Belaya Tserkov

 

 

Shvartze Timme (Yiddish Transliteration), Біла Церква – Bila Tserkva (Ukrainian)

Belaya Tserkov is a historic city located in Kiev region of Central Ukraine, center of Belaya Tserkov district. Belaya Tserkov is located on the Ros’ River, a tributary of the Dnieper. The city’s estimated population is 212,090 (as of 2016).
Belaya Tserkov became a part of Russia Empire in 1793, in XIX – beginning of XX century it was a shtetl of Vasylkov Yezd of Kiev Gubernia.

Belaya Tserkov is approx. 85 km from Kiev, 38 km from Fastov and 37 km from Skvira.

Beginning

A community was formed there toward the end of the 16th century; 100 houses in Jewish ownership out of a total of 800 are recorded in 1646. The community was destroyed during the Chmielnicki rising in 1648, and again suffered at the beginning of the Haidamack rising in 1703. Subsequently, Jews again began to settle there, in 1765 numbering 1,876 poll-tax-payers in the town and its vicinity.

After Belaya Tserkov had been attacked by the hordes under Cossack general Gonta (1768), only 223 Jewish inhabitants remained. The community increased to 1,077 in 1787; 6,665 in 1847; and 18,720 in 1897 (54% of the total population). The grain trade and sugar industry contributed to the growth of the town during the XIX century.

In 1904, Jews owned 250 workshops and 25 factories engaged in light industry employing 300 Jewish workers. The Jews there suffered from pogroms in 1905.  The population reached 21,542 by 1910.

PreRevilution photos from Belaya Tserkov in collection of Judaica Institute, Kiev:

In 1907, the Jewish locals applied to the minister of public education asking for a permit to open an eight-year school to teach the public curriculum for men in Bila Tserkva. The letter was signed by the following members: Mikhail Nerenshtein, Lipar Yefim Elebert, Lontsa Yudkovich, Solomon Kospera, Oleksandr Lond, Leiba Priskin. They stated that Bila Tserkva had the population of 40,000 people. Every year about 80 children were taking entrance examinations to the preparatory or first year of the high school (gymnasium), which already existed in the town. Only five or six Jewish children could enter the gymnasium. Not until 1916 the permission to open a Jewish school was granted. It is uncertain whether it was opened because of the Socialist revolution of 1917.

During the civil war of 1919–20, about 850 Jews were massacred in Belaya Tserkov by Ukrainian troops, bands of peasants, and soldiers of the White Army.

List of Jewish families 1896-1906 in Belaya Tserkov from the book of local historian E. Chernetskiy:

Projects of different local Jewish entrepreneurs which were planned to be developed in 1910’s ( photos taken  from the book of local historians O. Starodub, E. Chernetskiy, A. Bondar, O. Yarmola:

 

I find this report on JDC Archiv website, it gave wide description of Belaya Tserkov Jewish community state at 1923:

In 1917-1918, the Yiddish-language Zionist newspaper “Der Emes” was published in Bila Tserkva. At the beginning of the 1920s, branches of the Cultural League and the Yevsektsiya (the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist party) were created. In 1920, there was a small Jewish farm known as “Ge-Haluts” in Bila Tserkva; during the collectivization period, a considerable proportion of the farms were united into cooperative societies.

There were 7 Jewish labour schools, pedagogical and agricultural technical schools.
In 1922, there were 18 synagogues in the town.

Description of local synagogues from the book of local historians O. Starodub, E. Chernetskiy, A. Bondar, O. Yarmola:

In the mid 1920s, natives of Bila Tserkva founded 5 agricultural settlements in Kherson district.
The religious and cultural life of the community, which numbered 15,624 (36.4%) in 1926, came to an end with the establishment of the Soviet government.

Under the Soviets in 1929, 240 artisans were organized in cooperatives and 3,628 were unemployed. Of these, 2,655 were sent to the local sugar refinery and 847 went to work in the nearby kolkhozes. Two Yiddish schools operated in Belaya Tserkov, one of them a vocational school.

In 1939, Jews numbered 9,284 (20% of the total population).

Holocaust

The city was occupied by the Germans on July 16, 1941. Only small proportion of the Jewish population had time to evacuate to the eastern regions of the country. According to historian A. Kruglov, 9,284 Jews lived in Bila Tserkva prior to 1941.

In early August 1941, several buildings were set on fire in the center of the town. The Germans accused the Jews and arrested between 17 and 30 Jews. They were killed in the center of BRUM and buried near the road. The graves were not marked and gradually knowledge of their locations disappeared.

Executions of the Jewish residents of Bila Tserkva took place on August 19-20 and 22, 1941.
On the 19th of August 1941, the first shooting of the Jewish population took place on the third military area. People were gathered near Burgomiestrat and told they were going to be resettled.

The Ukrainians escorted them. The local Ukrainians remained a column of between 500 to 700 Jews…

The Jews of Belaya Tserkov were shot in four places, in the Shkerivsky forest, and in the third, fifth, and seventh military areas.

Near 300 Jewish POWs were killed in Stalag 334 at military area №7. Bila Tserkva was the first settlement were children were shot together with men and women. Around 700 Jews (August 19-20, 1941) were executed behind the shooting gallery on military area №3 by Aizantcengrup 4a of Paul Blobe.

90 Jewish childrens were killed at August 22, 1941 by Ukrainian police (presumably they were members of OUN-M). Details about this bloody Holocaust page you can find on Yad-Vashem site.

Monument in Shkerivsky forest:

 

In spring 1942 near 500 jews from nearby towns and childrean from mixed families where killed at military area №7.
Graves on military area №7 were opened at 1943 before liberation and most corps were burned.

The bodies of those who had been killed on the seventh military square (and were burned by Germans in 1943) were reburied in the late 1980’s at the Jewish cemetery.

Documental film about German occupation of Belaya Tserkov:

There were 15 Righteous Among the Nations in Belaya Tserkov…
Film about Holocaust in Belaya Tserkov:

In 1976, the remains of POWs of stalag 334 which was on the territory of the fifth and seventh military areas were found during the rebuilding of the market.

Local historiam Evgeniy Chernetskiy collected 588 names of Holcaust victims and published in the book.
Before I found another another list with Belaya Tserkov Holocaust victims which contain 218 names.

After WWII

After the liberation of Bila Tserkva in 1943, many Jewish survivors returned to the town. In 1944, a Jewish community was created.

There were 5,600 Jews listed as residents in Belaya Tserkov in the 1959 census. Its sole synagogue was closed in 1962 and Jews conducted private prayer services. During the 1965 High Holidays, militia broke into such minyanim , arrested participants and confiscated religious articles. In 1970, the Jewish population was estimated at 15,000. The majority of Belaya Tserkov’s Jewish population repatriated to Israel or left for other countries including the USA and Germany during the late 1980s/1990s.

According to the Encyclopedia of Russian Jewry, approximately 10,000 Jews lived in Bila Tserkva in 1994, while the all-Ukrainian census of 2001 noted that Bila Tserkva’s Jewish population did not exceed 150 people. Today the Jewish community is thought to number about 700. The Shalom Aleichem Society of Jewish Culture was created in 1989. Its head, Doctor H. Berman, was elected the Chairman of Jewish community. Since the early 1990s, a Jewish Sunday school, a “Hesed” (Albina B.D.), a Jewish amateur theatre (“Gute freint”), and a Jewish day school (“Or Avner”) have been established.

In 1993, a commemorative tablet was mounted on the house where Shalom Aleichem lived between 1883 and 1887.  The city also houses a Jewish religious community and minyan under the direction of Rabbi Meir Oltsberg, the Shalom Aleichem Society of Jewish Culture (Murakhovsky B.S.) and the Sochnut Jewish Agency (Kutsenko E.).
Official Jewish School website http://mitsva.org.ua and really it is website of all Jewish organization in city so you can use it for contact with them.

Architecture

A typical building from the early XX century has been preserved near the market of Branitsky. The locals call this place BRUM. The market was built in 1814 and included 85 shops. Various fairs were held in and around this market.

There was a Jewish block in the center of the shtetl. The locals called it Gruziya. Now it is Geroiv Nebesnoi Sotni Street.
A building that housed a Jewish school has been preserved on the outskirts of Berdichevskaya street.

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Poor Jews lived mostly in the area of Shevchenko and Smoliano-Rokitniansky streets. The houses there are still there very compacted in a small area, the streets are narrow and small, though the houses have been rebuilt.

Genealogy

Places

Jewish Hospital

Jewish Hospital was built at the expence of Jewish philanthropist Nahman Byalik in 1903.

Now it is laboratory of municipal hospital. Iron Magen David still hang above the laboratory porch 🙂

Jewish State School

Jewish School was built at the expence of Brodskiy family in 1901. Later this school became Talmud-Tora. Building was nationalize in 1920th. Now it is art school for children.

Synagogue of Artisans

Was built in the beginning of XX century. Now it is сlothing studio.

Synagogue of Merchants

Synagogue was built in 1910 and nationalize in 1929. Now it is medical college.

Сhoral Synagogue

The eclectic-style project was approved on October 23rd 1855 by Emperor Alexander Il. 170 thousand bricks were used for the construction, which had been donated by Count Viadislav-Mikail Branitsky, was funded by the Jewish community in the second half of the 1850s. The interior of the Great Synagogue, famous its virtuoso carvings, was destroyed in 1929. The inside Synagogue was redesigned and the outside – substantially changed.

The Great Synagogue was one of the centers of religious public life of the Jews in Bila Tserkva. At the beginning of the XX century its congregation consisted of those faithful who believed in the idea of the Jews’ return to Eretz Israel (Israel) — Zionists. 1 July 1904, the founder of political Zionism Theodore Herz was commemorated here.

Performances of famous Bila Tserkva-born hazzans (cantors) Pinhas Minkowski (1859 — 1924) and Yossele Rosenblatt (1880 — 1933) are traditionally associated with the Great Synagogue.

Now it is college.

 

Synagogue at Smoliano-Rokitianskaia

The Synagogue at Smoliano-Rokitianskaia St. 15 represents an interesting architectural typology: the split-story synagogue. Seemingly only a single story high, a portion of the building is divided horizontally and the floor slightly lowered to create two internal stories: one, the women’s gallery, the other an entrance, both open onto the main sanctuary space.

Externally, the building is hardly remarkable; of unplastered brick -though possibly once plastered- the exterior of the synagogue is generally well preserved. The differentiation between the sanctuary space and the split-story is marked by a brick pilaster, similar to that of the building’s corners. A horizontal course marks the split floor. Twelve windows originally illuminated the sanctuary space, but they have been altered; two on the eastern facade have been closed. A door has been punched through the eastern wall, obliterating whatever evidence of the Torah niche may have remained. The fenestration of the women’s gallery was originally double round-headed windows on the north and south facades, while the lower floor was illuminated by single rectangular windows. The original design of the west wall is unknown, though presumably it continued the sequence.

Internally, the building has been drastically altered; the wall dividing the women’s gallery from the square prayer hall remains, but numerous internal divisions have been added to divide the space into three apartments. None of the interior decoration or religious furniture remains in situ.

Rabbi’s House

House built in 1910 and situated between 2 Synagogues – Synagogue of Artisans and Сhoral Synagogue. Building was nationalize in 1920th. Now it is use as a library of the medical college.

 Jewish Cemeteries information was gavered by Lo-Tishkah organization

Old Jewish Cemetery

The cemetery site is now located on military territory at Shalom Aleichema street (earlier – Rokytnianska street). It was functioning from 1717 till 1939.It is marked by an ohel. While the ohel is open to visitors, the rest of the area is restricted and is no longer accessible.
Cemetery was established ~ in the 16th century and was destroyed in 1943 during the German occupation. The destruction began on March 3 and finished on April 17, 1943. All tombstones and monuments were knocked down and broken up by forced laborers from the villages of Alexandria, Rotok and Zarechye. The land is now used for military purposes and access is restricted.

The Kiev archives contain a document from Belaya Tserkov from the days of occupation. It says that 2,100 cubic meters of whole plates of stones and 700 cubic meters of broken boards were removed from the graves of Belaya Tserkov Jewish cemetery to make a road and only 80% of the work was completed. Thus, we can assume that there were more than 10,000 graves there.

People keep finding the remains of the matsevas in the area around the houses in Sholem Aleichem street and bring them to the Ohel.

The sign on the ohel reads as follows (translation from Hebrew):
The territory around the ohel, including the military buildings, is part of the Jewish cemetery where many of our brothers from the people of Israel are buried, among them – the children of the temple of Besht: *Rabbi Abraham Polotsker, may we be protected by his merits; *the author of the book “Hesed le-Avraam”, a friend of Besht, Rabbi Moshe, may we be protected by his merits; *Rabbi Chaim, may we be protected by his merits. The pupils of Besht: *Rabbi Aaron Shmuel haKohen, may we be protected by his merits, the author of the book “Ve-tsiva ha-kohen”, The pupil of Maggid from Mezhyrich. “… the place you are standing at is the Holy Land’ (Ex. 3:5)).

Inside the ohel:

It is not known whether the burial register for this cemetery is still in existence.
Jews from Nastashka village were also buried at this cemetery.

Jewish Section on Kievskaya Municipal Cemetery

The municipal cemetery is situated at 166, Kievskaya street. The Jewish section is known as the Old Jewish Cemetery.

At the beginning of the 20th century there was a small Jewish cemetery at this site. In 1945 this cemetery was demolished and in its place a municipal cemetery was established, with a Jewish section. Only a few tombstones remain from the old cemetery. The community brought a large number of tombstones from the cemetery on Shalom Aleichem St., demolished in 1943. In the 1970s, the city authorities needed to release a part of the land at the municipal cemetery, and the Jewish section was moved a hundred meters to the north, and the old gravestones were moved again. Several graves were left in the old section, now a Christian cemetery.

Fewer than 25% of the tombstones in the Jewish section are damaged. Inscriptions are in Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish. The tablet- and boot-shaped gravestones are made of granite, marble and limestone. Many have images.

The oldest tombstone is thought to have survived from the pre-war cemetery. According to the cemetery caretaker, the Germans did not destroy this tombstone at the request of local citizens who supposedly believed that ancient books with magical magic powers lay underneath. The inscription on the stone is as follows (translation from Hebrew):
Moshe, the son of Menashe, Zeidenberg. 18.12.1889 – 18.04. 1901. Born on the 7th of Tevet 5640, Died on the 12th of Iyar 5661. May his soul be bound in the bond of life.

At the main entrance to the cemetery there is a large sign with the cemetery rules and a plan. There is no specific sign for the Jewish section. The gate has an iron Star of David at the top.

Holocaust memorial:

The Jewish section is situated in the northern part of the cemetery; it is separated from the rest of the territory by paths. The cemetery is separated from the road by a brick wall, in the foundations of which contain Jewish gravestones according to local residents. The northern side is surrounded by a concrete fence, behind which there is a stonemason’s workshop. The boundaries of the Jewish section are roughly 100m x 200m.
The burials register for this cemetery is thought to be held by the cemetery authorities.

The cemetery is under the care of the Bila Tserkva ‘ritual services department’. It appears to be reasonably well-maintained.
The mass grave can be found near the entrance to the Jewish section of the Kievskaya municipal cemetery. According to inscription it is only a monument in the memory of Holocaust victims but not a grave.
Another monument to Holocaust victims located on this cemetery.  It can be found near the entrance to the Jewish section, approximately next to the third row of graves. I haven’t gavered information if it is a just monument or a gravestone…

On this cemetery were reburied remains of Holocaust victims from Military Area №7.  The mass grave is marked by a small monument deep in the Jewish section of the Kievskaya municipal cemetery.

Jewish Section of Sukhyi Yar Municipal Cemetery

This Jewish section is the most recent among those officially granted to the Jewish communities of the Kiev region (1982). The municipal cemetery is situated on the ring road in the direction of Skvyra. The Jewish section is known as the New Jewish Cemetery.

The Jewish section is not surrounded by a fence; instead it is marked by a black stone ‘kerb’. The boundaries of the Jewish section are roughly 100m x 100m. The cemetery is well-maintained.

The cemetery’s gravestones are made from granite, marble and limestone. All are in a good state of repair – none are damaged. Inscriptions are in Russian. All monuments have legible inscriptions with names and years of birth and death. Most tombstones have photographs.
The cemetery is under the care of the Bila Tserkva ‘ritual services department’. It appears to be well-maintained.

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