Uman

 

Imen, Human (Yiddish Transliteration), Умань (Ukrainian), Умань – Uman’ (Russian)

Uman is a historical city in Cherkassy region. The estimated population is 86.911 (as of 2010).
In XIX – beginning of XX century it was center of Uman Yezd of Kiev Gubernia.

More information about Jews of Uman can be found in academic works of Irina Melnik , T. Kuznets or plan of excursion by Olena Andronatiy.

How It Started

A Jewish community appeared in Uman in the early 18th century. The first mention of Jews in Uman relates to the events of Haydamaks’ uprising. In 1749 the Haidamacks massacred many Jews of Uman and burned part of the town.
In 1761, the owner of Uman, Earl Pototsky, rebuilt the city and established a market, at which time around 450 Jews were living in the city. During this time, Uman began to flourish both as a Jewish town and a trade center.

In 1768 Haidamacks annihilated the Jews of Uman, together with the Jews from other places who had sought refuge there.
On June 19, 1788, the peasant revolutionary, Maxim Zheleznyak, marched on Uman ater he had butchered the Jews of Tetiyev. When the Cossack garrison and its commander, Ivan Gonta, went over to Zheleznyak (despite the sums of money he received from the Uman community and the promises he had made in return), the city fell to Zheleznyak, in spite of a courageous defense in which the Jews played an active role. The Jews then gathered in the synagogues, where they were led by Leib Shargorodski and Moses Menaker in an attempt to defend themselves, but they were destroyed by cannon fire. The Jews who remained in the city were subsequently killed. The massacre lasted for three days and old men, women or children were not spared. Gonta threatened death to all Christians who dared to shelter the Jews. The number of Poles and Jews who were killed in the “massacre of Uman” is estimated to be 20,000. The anniversary of the commencement of the massacre, Tammuz 5, was thereafter known as the “Evil Decree of Uman,” and was observed as a fast and by a special prayer.

 

Ancient dungeons in the center old Uman:

Uman became a part of Russia in 1793.
In the late XVIII century, there was a strong and numerous Jewish community in Uman and by 1806, there were 1,895 Jews recorded as living in the city.

Photo from collection of Judaica Institute, Kiev:

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Rabbi Nahman

In the early 19th century, Uman became a centre of Hasidism, particularly associated with the famous tzadik, Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav (April 4, 1772 – October 16, 1810) who spent two years in Uman. He settled in Uman and before his death there he said, “the souls of the martyrs (slaughtered by Gonta) await me.” His grave at the Jewish cemetery has become a pilgrimage site for Bratslav Hasidim from all over the world. After Rabbi Nachman’s death, the spiritual leader of the Bratzlav Hasidim was Rabbi Nathan Shternharts.

Before revolution

Uman had the reputation of being a city of klezmerim (“Jewish musicians”). The grandfather of the violinist Mischa Elman was a popular klezmer in the city, and the tunes of Uman were widely known.

It was also known as one of the first centers of the Haskalah movement in the Ukraine. The leader of the movement was Chaim Hurwitz. In 1822 “a school based on Mendelssohnian principles” was established in Uman and several years before the schools in Odessa and Kishinev. The founder was Hirsch Beer, the son of Chaim Hurwitz and a friend of the poet Jacob Eichenbaum; the school was closed after a few years.
In 1842 there were 4,933 Jews in Uman; in 1897 – 17,945 (59% of the total population), and in 1910, 28,267. In 1870 there was 14 big synagogues and prayers house.

 

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries Uman has become an important trading center. In 1890 the railway station was opened. This has greatly enlivened the development of local industry and commerce. In the beginning of the XX century, there were 4 big synagogues, 13 prayer houses, three private boys’ schools and a Talmud Torah in Uman.

In 1905, as a result of the pogrom 3 Jews were killed.

About Uman in 1905-1906, from the book “Descendants of Candle Maker Kaprove” by Joseph M. Gillman:

Uman entrepreneurs in 1913 with numerous Jewish names:

In Uman section of Russian Empire Business Directory by 1913 mentioned next facts:
– official rabbi was Kontorshik Ber Ioselevich
– spiritual rabbi Borochin P., Mats
– Synagogues:”Hahnusas-Kalo”, Novobazarnaya Horal, Starobazarnaya, Talnovskaya
– Prayer houses: “Besgamedrash”, Latvatskogo, Tsirulnikova
– Private Jewish female three-year school, the head was Boguslavskaya Tsesya Avramovna
– Talmud-Torah, head is Gershengorn A.
– mentioned 6 Jewish charity organizations

Civil Was pogroms

During the Bolshevik Revolution, the Jews of Uman endured great suffering. In the spring and summer of 1919, a number of troops passed through the city and perpetrated pogroms; there were 400 victims in the first pogrom and more than 90 in the subsequent one. More than 400 victims of the pogrom 12-14 May 1919 were buried in the Jewish cemetery in three mass graves. This time the Christian inhabitants helped to hide the Jews. The Council for Public Peace, most of whose members were prominent Christians, with a minority of prominent Jews, saved the city from danger several times; in 1920, for example, it stopped the pogrom initiated by the troops of General A. Denikin.

Descriprion of pogroms in Uman from “Massacre’s scroll”:

In book “Sokolievka/Justingrad: A Century of Struggle and Suffering in a Ukrainian Shtetl”, New York 1983 mentioned next information about this time in Uman:

After Civil War

In the 1920s and 30s, many Jews moved from Uman to Kiev and other major centers with the Jewish community reduced in size by some ten percent by 1926 down to 22,179 people (49,5%).

In 1936, after a long period of plotting against the Jews, and after the imposition of unduly heavy taxes levied upon them by the Communist government, the era of the synagogue came to an end. The late Reb Levy Yitzchok Bender, who was in charge of the synagogue at the time of its closing, pointed out that it was the last synagogue in the area to be shut down. It had become a repository for all the Torah scrolls of the regional synagogues.

In the 1930s, Yankl Skibinsky was the director of the Jewish school in Uman. He was shot in Uman during the war.

In 1939, there were at least 13,000 Jews (29,8%) in Uman.

Story about Grinberg family by Ed Weinberg 

Holocaust

Most of horrifying details of Holocaust in Uman described in the book Roads of the ghetto by Klara Berezovskaya (Russian).

On August 1, 1941, when Uman was occupied, around 15,000 Jews resided in the city which included refugees from the surrounding villages and towns.

From the memories of Klara Berezovskaya:

The Germans ordered fifty Jews to come to establish a Judenrat, but the Jews did not comply. So a new order was issued for twenty people to come three days later. This time, twenty representatives of the intelligentsia showed up, and they were taken away and executed near Khristinovka that same night.

At 3 p.m., German squads approached from the old town, surrounding Jewish houses and driving out the unfortunate inhabitants. Ukrainians, both adults and children, were found pointing out where the Jews were hiding. The crowd of Jews was divided into two parts. The first group was led along Sovetskaya Street to three large houses, one of which housed the Pioneers’ Palace. The victims were driven into the basements, the windows boarded up and covered with shutters in advance. Only a few survived, those who happened to be near a small opening or door and could breathe fresher air.

The second group was sent through Bolshaya Fontannaya to the prison. In the prison yard, they were forced to strip naked and ordered to sing and dance. Suddenly, a messenger arrived from the Gestapo with an order to stop the abuse. The women were released the following day, but all the men were executed. Approximately 1,500 people died in the prison and basements.
On September 21, 1941, the Germans issued a decree for the resettlement of all Jews to the ghetto. Several streets in the old town were designated for the ghetto, and everyone was ordered to move there. There were few houses on these streets but a significant number of Jews. The Jewish community received an order from the police to have all Jews…
On October 8, all Jews from the ghetto were driven to the prison, where a special commission subjected them to thorough searches and then sent them in groups on trucks to Sukhoy Yar. A massive communal grave had been dug where the Jews were shot.

After the second pogrom, there were about 1,800 Jews left in the ghetto. They were all forced to work.

The Germans imposed contributions on the ghetto – 80,000 rubles the first time, 170,000 the second time, and 360,000 the third time.
Jews who converted to Christianity were also persecuted. At that time, a priest, protesting against the unjust cruelty, wrote a petition to the commissioner, citing the holy scriptures. As a result, the naive and honest priest was arrested and executed by the Germans.
Almost all Jews lived in the ghetto, while specialists worked in the city.

On January 1, 1942, an order was issued to dismiss all Jews who were not yet living in the ghetto and relocate them there.
On February 23, 1942, the police entered the ghetto and hanged the elder Rabinovich and the doctor, Goldenberg.
On April 22, 1942, trucks arrived at the ghetto, surrounded it, and started taking away children, elderly people, and all the non-working individuals in trucks, while the strong and able-bodied were sent to labour camps. Eventually, the last specialists were settled in the ghetto.

All the surviving children were gathered in an orphanage (in the end, they were all annihilated).
Jews were forbidden to buy food at the market, but many would remove their armbands and leave the ghetto. Ukrainian women would point out Jews to the police. The police would brutally beat the offenders and drive them away from the market.

Jews brought to the hospital were not treated but immediately executed.

In November 1942, the ghetto was finally destroyed. A directive was issued to register immediately, even with small children. As soon as the Jews arrived, the women were locked in a barn, and the men were checked. A few people working at the motor repair plant were sent to work, while the rest were killed. Only three people survived among those sent to work and soon managed to escape to Bershad.
Photos of the Uman shot by unknown German soldiers, 1941:

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During the first shootings, six Jewish doctors were killed. On August 13, the Germans executed 80 people from the local Jewish intelligentsia.

On September 21, several thousand Jews were herded into the basement of the prison building, with around a thousand dying from suffocation.

On October 1 1941, a ghetto was set up in the area known as Rakivka. But October 10 1941 (Yom Kippur) the ghetto was practically eliminated. 304 Police battalion from Kirovograd killed 5,400 Jews from Uman and 600 captured ones. Only the Jews with the skills necessary for the war effort remained in the ghetto with their families. Samborskiy and Tabachnik were in charge of Judenrat. The ghetto inmates were brutally tortured.

In April 1942, German requested Head of ghetto Chaim Shvartz to provide 1000 Jewish kids for massacre but he refused. After this Germans selected more than 1000 children and killed them near village of Grodzevo.

 

During 1941-1942 over 10,000 Jews were killed in Uman. A labor camp for the Jews from Transnistria, Bessarabia and Bukovina was set up after the ghetto was liquidated.
A POW camp called “Uman Pit” operated during the summer-autumn 1941 in Uman where thousands of people died or were killed. German newsreel about “Uman Pit” camp in 1941:

Uman was liberated by the Red Army on 10 March 1944.

80% of the total losses of civilian population in Uman were Jews.

Here are some the Righteous Gentiles of Uman and the area who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust: Victor Fedoseevich Kryzhanovskii, Galina Mikhailovna Zayats, Galina Andreyevna Zakharova.

Memories about Holocaust in Uman by Manya Faingold:

After WWII

In 1959 there were 2,200 Jews (5% of the total population). In the late 1960s the Jewish population was estimated at about 1,000. The last synagogue was closed by the authorities in the 1957, and the Jewish cemetery fell into disrepair. A memorial to the memory of 17,000 Jewish martyrs of the Nazis bears an inscription in Yiddish.

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Old Jewish houses around the synagogue on Chernogo Street:

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Some Jews still visit the tomb of Nahman of Bratslav. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, pilgrimages to Rebbe Nahman’s grave became more popular, with thousands arriving from all around the world on Rosh ha-Shanah.

Rare video of Hasidim pilgrimage to Uman in last years of Soviet Union (1989). In that time Rabbi’s Nahman grave was near a window of Jewish home at destroyed Jewish cemetery:

Now in Uman there are two Jewish communities: a local Jewish community and a community of Breslov hasidim who permanently live in city. The relationship between them is strained.

Here is a another source of information about the Jewish history of Uman this on a YouTube channel, run by a local historian Shlomo Shvartsman.

In 2015, Indiana University piblished materials of AHEYM Project on their website. There I find 4 small interviews in Yiddish which were taken in Uman in 2000’s.

Genealogy

Architecture

The business part of the city was located on the central Nikolaev street (now Lenin Street). The Jewish Quarter was located to the south of the historic city center, along the road leading to the bridge over the river Umanka. A distinctive feature was its high density old settlement. The Jewish poor mostly lived there. Several families lived in the same house, occupying all floors, including the basement. These houses were more like huts, placed very close, crammed close to each other on a steep slope without fences to separate them. Narrow winding streets converge towards the market square.

The City Centre had a Choral Synagogue on the Upper Jewish street (now “Megaommeter” factory). This block was called Lower Jewish or Rakovka (now Sholom Aleichem street). The Jewish population of Rakovka were engaged mostly in small trade, as carpenters, metalworkers, tailors and shoe-makers.

The Jewish population was actively involved in trading at the fairs, where they ran a lot of small shops and stalls. Another Jewish quarter in Uman still exists today and was formed around the city center, in an area between the streets Uritskogo and Lenin. It is a shopping street, formerly populated by mostly Jewish inhabitants of Uman. The synagogue was destroyed during World War II and a house was built in its place.

Rabbi Nahman grave

The cemetery has been in existence since the founding of the Jewish community in the early 18th century. According to some Hasidic sources, the victims of the Uman massacre in 1768 were buried here. It is likely that the old cemetery used to be located on the same site. In 1811, Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav was buried next to the victims of the Uman massacre. In the 20th century, the cemetery was destroyed. No tombstones from the old cemetery survived.

 

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The history of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav tomb, according to Bratslaver sources.
The tradition of visiting the grave of Rabbi Nachman was established among his students almost immediately after his death (when dying, Rabbi Nachman commanded his disciples to visit his grave, especially on Rosh Hashana). In the 1920s-30s, the adherents of Rabbi Nachman from the local community took care of the grave.

During Nazi occupation 17,000 of Uman Jews were killed and the Old Jewish cemetery was completely destroyed. The Ohel on Rabbi Nahman grave was practically destroyed by bombing in 1944. After the war a few Hasids visited Uman and found only a tombstone.

In the end of 1940’s, de to efforts of Daniel Zagaiskiy (1888-1980) grave of rabbi Nahman wasn’t build up. More details about this story you can find here and here. 

In 1947 the local authorities decided to build on the territory of destroyed Old Jewish Cemetery. Rabbi Zanvil Lyubarskiy from Lvov knew the exact location of the grave and bought this piece of land through a local called Mikhail. Rabbi constructed a house near the grave so that the tomb was under the wall and the window. But Mikhail was afraid he would be discovered and he sold the site to a gentile family. The new owners did not the Jews and wouldn’t let them visit this holy grave. After some time the house was sold again to another gentile family and the new owner allowed the Hasidim access to pray until 1996 when the house was bought by Breslover Hasidim for USD 130,000.

Not a single gravestone in its original form has survived. The cemetery contains a reconstructed tomb of Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav, built into the wall of the house, according to Bratslaver tradition. This stone lies just over the grave of Rabbi Nachman, the original monument was destroyed during the war.

Small article about another graves in Old Jewish cemetery can be found here.

Former Synagogues

On the territory of modern “Megaohmmeter” factory two synagogues were located, a great choral one and a Hasidim one. The great choral synagogue now houses the electroplating unit. Both buildings date back to the XIX century. A court case to return the synagogue buildings to the community has been going for over five years. The Hasidim synagogue was closed in 1957, it was the last synagogue in the city.

 

According to Breslov Hasidim, Rabbi Nahman used to pray in the Hasidim Synagogue but other sources say that it was built after his death.
Address : Sovetskaya str., 49

Video about Uman hasidic synagogue:

Former Hasidim Synagogue, beginning of 1990’s:

Former Chabad synagogue in Uman (on the corner of Telmana str. and Telefonnaya str):

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Sukhyi Yar mass grave

In the woods, in the centre of Sukhyi Yar, there is a stone obelisk approximately three meters high, surrounded by pillars and an iron chain. The obelisk bears three plates with commemorative inscriptions.
“Here Lie The Ashes Of 25,000 Jews From Uman, Killed In Autumn 1941. Let Their Souls Be Bound With Our Lives Forever. ETERNAL MEMORY.”

Adress : Zaliznyaka str., at the outskirts of city (see map below)

Tovsta Dubina mass grave

In February 1942 376 Uman Jews were killed in “Tovsta Dubina” area in the south of the city. A memorial was erected there on May 9, 2007. This information was published there.

Old Jewish Cemeteries

Over 90% of gravestones in the old part were destroyed during WWII.

There are few renowned graves:
Rabbi Avraham Chazan (? – 1917) was a leading Breslov Hasid at the start of the XX century. He was the son of Rabbi Nachman of Tulchin one of the main students of and public successor of Rebbe Nathan of Bratslav. After moving to Yerushalayim in 1894, Rabbi Avraham would travel annually to Uman. In 1914 he was forced to remain in Russia due to the outbreak of World War I. He lived there until his passing in 1917 and burial in Uman New Jewish cemetery.

Reb Shimshon Barsky was a descendant of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and the author of Eitzos HaMevuoros. He was one of the leading Breslov Chasidim in Uman before the Communists took over the country. He passed away on Rosh Chodesh Sivan, 1935.

Rabbi Eliyakum Getsil (Elyakum Getsil, a.k.a. Rabbi Getsi) – son of Rabbi Avraham Chazan, died in 1918, is buried next to Rabbi Avraham Chazan.

During the pogrom of May 12-14 alone, up to 400 Jews were killed. The exact number of victims cannot be determined. The victims of pogrom are buried there too.
The memorial bears the following inscription: “This site is a mass grave of about 3000 Jews from the neighborhood, May God avenge their blood, Killed during the pogrom in the year 5680 (1920). Ohaley Tzadikiim, Jerusalem”.

New Jewish Cemeteries

The New cemetery is still in use and in good condition. The cemetery boasts a new fence and a new gate. It separated from Old cemetery by a fence.

Cemtery records:

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