Berdichev

Posted by Chaim on Apr 7, 2014 in Shtetls, Zhytomyr region | 6 comments

Barditchev (Yiddish), Berdyczow (Polish), Бердичев – Berdichev (Russian), Бердичів (Ukrainian) Berdychiv is a city in the Zhytomyr region.  The city’s estimated population is 78 523 (2013). Before 1917, it was a center of Uezd (county) in Kiev gubernia. How it all began Jews were first mentioned in Berdichev in 1593. Towards the mid-eighteenth century, the city became one of the main Jewish centers of Ukraine, earning the esteemed title “Jerusalem of Volhynia.” From 1785, Berdichev was home to Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, a prominent Hassidic leader, as well as Rabbi Yitzhak Ber Levinzon, a famous advocate of Jewish Enlightenment. My locationGet Directions In 1797, prince Radziwill granted seven Jewish cloth merchants the monopoly of the cloth trade in Berdichev. In 1798, a Jewish printing press was established in the city, one of the greatest in Russia. The ideas of enlightenment...