Izyaslav

Izyaslav (formerly Zaslavl) city in Khmelnitski region. Situated on the Horyn river, the city dates back to the 11th century. As of 2009, the population of Izyslav was 17,232.

It is one of the oldest cities in Volhynia.
Before 1917, it was a сenter of Izyaslav uezd of Volyn gubernia. 

More information about Izyslav jews can be found in the book of the Head of local Museum L. Levitskaya. Also another article about historical center of Izyaslav was published here.

History of Izyaslav Jews in one video:

Beginning

The first evidence about the Jewish community there dates back to the first half of the 16th century. Most of the Jews fled to the neighbouring cities (Ostrog, Mezhirich and Dubno) during the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648. Among them was Nathan ben Moses Hannover who described these tragic events in his book “Yeven Mezulah” (Venice, 1653). Approximately 200 Jews who had remained in Izyaslav were killed on the Old Jewish cemetery and then set on fire. The synagogue was destroyed and converted into a stable.

Iziaslav was overtaken and damaged by the Cossacks again in 1650, and in 1685 it was burned down by Tatars. At the turn of the eighteenth century, when it belonged to Princes Sanguszko, the town revived, and two new neighborhoods developed: Nowy (New) Zaslaw, on the southern bank of the Horyn River, and Maydan, to its south, on the southern bank of the Ponora River. Nowy Zaslaw was granted an urban status by King August III (r. 1733-63) in 1754.

In 1747 Iziaslav witnessed one of the most famous cases of blood libel, when five Jews were accused of a ritual murder, tortured and executed. A parchment with a special prayer in the Old Synagogue and the prayer was real yearly on 17 Iyar, the day of their execution. Also a prayer in the memory of the victims of 1648-49 hung on a synagogue wall and it was read yearly on 20 Sivan – the day of commemoration of the Jewish victims of the Khmelnytsky uprising.

After the massacres, the community was rebuilt. A the start of the Haidamack movement in 1708, the community was destroyed again and most of its members killed.

At the start of XVIII century a famous cantor and Besht’s disciple rabbi Mordehai lived in Izyaslav. A Hebrew printing press was active there from 1807 to 1808 and five books, three of which were liturgical, came out during this period.
Towards the end of the Polish rule, Izyaslav was a centre of Hasidism. Due to the influence of Leib Bolekhovski (?-1883), the rabbi, the community was culturally prominent compared to other settlements in the area.
In the XVIII century Daviv Tevle was the rabbi in Izyaslav. After his death, his son-in-law Yakov Shimon Shapiro (1772-1811) stepped in who founded his hasidic dynasty. The rabbis following him in this post were his son Iskhor Doyv-Ber and Iskhor’s son Pinhos-Yosef Shapiro Dehner (? -1874).
Pre-revolutionary period postcards of Izyaslav:

Between 1834 and 1888 the head of rabbinical Court in Izyaslav was Arie-Leib ben Eliyahu. At the start of XX century, this position was taken by Eliezer Kharif (1845 -?).
In 1857 there were 14 synagogues, in 1886 — 9, in 1889 — 10, and in 1902 — 11.

There were two masonry synagogues and seven prayer houses (two masonry, five wooden) in 1885, ten synagogues and prayer houses in 1889, and eleven in 1902. One of them was situated in a building donated by Shirman and Rozenshtein in 1893; a refusal of local authorities to permit it in that year elicited a complaint to the Senate. We have no information on the names of the prayer houses, but it is clear from the following story that at least two of them belonged to Hasidic groups. In 1884 somebody stole a Torah scroll from a Hasidic synagogue, tore it into pieces and threw them into the river, where it was found by Christian children. A correspondent to a Hebrew newspaper accused another Hasidic group of this deed.
One of the Hasidic group were the Hasidim of Trisk, who nominated Rabbi Avraham Tversky of Trisk (ca. 1806-89) as the town’s maggid (preacher); thas decision was signed also by the rabbi of Izyaslav Arie Leibush Bolekhoved (d. 1882). After Bolekhover’s death, the worshippers of two prayer houses proclaimed their respective candidates for the post. Such a situation testifies to the existence of at least two influential Hasidic groups in Izyaslav.
Another Hasidic group was the Hasidim of Makarov. The Rebbe of Makarov (perhaps Rabbi Yeshayahu, d. 1919), visited the town in 1896 and even spoke amicably with local Zionists.

In 1886 in Izyaslav there was a Jewish hospital, an almshouse, Mark-Boruh Feld’s library and his bookstore.
In 1897 Izyaslav was home for 6,000 Jews (almost 50% of the total population).
Here is Izyaslav enterpreneurs’ list from the Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913:

In 1913 there were the following Jewish institutions: Talmud Torah (closed in 1913); a school for boys, a school for girls and a mixed secondary schools.
Most Jews lived in the center of the Old and the New city.

Tzadik Abraham-Yeshua Rozenfeld lived in Izyaslav at the start of XX century.
In 1915, a hospital building was constructed by the engineer David Goldshteyn. Now this building is used as a surgery department.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Zionist movement flourished in Izyaslav.

Civil War pogroms

The information below was taken from the archive of Kiev Oblast (Fond 3050/1/406). The documents describe pogroms in different Ukrainian shtetls:

Information about the post-pogrom epidemic is confirmed from another source. Also it shows the active attempt to help for pogrom victims from JDC:

All synagogues were closed in the late 1920s-1930s and converted for secular purposes.

Photos of the Izyaslav, 1920s-1930s:

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With the establishment of the Soviet rule in 1920, the life of the Jewish community in the city declined. In the 1920s most of the city’s Jewish children were enrolled in Hebrew kindergartens and schools. By 1926, 3,820 Jews (one third of the population) remained there, falling further to 3,208 (28% of the total) in 1939.

Holocaust

With the Nazi invasion looming, Izyaslav local authorities provided a lot of transport for evacuation, and many Jews succeeded in leaving the town and avoiding their inevitable destruction.

The Germans captured Izyaslav in July 5, 1941. On August, 24 (Shabbath) the local police and the Germans surrounded the city and ordered the Jews to gather for “ressetlement to Palestina”. On this day 1,000 Jews were murdered in 10 antitank caponiers on the western outskirts of the town.

A ghetto was set up near the building of the Old Synagogue in the Old city and the Jews from the neighbouring towns were brought there. The ghetto was surrounded with barbed wire and wooden fence, guarded by the local police and no Jews were allowed to leave. The Jews in the ghetto were used for hard labor. Many of them died during the construction of the dam on Gorin river and were buried inside it.
On August 17, 1942 (Shabbath) the ghetto was surrounded by the Germans and the local police. The Jews were moved out to pre-made ditches near Sochenki village and then killed. On that day about 2,000 of the ghetto inhabitans were murdered. The soil on the grave kept moving for several days… A group of essential workers was put into a local labour camp and executed on January 20, 1943.

Only a few teenagers succeded to escape from the ghetto and join different partisan detachments. We know only three names: S.U. Shider, Sonya Finkel and Rosa Zigelboim.
Below are interviews with them:

Izyaslav was liberated by the Soviet Army on March 5, 1944, during Proskuriv-Chernovetsky operation of the First Ukrainian front.
During WWII, hundreds Jews from Izyaslav fought with the Nazis in the ranks of the Red Army. We know only the names of 94 perished soldiers. In his articles in the local newspaper, Aleksandr Berenboim supplied the names of Ruvim and Natan Vinokurovy, Grigoriy Dorfman, Isaak Vertman, S. Goldshtein, Boris Fridman, Pinya Gorel, brother and sister Armil.
This hand-written list of Jewish soldiers from Izyaslav region which were killed during WWII was created in 1990’s by somebody from local Jewish community. There are 88 names…

All family members of many soldiers were killed and nobody could be notified about their death in the war.
The list of Holocaust victims wasn’t created by Izyaslav Jews after the war…

After WWII

After the end of WWII many local Jews returned to Izyaslav. The community was boosted by Jews from nearby shtetles of Belogorodka, Kunev etc. That is the reason why the number of Jews in Izyaslav after the war was assessed as several thousands.
After demobilisation from the Army, the veterans A. Nahmanzon (a bank officer), brothers Iosef and Shloma Shusters, brothers Anatolii and Uhim Kreplik, Iosef Chotirbotskiy, U. Halypskiy, U.Kirzhner, L. Kornblit, M.Shafir, Fanya Geler and Genya Roitman returned to Izyaslav.
In the postwar period the remaining Jews of Izyaslav collected funds and erected two monuments at the two murder sites of the town’s Jews without any support from the local authorities. Over the years local Jews visited the monuments to honor to their dear ones. The monuments were desecrated several times with antisemitic graffiti. Toward the end of the Soviet rule the two monuments had inscriptions in Russian.

In 1999, the veterans Iosef Geler, N. Domeshek, U. Vertman, L.Kats, B. Goldengur, S.Zavtra and Oleksandr Berenboim lived there.
Most Jews emmigrated from Izyaslav to Israel, USA and Germany in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the Jewish community was registered in the early 90s. The first chair was Verman Aaron (? – 1997), Leonid Sergeevich Lys (1933-2007) followed him. Now Boris Tzadikovich Tuzman is the chair of the Jewish Community.
In 1999, Aleksandr Berenboim put together a brief outline of the history of the Izyaslav Jewish community in a series of publications in a local newspaper. The publications may be found here (in Ukrainian):

In 2013 there were only nine Jews left.

Geneology

Some valuable documents related to Izyaslav Jewish community were destroyed during a fire in Kamenets-Podolskiy Archiv in 2003.

Famous Jews from Izyaslav

Bill Mazer (1920, Izyaslav – 2013), was an American television and radio personality. He won numerous awards and citations, including three National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association’s Sportscaster of the Year awards for New York from 1964–66. Considered a New York institution in sports reporting,[2] Mazer was inducted into the hall of fame for the Buffalo Broadcasters Association (1999), Buffalo Baseball (2000) and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum (1997). He is also recognized as the host of the first sports talk radio show in history that launched in March 1964 on WNBC (AM).

Nathan ben Moses Hannover (? – 1663), was a Jewish historian, Talmudist, and kabbalist. Hannover lived for a time at Izyaslav and when this town was attacked by the Cossacks he fled from Poland. Hannover is chiefly known for his work entitled Yeven Mezulah (Venice, 1653), describes the course of the Khmelnytsky Uprising in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from a Jewish perspective. Hannover in this work gives a brief description of the Polish government of the time and of the relations between the Poles, Jews and Cossacks, and the causes which led to the uprising. He also gives a very vivid picture of Jewish life in Poland and the yeshivot.

Leonard Simon Nimoy (1931 – 2015), was an American actor, film director, poet, singer and photographer. He was known for his role as Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek series (1966–1969), and in multiple film, television and video game sequels. Leonard Simon Nimoy was born on March 26, 1931 in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Izyaslav. His parents left Izyaslav separately — his father first walking over the border into Poland—and reunited in the United States. His mother, Dora (nee Spinner), was a homemaker, and his father, Max Nimoy, owned a barbershop in the Mattapan section of the city.

Isabella Laskos (1830, Izyaslav – 1877, St. Petersburg), was the russian writer.

Tzvi Tzur (1923, Izyaslav – 2004), was an Israeli officer who served as the IDF’s 6th Chief of Staff.

The Old Synagogue

The Great Synagogue is located at 20 Zaslavs’ka Street, in the plot of the factory of musical instruments. The southern side of the building rises above a steep slope descending toward the floodplain of the Horyn’ River.

The synagogue was built after the Jews in Iziaslav had been mentioned for the first time in 1578, and before the uprising of 1648, when the converted it into a stable.

 Nowadays the structure is preserved only partially. Its shape during the times when it served its community is known from a number of plans from the late eighteenth and nineteenth century and from photographs and drawings. In the earliest photographs it comprised a lofty rectangular mass of the prayer hall, covered by a saddle tiled roof, a lower two-story western extension of the vestibule group under a saw-tooth shingled roof, shielded by two shaped gables, the yet lower southwestern annex under a half-gable tiled roof, and a long single-story northern extension, which housed the women’s section and was covered by a lean-to shingled roof. Judging from the fenestration of the western wall of the prayer hall, the western extension initially had only a single story and houses – at least in its northern part – a women’s section.  A drick wall bounded a small countyard in front of the main entrance, and gates led to it from north and west. We may suggest that wedding ceremonies took place there, like in front courtyards of other synagogues in the region.

The main, men’s  entrance led to the vestibule from the west, from the front courtyard, white two northern entrances led to the northern extension. The southern side of the vestibule and the southwestern annex had chimneys and hence were heated, unlike most of the building.

The building was reconstructed in XVIII century by the architect Paolo Fontana. A famous Jewish ethnographer Simon An-sky visited Zaslavskiy synagogue several times in 1910s and recorded the Jewish folklore of the area.

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The synagogue was badly damaged by fire in 1924. In 1927 the synagogue was visited by the delegation from the Ukrainian Museum of Jewish Culture named after Mendel Moyher-Sforym. The synagogue was closed in 1930s.
In the second half of the XX century the building was turned into a boiler room which was a part of the musical instruments factory “Octava”. Now the building of the synagogue is abandoned and unused.

Holocaust mass graves

• Poboy anti-tank trenches

In August 1941, according to one testimony on the Sabbath, early in the morning the Jews, mainly women, children, or elderly, were driven out of their homes by Ukrainian auxiliary policemen. The Jews were told to take all their valuables with them on the pretext that they were going to be sent to Palestine. After being collected, the people were loaded onto trucks and taken to anti-tank trenches on the Poboy tract in the forest near the town. There the victims were made to strip naked and taken in groups to pits. They were made to lie face down in the pits and shot to death in the back by members of Police Regiment South and some Ukrainian policemen. Each group was forced to lie on top of the previous victims and killed the same way. The shooting lasted until nightfall. After the shooting the pits with the bodies were covered with earth.

Memorial on the mass grave:

• Soshnoye forest
  

Apparently in June 1942, Ukrainian auxiliary policemen surrounded the ghetto and ordered its inmates to come out of their homes. 137 specialists – artisans and craftsmen, with their families – were allowed to remain in the town. The rest of the Jews were loaded onto trucks and taken to the forest near the village of Soshnoye, several kilometers west of the town. There they were shot to death in several large pits by a German unit and some Ukrainian policemen. In October 1942 several Jews who had managed to hide during this murder operation and who had been living in the town along with the specialists, were taken in the morning by Ukrainian policemen and shot to death at the same site. On January 1 or 2, 1943 the artisans and craftsmen who had been held in one building were surrounded by Germans and Ukrainian policemen. Those who tried to run away were shot to death on the spot. The others were taken by truck to the same site and shot to death with sub-machineguns.

Near the mass grave of Jews from Izyaslav ghetto there are 2 small separate monuments to a daughter and a father. Their story sounds dramatic even if compared with all the atrocities of Holocaust in Ukraine.

Svetlana Korostiy was born in 1938 in a family of Izyaslav teachers Saveliy and Rita Korostiy. Her father was Ukrainian, and her mother was Jewish. In 1940, Saveliy Korostiy was drafted to Soviet Army and became a tank officer. All the family lived in Moscow.

From the beginning of German invasion of the Soviet Union, Rita Korostiy was drafted to Red Army too, and the couple decided to send their daughter Svitlana to her grandparents in Izyaslav.
Svetlana Korostiy was killed by Germans together with her Jewish grandparents and more than 1000 other inmates of Izyaslav ghetto in 1942-1943.

Svetlana’s parents discovered the fate of their daughter only after the Izyaslav liberation in March, 1944. Her mother lost her mind and died soon after the War. Her father continued his service in the Soviet Army and completed his career as Major-General of Armored Forces. Before his death, he requested that he should be buried near the mass grave of Izyaslav Jews where his daughter was killed. Just a few words were written on the monument’s plate: “I came to you, my daughter…”

 

The Old Jewish Cemetery

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The New Jewsih Cemetery

The cemetery was founded at the end of XIX century and is still in use.

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