is located on the Uzh River, a tributary of the Pripyat. In the late XIX – early XX century, Ushomir was a shtetl in Zhitomir district, Volin guberniya. In 2017, local teacher Nikolay Palamarchuk was our guild in the village. He provided a detailed map of Jewish places of former shtetl which you can see below. Get Directions Beginning The first mention of Jewish families in Ushomir date back to the XVII century. For 20 years (between 1870 and 1890) there were breweries, two leather factories, three tar factories, and glass factories functioning in Ushomir. A brick factory and a pottery shop had been expanded. Almost all enterprises employed Jews – from masters to workers. Some of the industrial enterprises also belonged to the Jews. Jewish population of Ushomir: 1847 – 1080 Jews 1897 – 1754 (73%) 1926 – 1749 (69%) 1931 – 1593 Jews 2017 – 0 In 1847, 1,080 Jews lived there. Then, half a century later, in 1897, there were 1,754 Jews out of 2,381 inhabitants of the town. There were three synagogues in the shtetl. Most of the population were artisans, tailors, shoemakers, potters, saddlers and many others. Jews were prohibited to be engaged in farming. Most of the population of the town was poor. Pogroms In the summer of 1919, peasants from the neighboring villages occupied Ushomir and forced all local Jews between the ages of 16 and 40 years old, to pay 10 rubles. On October 9, 1920, a detachment of Polish troops plundered the shtetl and killed four Jews. I could not find more mentions of any anti-Semitic incidents during the Russian Civil War. If we take into consideration the Jewish population in the 1920’s, we can conclude that the Jewish community was not badly affected during the pogroms of the Civil War because the number of Jews did not decrease at this time, as it did elsewhere. Between the Wars In the 1920’s, a Jewish village council was formed in the shtetl. Also in the 1920’s, the entire center of Ushomir was occupied by Jewish business including blacksmiths, taverns, and stalls. In 1926, 1,749 Jews lived in Ushomir. It was 69.29 % of the whole population. I. Nudelman and Mendel Bresker represent Ushomir in Korosten Rabbi’s conference. Guess, both of them were local rabbis. Father of rabbi Mendel Bresker, Yankel-Rafuil Bresker was a rabbi in...
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Read MoreAnanyev
אַנאַניעוו (Yiddish), Ана́ньїв (Ukrainian), Ананьев (Russian) Ananyev is a city and the administrative center of Ananyiv district in the Odessa region. It stands on the Tyligul River. Population: 8,495 (2015 est.) Ananyev became part of the Russian Empire in 1792, registered as a district town (uyezd) of Kherson gubernia in 1834-1920, then assigned to the Odessa gubernia in 1920. In 1924-1940, Ananyev was part of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Republic of Ukraine. David Vladimirovich Neifleisch (born in 1948), a deputy of the local town council and one of the last remaining Jewish residents of Ananyev shared his memories of the post-war Ananyev in the summer of 2018. His father’s first family, a wife and two children (a boy and a girl) perished in Ananyev during the Nazi occupation. Neifleish could remember the photo of his father’s killed son which remained on the wall of their house for the rest of his father’s life. Some documents relating to the Jewish history of Ananyev are being kept in Tiraspol, the capital of as yet internationally unrecognized Transnistrian Republic. These documents are therefore very difficult to access as travel permits remain problematic. Get Directions Beginning Ananyev was founded in 1753. In 1792 it became part of the Russian Empire. Jews began to settle there in the beginning of the XIX century. A Talmud Torah operated from 1880. Most Jews in Ananyev were engaged in tailoring and trade. In the 1810s, there was just one synagogue in Ananyev, with four more and two Jewish cemeteries by the turn of the XX century. PreRevolution photo of Ananyev from collection of local museum: In 1837, the Khevra Kadish was established, in 1899, the Society for the Assistance to the Poor, in 1893, a State Jewish college and a private Jewish Women’s college, in 1903, a Society for the Assistance for the Students, in 1912, a Jewish Savings and Credit Society. Jewish population of Ananyev: 1856 — 532 Jews 1864 – 992 Jews 1897 — 3257 (20%) 1920 – 4135 1926 — 3516 (19,3%) 1939 — 1779 Jews 2018 – 3 Jews In the 1860s, Solomon Nukhimovich Chernetsky was appointed a rabbi in Ananyev. Solomon Markovich Zgut and Felix Fantukh were the district rabbis. Since 1908, Abram-Volf Berenshteyn (1872 – ?) served as a rabbi in Ananyev. On April 27, 1881, a pogrom broke out in the shtetl. As a result, 175 houses were destroyed. Mikhail Krasniansky recalls: My grandfather was one...
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Read MoreKrivoye Ozero
Krivoye Ozero is an urban type village founded in the 18th century. It is located on the banks of the Kodyma River and holds a long history of both vibrant and tragic Jewish life. Since the 1970s, the village became the district center of the Nikolayev region, having previously belonged to the Odessa region. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Chumaky Way, a trade road through which products from Southern Ukraine were delivered to the center, laid across Krivoye Ozero, including during the time of the Russian Empire. In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the village became part of the Balta Uyezd (Podolia Gubernia). Get Directions Beginning Jewish life in Krivoye Ozero came about parallel to the founding of the village in 1762. Almost a century later, there were three functioning synagogues. In 1896, five years after a pogrom took place, Nokhum Zeyev Tabachnik became the village rabbi. However, it was in 1905 after a wave of pogroms in neighboring villages that Jews began to settle more in Krivoye Ozero, leading to the rapid development of shtetl life. By 1910, there were six synagogues, one Jewish cemetery and a private Jewish college. Two years later, a Jewish savings and credit society was organized. In 1914, Leyba Eyzelevich Lemberg became the official rabbi of the shtetl. During this time, the main occupations of the Jewish population were craft and trade. Jewish owners also operated: three drug stores, one inn, ten forest warehouses, two creameries, 23 stalls, 33 manufactories. Krivoye Ozero entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913: Amongst the Jewish population there were: two doctors, a jeweler, 20 blacksmiths, 20 carpenters, nine tinsmiths, twelve glaziers, 60 cobblers, 100 employees in 10 different creameries. Jewish population of Krivoye Ozero: 1847 — 1116 Jews 1897 — 5478 (70%) 1923 — 3939 Jews 1939 — 1447 Jews 1997 – 17 Jews 2002 – 6 Jews 2018 – 0 From December 1919, a pogrom committed by detachments of a volunteer army lasted several weeks. As a result Jewish homes, warehouses and shops were looted and destroyed. The number of deaths is unsure. While some sources claim 280, others claim that approximately 600 Jews were killed, and hundreds were wounded. Many Jews fleeing the pogrom froze to their death in the harsh winter conditions. Another pogrom was committed by Denikin’s soldiers. They killed hundreds of men on their way to Shabbat prayer on a Friday evening. The next pogrom was committed by Petliura’s people, who killed anyone who came into their sight. This...
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Read MoreBelilovka
Belilovka is a village in the Ruzhin district of the Zhitomir region. In the XVI through XVIII centuries, it was a village of Kiev county and voivodship, a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1793, it was incorporated into the Russian Empire. In the XIX and early XX centuries, it was a shtetl of Berdichev uyezd, Kiev gubernia. The first records of Jews in Belilovka date back to 1719. Get Directions We learned that in April 1735 an attorney of Duke Liubomirsky, the owner of Belilovka, complained about several dozens of cossacks having attacked the village. They robbed, beat, and humiliated people of the shtetl, particularly Jews. Three Jewish citizens were tortured to death. In 1863, there were two synagogues in Belilovka. Shloyme Makhrinsky (1880 – ?) was a rabbi in Belilovka starting in 1900. In 1912, a savings and credit society was functioning in Belilovka. The main occupation of the Jewish population of Belilovka was traded. However, there were also Jewish pharmacists, dentists, and tailors in the shtetl. There was a tannery and a grits factory in the shtetl as well. Up to 200 Jewish families lived in Belilovka. The biggest house in shtetl belonged to local first-class merchant Avram-Girsh Blishtein. In 1919, the Jewish population of the shtetl suffered from a pogrom. Belilovka Jews were looted. I didn’t find more information about this period 🙁 In the 1920’s, a Jewish school was opened in the shtetl. In the 1930’s, it was turned into a Ukrainian school but locals kept calling it “Jewish” even after WWII. The school building existed until 1981, and then a new school was built. Jewish population of Belilovka: 1763 – 124 Jews 1847 — 1008 Jews 1897 — 2223 (46%) 1923 — 2130 Jews 1939 — 633 еврея (11%). 2017 – 1 Jews 2018 – 0 Holocaust In 1939, 633 Jews lived in Belilovka. They were 11% of the total population. It was occupied in July, 1941. Some of the Jews had evacuated to the East before the occupation. Also, many young men had been called up for military service in the Red Army. About 300 Jews remained in the village… In July – October 1941, the village was ruled by the German military commandant’s office. Starting in November 1941, Belilovka was incorporated into Ruzhin gebit in Zhitomir General County of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. In Belilovka, Jews were ordered to wear the Star of David, to surrender all their gold and valuable, they were forced...
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Read MorePiatigory
Пятигоры (Russian), П’ятигори (Ukrainian) Piatigory is a village in the Tetiyev district of Kiev region. In the XVI – XVIII centuries, it was a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Starting in 1793 it was in the Russian Empire. In the XIX – early XX centuries, it was a shtetl of Tarascha uyezd, in the Kiev gubernia. Get Directions In 1787, there were ten traders among the Jews. In 1873, a synagogue was functioning in Piatigory. In 1865 – 1910, Moyshe Lerman (? – 1910) was a rabbi in Piatigory. When M.Lerman had died his son Tsvi-Itskhok (1866 – ?) took his place and was a rabbi in the shtetl starting in 1910. In 1914, two synagogues were opened in Piatigory. There was a Jewish cemetery in the shtetl. Jewish population of Piatigory: 1847 – 603 Jews 1897 – 1385 (31%) 1923 – 244 Jews 1926 – 531 Jews 2018 – 3 Jews Jews owned both chemists’ warehouses, both mills, and 46 stalls in Piatigory, including all 15 groceries, all nine manufactories and all 11 bakeries. During the Civil War the Jewish population of Piatigory suffered pogroms, including the pogroms committed by the parts of the Volunteer Army in 1919. The majority of Jews left Piatigory. In 1925, a society of immigrants from Piatigory was organized in the USA which helped the Jews living in Piatigory. In the 1920’s, a Jewish school was open in the shtetl. In the end of 1930’s, Klotsman (his name is unknown) was a head of the village council. Holocaust Before the war Piatigory had the largest Jewish population in the Tetiyev district. 200-300 Jews lived here and there were about 50 Jewish houses. (Tetiyev Jewish community was exterminated in pogroms in 1919-1920.) Because of this, Jews from the entire Tetiyev district were brought here to be killed. The majority of Jews hadn’t evacuated and stayed in their village. On July 19 1941, Piatigory was occipied by Wehrmacht regiments. On the 31 of July 1941, two Jewish hostages were killed in Piatigory. On August 28 1941, all Jewish men age 14 and older were ordered to come to school for a meeting. The 17 Jews who came were all killed. Bunia Klotsman and Avram Strizhevsky were among them. In November – December 1941, Piatigory was incorporated into Tarascha gebit , Kiev general district. Soon a ghetto was formed. On April 25 1942, all able-bodied Jews of Piatigory were deported to the labor camp in Buki The rest...
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Read MoreGoloskovo
Goloskovo is a village in Kryve Ozero district, Nikolaev region. In the XIX– early XX centuries, it was a shtetl of Balta uyezd, Podolia gubernia. Nowadays Goloskovo has completely merged with the neighboring village of Oniskove wiith one common village council. However, ini 1917 they had been two separate villages inhabited by people of different nationalities, the Jewish shtetl of Goloskovo and the Ukrainian village of Oniskove. Get Directions Information about Jews of Goloskovo was collected during our ethnographic expedition in the summer 2018. More information can be provided by local former teacher of history Valentina Volodimirivna Granovska +38(096)544-91-77 . You can download her book about Jewish history of Goloskovo (in Ukrainian). In 1863 there was a synagogue in Goloskovo and in 1889 there were two synagogues there. In 1909, after Yakov-Elia Shapiro’s death, his son Khaim Shapiro (1867-?) became a rabbi of Goloskovo. In June 1919, a pogrom was conducted by parts of the Volunteer Army. Jewish population of Goloskovo 1863 – 305 Jews 1897 – 1272 (84,1 %) 1926 – 1572 Jews 1963 – 20 Jews 2018 – 0 Information about the pogrom was recorded from the words of a local in 2018. “ A band entered the shtetl and announced that all the Jews would be resettled to Goloskovo. A column of Jews was taken outside the village where two machine guns had been waiting for them. 74 Jews were killed that day. They were buried at the Jewish cemetery in separate graves which were marked with a circle of stones. After the Second World War, these graves could still be seen. “ During the revolution, a Jewish self-defense detachment was organized in the shtetl. More information about pogroms on Goloskovo, I found here: In the 1920’s, Jewish organizations from the USA helped the Jews who had suffered from the pogroms. In the 1930’s, there were two collective farms in the village – a Jewish collective farm named after Vorovsky and a Ukrainian one named after Stalin. Before the war they had been merged. Before the Great World War and after it, Shimon Naftulovich Kropchansky was a head of the collective farm. His father emmigrated to US before Revolution and helped to son’s collective farm by money. The exact amount of the Jews living in the village before the war is unknown but we can assume that there were 200-300 people. Information about the Holocaust in Goloskovo was taken from different sources. According to...
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Read MoreNovaya Odessa
Novaya Odessa is a district center of Nikolayev region. It was founded in 1776. In the XIX – early XX centuries, known as a shtetl of Novaya Odessa (Fedorovka), Kherson uyezd and gubernia. During our ethnographic expedition in the summer of 2018 very little information was found on the Jewish history of Novaya Odessa. Jews settled in Novaya Odessa in the late XIX century. In 1897 1,010 Jews lived in the town, where they comprised 18.3 percent of the total population. Get Directions In 1868, there was a working synagogue in Novaya Odessa. In 1910, two synagogues were registered in the shtetl. Jewish population of Novaya Odessa: 1897 – 1010 (18%), 1910 – 4205 (42%) 1923 – 389 Jews 1939 – 228 Jews 1990х ~ 45 Jews 2018 ~ 10 Jews In the 1890s, Lev Kagan was appointed a rabbi there, the town’s only chemist’s and both ironmongery stalls owned by the local Jews. The Jewish community was severely persecuted during the Civil War. In 1926, the Jews from Novaya Odessa organized four Jewish farming societies in the Kherson region. Seven families joined the first one (name not known), with the same number in the second one “Rakitno”, four families in the third one “Pervoye Odesskoye”, 14 families in the “Pervoye Odesskoye Pereselencheskoye” society. In the interwar period there was a Yiddish school in Novaya Odessa that was closed down in the late 1930s. By the end of the 1930s, most Jews had left Novaya Odessa: in 1939 the remaining 228 Jews made up only 3.8 percent of the population. Holocaust Information about Holocaust in Novaya Odessa was taken from YadVashem website. German and Hungarian troops occupied Novaya Odessa on August 12, 1941. Most of Novaya Odessa Jews managed to leave before the arrival of the enemy armed forces. In September of the same year, a ghetto was established in Novaya Odessa in a large courtyard between houses on the town’s main street. The exact location of the Jewish ghetto in the town is unknown. Jews from Novaya Odessa and from the villages in the region, along with refugees from Bessarabia, were brought there. The ghetto inmates were forced to sew Stars of David onto their clothes. They were brutally maltreated and forced to perform grueling work. Assisted by the local collaborators, the Germans separated ghetto inmates in categories. The Jews who had a trade that the Germans could use were separated, together with their families, from the other...
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Golovanevsk
Golovanevsk is a district center of Kirovograd region. Population is 5 982 people (2016). In the XIX – early XX centuries, it was a shtetl of Balta uyezd, Podolia gubernia. Jews lived in Golovanevsk starting in the late XVIII century. In the shtetl there were two synagogues in 1889, a private male training school in 1909, and a Jewish savings and credit society in 1912. Get Directions In 1905, a pogrom nearly happened in the shtetl. 15 Jews from Golovanevsk were fiercely beaten at the fair in the neighboring village of Troyany (now Zaporozhye region – editor’s note), a Jewish market was looted. After that event there was great anxiety among Jews of the shtetl. The non-Jews who came from Troyany after the fair to the village were beaten severely. A man was sent to Balta in order to buy 15 revolvers for the shtetl. Khaim Ostroy organized a self defense detachment in the village. He collected money from wealthy Jews and bribed some officers in Balta, so they sent 100 soldiers to guard the shtetl. Thus, the pogrom was prevented in 1905. Civil War pogroms On December 18, 1917 a pogrom took place in Golovanevsk. It was stopped by the forces of the self-defense detachment. Nine non-Jews were killed. In 1918 Chaim Ostroy organized...
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Ushomir
Ushomir is a village in Korosten district, Zhytomir region. The village’s population is 1323 (as of 2019). Ushomir is located on the Uzh River, a tributary of the Pripyat. In the late XIX – early XX century, Ushomir was a shtetl in Zhitomir district, Volin guberniya. In 2017, local teacher Nikolay Palamarchuk was our guild in the village. He provided a detailed map of Jewish places of former shtetl which you can see below. Get Directions Beginning The first mention of Jewish families in Ushomir date back to the XVII century. For 20 years (between 1870 and 1890) there were breweries, two leather factories, three tar factories, and glass factories functioning in Ushomir. A brick factory and a pottery shop had been expanded. Almost all enterprises employed Jews – from masters to workers. Some of the industrial enterprises also belonged to the Jews. Jewish population of Ushomir: 1847 – 1080 Jews 1897 – 1754 (73%) 1926 – 1749 (69%) 1931 – 1593 Jews 2017 – 0 In 1847, 1,080 Jews lived there. Then, half a century later, in 1897, there were 1,754 Jews out of 2,381 inhabitants of the town. There were three synagogues in the shtetl. Most of the population were artisans, tailors, shoemakers, potters, saddlers and many others. Jews were prohibited to be...
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Ananyev
אַנאַניעוו (Yiddish), Ана́ньїв (Ukrainian), Ананьев (Russian) Ananyev is a city and the administrative center of Ananyiv district in the Odessa region. It stands on the Tyligul River. Population: 8,495 (2015 est.) Ananyev became part of the Russian Empire in 1792, registered as a district town (uyezd) of Kherson gubernia in 1834-1920, then assigned to the Odessa gubernia in 1920. In 1924-1940, Ananyev was part of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Republic of Ukraine. David Vladimirovich...
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Krivoye Ozero
Krivoye Ozero is an urban type village founded in the 18th century. It is located on the banks of the Kodyma River and holds a long history of both vibrant and tragic Jewish life. Since the 1970s, the village became the district center of the Nikolayev region, having previously belonged to the Odessa region. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Chumaky Way, a trade road through which products from Southern Ukraine were delivered to the center, laid across Krivoye...
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Belilovka
Belilovka is a village in the Ruzhin district of the Zhitomir region. In the XVI through XVIII centuries, it was a village of Kiev county and voivodship, a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1793, it was incorporated into the Russian Empire. In the XIX and early XX centuries, it was a shtetl of Berdichev uyezd, Kiev gubernia. The first records of Jews in Belilovka date back to 1719. Get Directions We learned that in April 1735 an attorney...
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Piatigory
Пятигоры (Russian), П’ятигори (Ukrainian) Piatigory is a village in the Tetiyev district of Kiev region. In the XVI – XVIII centuries, it was a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Starting in 1793 it was in the Russian Empire. In the XIX – early XX centuries, it was a shtetl of Tarascha uyezd, in the Kiev gubernia. Get Directions In 1787, there were ten traders among the Jews. In 1873, a synagogue was functioning in Piatigory. In 1865 – 1910,...
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Goloskovo
Goloskovo is a village in Kryve Ozero district, Nikolaev region. In the XIX– early XX centuries, it was a shtetl of Balta uyezd, Podolia gubernia. Nowadays Goloskovo has completely merged with the neighboring village of Oniskove wiith one common village council. However, ini 1917 they had been two separate villages inhabited by people of different nationalities, the Jewish shtetl of Goloskovo and the Ukrainian village of Oniskove. Get Directions Information about Jews of Goloskovo was collected during our ethnographic...
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