 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 2021 est.43,000 core –140,000 enlarged [1]45,000 by 2023 est. [2] | |
| Languages | |
| Russian (83.0%),Ukrainian[3][4][5][6] (13.4%),Yiddish[3][7] (3.1%),Hebrew[8] | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism,Christianity and other (includingatheism) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Jews,Ashkenazi Jews,Russian Jews,Mountain Jews,Belarusian Jews,Romanian Jews,Hungarian Jews,Polish Jews |
Thehistory of the Jews in Ukraine dates back over a thousand years;Jewish communities have existed in the modern territory ofUkraine from the time of theKievan Rus' (late 9th to mid-13th century).[9][10] Important Jewish religious and cultural movements, fromHasidism toZionism, arose there. According to theWorld Jewish Congress, the Jewish community in Ukraine is Europe's fourth largest and the world's 11th largest.[11]
The presence of Jews in Ukrainian territory is first mentioned in the 10th century. At times Jewish life in Ukrainian lands flourished, while at other times it facedpersecution andanti-Semitic discrimination. During theKhmelnytsky Uprising between 1648 and 1657, an army ofCossacks massacred and took large numbers of Jews,Roman Catholics, andUniate Christians into captivity. One estimate (1996) reported that 15,000-30,000 Jews were killed or taken captive, and that 300 Jewish communities were completely destroyed.[12] More recent estimates (2014) report mortality of 3,000-6,000 people between the years 1648–1649.[13]
During 1821 anti-Jewish riots inOdesa followed the death of theGreek OrthodoxPatriarch inConstantinople, in which 14 Jews were recorded killed. Some sources claim this episode as the firstpogrom.[14] At the start of the 20th century, anti-Jewish pogroms continued, leading to large-scale emigration. In 1915, the imperial Russian government expelled thousands of Jews from the Empire's border areas, including parts of Ukraine.[15][16]
In theUkrainian People's Republic (1917–1920),Yiddish became a state language, along with Ukrainian and Russian. At that time, the Jewish National Union was created and the community was granted autonomous status.[17] Yiddish was used onUkrainian currency between 1917 and 1920.[18] Nevertheless, between 1918 and 1920 in the period after theRussian Revolution and ensuingUkrainian War of Independence, an estimated 31,071 but possibly up to 100,000 Jews werekilled in pogroms[19] perpetrated by a variety of warring factions,[20] one of which was thearmy of the Ukrainian People's Republic[20], formally under the command ofSymon Petliura.[21] Pogroms erupted in January 1919 in the northwest province ofVolhynia and spread to many other regions,[22] continuing until 1921.[23] The actions of theSoviet government by 1927 led to a growing antisemitism.[24]
BeforeWorld War II, slightly less than one-third of Ukraine's urban population consisted of Jews.[25] Total civilian losses in Ukraine during World War II and theGerman occupation are estimated at seven million. More than one million Soviet Jews, including 225,000 inBelarus,[26] were killed by theEinsatzgruppen and their manyUkrainian supporters. Most of them were killed in Ukraine because most pre-WWII Soviet Jews lived in thePale of Settlement, of which Ukraine was the biggest part. The major massacres against Jews occurred mainly in the first phase of the occupation, although they continued until the return of theRed Army.
In 1959 Ukraine had 840,000 Jews, a decrease of almost 70% from 1941 totals (within Ukraine's current borders). Ukraine's Jewish population continued to decline significantly during theCold War. In 1989, Ukraine's Jewish population was only slightly more than half of what it was in 1959. During and after thecollapse of communism in the 1990s, the majority of Jews left the country and moved abroad (mostlyto Israel).[27] Antisemitism, including violent attacks on Jews, was still a problem in Ukraine in 2012, according to UN report.[28] The country's current president,Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish.
The presence of a Jewish community in the territory of modern-day Ukraine is first mentioned in theKievan Letter, which was composed in the 10th century and became the first written mention of the Ukrainian capital. The document is especially valuable because it mentions the names of members of the city's Jewish community, some of them of obviousSlavic andTurkic origin.
By the 11th century,Byzantine Jews ofConstantinople had familial, cultural, and theological ties with the Jews ofKyiv. For instance, some 11th-centuryJews from Kievan Rus participated in an anti-Karaiteassembly held in eitherThessaloniki or Constantinople.[29] One of the three Kyivan city gates in the times ofYaroslav the Wise was called Zhydovski (Jewish).
Popular dissatisfaction with the influence of Jewish financiers was claimed by chronicles to be one of the causes of a popular uprising, which engulfed Kyiv in 1113 after the death of princeSviatopolk Iziaslavich.[30] The rebels plundered the houses of Kyiv's Jews, who were accused by them ofusury.[31]
InGalicia, Jews were mentioned for the first time in 1030. From the second part of the 14th century, they were subjects ofPolish kings andmagnates.
Founded in 1569, thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth became one of the most diverse countries in Europe. Massive settlement of Jews in lands under Polish rule started in the 14th century in the aftermath of the adoption of theStatute of Kalisz. As a result, the kingdom became home to one of the world's largest and most vibrant Jewish communities. Jewish settlement also began in nearbyLithuania, which controlled many lands of today's Ukraine during that time.[32]
The Jewish community became one of the largest and most important ethnic minority groups in the territory of Ukraine during the Commonwealth era. Jews constituted 3 to 5% of the entire population of the Commonwealth, but in cities their share reached up to 20%. Many Jews worked as traders, but some also managed the estates of noble landowners (szlachta), which made them especially unpopular among Ukrainian peasants. Unlike the rest of the population, Jews spoke their own language -Yiddish, and governed themselves through autonomous communities, whose leaders were elected in a democratic manner. On the other hand, many elements of Jewish culture, such as folk beliefs, clothing and architecture (e.g. the construction technology ofwooden synagogues) were shared with the Christian majority. The supreme representative organ of Jews in the Commonwealth, including Ukrainian lands, was theCouncil of Four Lands, which included members of Jewish communities fromGreater Poland,Lesser Poland,Volhynia andPodolia.[33]
In 1648-1657 UkrainianCossackHetmanBohdan Khmelnytsky led aCossack and peasant rebellion, known asKhmelnytsky Uprising, during which Jews were targeted for their role as managers of noble estates, which was seen as oppression ofOrthodox population on behalf ofCatholicPoles.[34] It is estimated that at that time the Jewish population in Ukraine numbered 51,325.[35] As a result, hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed by the rebels, and tens of thousands of Jews were killed or sold asslaves.
Historians consider the massacres under Khmelnytsky to have been the bloodiest episode of anti-Jewish violence until the 20th century.[34] A 1996 estimate reported that 15,000-30,000 Jews were killed or taken captive, and that 300 Jewish communities were destroyed.[12] A 2014 estimate reduced the toll to 3,000-6,000 from 1648 to 1649; of these, 3,000-6,000 Jews were killed by Cossacks inNemyriv in May 1648 and 1,500 inTulczyn in July 1648.[13] Among contemporary Jews the effect of Khmelnytsky Uprising was compared to the destruction of theFirst andSecond Temples. As a result of the massacres, many Jews from Ukraine moved to western regions of Poland, or emigrated toGerman lands,Amsterdam and theOttoman Empire.[34]
The Cossack Uprising and following massacres left a deep and lasting impression on Jewish social and spiritual life and led to the rise in popularity ofJewish mysticism includingKabbalah. The 1648 events in Ukraine played a role in the development of a number ofmessianic movements in Judaism, such as the sect ofSabbatai Zevi.[36] These movements opposed traditionalrabbinism and put an emphasis on magical healing practices,amulets and physical activity such as singing, dancing and prayer.
The teachings ofIsrael ben Eliezer, better known as theBaal Shem Tov, orBeShT (1698–1760), who lived in the Ukrainian town ofMedzhybizh, produced a massive religious movement which had a profound effect on Eastern European Jews. Known as Hasidism, it influencedHaredi Judaism, with a continuous influence through manyHasidic dynasties.[37] The emergence of Hasidism with its specific rules and rites produced a strong opposition from traditionalAshkenazi Jewish circles. As a result of a split between Hasidic Jewish communities and their opponents (Mitnagdim) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a teritorial division emerged, with Hasidic rites dominating among poorer and less educated Jews in Volhynia, Podolia, Galicia andHungarian-ruled territories of modern-day Ukraine.[38]
A different movement was started byJacob Frank in the middle of the 18th century. Frank's teachings were unorthodox (such as purification through transgression and adoption of elements ofChristianity) and were supported by part of the Catholic clergy, including the bishop ofKamieniec Podolski, which led to his excommunication along with his numerous followers. In 1759 Frank and his supporters converted toCatholicism inLemberg. As a result, a group of up to 20,000 Jewish converts emerged, who gradually assimilated with Christians, but preserved some peculiar traditions. In 1817 Frankists were officially recognized as Catholics by theRussian imperial government.[39][40]
InRussian Empire until thepartitions of Poland Jewish communities were not officially recognized. However, as a result of the partitions, between 1772 and 1795 around 750,000 Jews in Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania became subjects of the Russian Empire, followed by Jews ofCentral Poland, which also came under Russian control as a result of theCongress of Vienna. As a result, Imperial Russia became home to the largest Jewish community in the world. EmpressCatherine the Great (1762-1796), a follower of the EuropeanEnlightenment ideas, initially provided the Jews equal rights with the rest of her subjects, categorizing them asburghers. However, due to protests of Moscow merchants, whose businesses suffered due to competition with their Jewish counterparts, in 1791 the Jewish right of residence was limited to thePale of Settlement, which included territories annexed from Poland-Lithuania, as well as theBlack Sea region.[41]
The 1804 Statute for the Jews obliged Jews in the Russian Empire to adopt surnames, required them to use official languages in documentation and putrabbis under special supervision of the state. In rural localities Jews were limited in their right to act as tavernkeepers, and the government made unsuccessful attempts to expel Jews from villages to cities. Under the rule ofNicholas I Jewish families were required to provide recruits for the army, with boys as young as 12 years old (cantonists) having to leave their families to receive military training; many of them later converted toOrthodox Christianity. In 1844 the government abolished thekahal, depriving Jewish communities of their officially recognized autonomy. Special taxes were also introduced onkosher meat andsabbath candles. Those rules were partially relaxed under the rule ofAlexander II of Russia, but after 1870 Jews were still limited from executing rights in many areas. For example, Jewish members were banned from taking more than one-third of places in local councils , even if the locality had a Jewish majority, and Jews were also banned from being appointed mayors.[42]
Odesa became the home of a large Jewish community during the 19th century, and by 1897 Jews were estimated to account for some 37% of the population.[43] The city also became known as a centre of publishing and education, with the first Jewish magazines in Russian (Rassvet, 1860) and Yiddish (Kol Mevasser, 1863) being published there.[44]
After the establishment of Austrian rule in formerly Polish Galicia, a number of requirements were introduced for local Jews, such as the need to pass a German language exam in order to receive a marriage certificate, as well as taxes on kosher meat and candles. Activists of theHaskala introduced measures against Hasidic influence in the region, which included publishing of rabbinical texts and foundation of schools. However, reform movements in Judaism remained unpopular among the majority of Galician Jews.
After 1848 emancipation was gradually introduced, and by 1874, 71 Jews were represented in local parliaments, as well as 5 in theGalician Sejm; many Jewish representatives were also active in local councils, and 10 of them served as mayors. InHungarian-ruled areas most limitations against the Jewish population were abolished in 1859-1860, and after the formation ofAustria-Hungary in 1867 Jews were recognized as equal citizens.[45]
In the late 19th century the Jewish population of Austria-Hungary reached about 2 million people and comprised the seccond biggest Jewish community in the world. In Galicia Jews formed around 10% of the local population, but in some cities, such asBrody, their share stood at 90%. InLemberg during that time more than one third of the population was Jewish. Many localities in the region served as points of pilgrimage for followers of various Hasidic dynasties.[46]
During 1821 anti-Jewish riots inOdesa after the death of theGreek Orthodox patriarch inConstantinople, 14 Jews were killed. Some sources mark this episode as the firstpogrom,[47] while according to others (such as theJewish Encyclopedia, 1911 ed.) say the first pogrom was an 1859 riot in Odesa. The term became common after a wave of anti-Jewish violence swept the southern Russian Empire (including Ukraine) between 1881 and 1884, after Jews were blamed for theassassination of Alexander II.
In May 1882,Alexander III of Russia introduced temporary regulations calledMay Laws that remained in effect until 1917. Systematic policies of discrimination, strictquotas on the number of Jews allowed to obtain education and professions caused widespread poverty and mass emigration. In 1886, anedict of Expulsion was applied to Jews inKyiv. In 1893–1894, some areas of Crimea were removed from the Pale.
When Alexander III died in Crimea on 20 October 1894, according toSimon Dubnow: "as the body of the deceased was carried by railway toSt. Petersburg, the same rails were carrying the Jewish exiles fromYalta to the Pale. The reign of Alexander III began with pogroms and concluded with expulsions."[48]
Jews were over-represented in the Russian revolutionary leadership. However, most were hostile toJewish culture and Jewish political parties, and were loyal to theCommunist Party'satheism andproletarian internationalism, and committed to stamping out any sign of "Jewish cultural particularism".
Counter-revolutionary groups, including theBlack Hundreds, opposed the Revolution with violent attacks on socialists and pogroms against Jews. A backlash came from the conservative elements of society, notably in spasmodic anti-Jewish attacks – around five hundred were killed in a single day in Odesa.Nicholas II claimed that 90% of revolutionaries were Jews.
Leon Pinsker, a doctor from Odessa, became one of the founders of political Zionism with hispamphletAuto-Emancipation (1882), which called for the emergence of Jews as a separate political nation.[49]
At the start of the 20th century, anti-Jewish pogroms continued to occur in cities and towns across the Russian Empire such asKishinev,Kyiv,Odesa, and many others. Numerous Jewish self-defense groups were organized to prevent the outbreak of pogroms among which the most successful one was under the leadership ofMishka Yaponchik in Odesa.
In 1905, a series of pogroms erupted at the same time as theRevolution against the government of Nicholas II. The chief organizers of the pogroms were the members of theUnion of the Russian People (commonly known as the "Black Hundreds").[50]
From 1911 to 1913, theantisemitic tenor of the period was characterized by a number ofblood libel cases (accusations of Jews murdering Christians for ritual purposes). One of the most famous was the two-year trial ofMenahem Mendel Beilis, a Jew from Kyiv, who was charged with the murder of a Christian boy.[51] The trial was showcased by the authorities to illustrate the perfidy of the Jewish population.[52]
In 1912-1914,S. An-sky led theJewish Ethnographic Expedition to the Pale, which visited around 70 shtetls in Volyn, Podolia, and Galicia (all in modern Ukraine) gathering folk stories, artifacts, recording music, and making photos, as an attempt to preserve and salvage traditional Ashkenazim culture that was vanishing because of modernization, pogroms, and emigration.
From March to May 1915, in the face of the German army, the government expelled thousands of Jews from the Empire's border areas, mainly the Pale of Settlement.[15][16]
After the establishment of theUkrainian People's Republic (UPR, 1917–1921) in the aftermath of theFebruary Revolution,[20]Yiddish was recognized as one of its official languages,[53] while all government institutions had Jewish members.[53] A Ministry for Jewish Affairs was established (Ukraine was the first modern state to do so)[20][53] and rights of Jewish culture were guaranteed.[20] During that time many Yiddish schools functioned in Ukraine, initially supported by theVice-Secretariat for Jewish Affairs, and later by the Ministry for Jewish Affairs.[54] The establishment ofKultur Lige in 1918 made Kyiv a centre of Jewish culture. However, Jewish deputies abstained or voted against theTsentralna Rada'sFourth Universal of 25 January 1918 which was aimed at breaking ties withBolshevik Russia and proclaiming a sovereign Ukrainian state,[53] since all Jewish parties were strongly against Ukrainian independence.[53]
During the ensuingRussian Civil War, an estimated 70,000 to 250,000 Jewish civilians were killed in atrocities throughout the former Russian Empire. In modern Ukraine an estimated 31,071 died in 1918–1920.[19] Other estimates give the number of civilian Jews killed during the period as 35,000 to 50,000. Archives declassified after 1991 provide evidence of a higher number; in the period from 1918 to 1921, "according to incomplete data, at least 100,000 Jews were killed in Ukraine in the pogroms."[55] The Ukrainian People's Republic did issue orders condemning pogroms and attempted to investigate them,[20] but it lacked authority to stop the violence.[20] In the last months of its existence the state lacked any power to create social stability.[53]
Among the prominent Ukrainian Jewish statesmen of this period wereMoisei Rafes, Pinkhas Krasny, Abram Revutsky, Moishe Zilberfarb, and many others. (seeGeneral Secretariat of Ukraine) The autonomy of Ukraine was openly greeted byVolodymyr Zhabotinsky, himself a native of Ukraine.
Between April and December 1918 the Ukrainian People's Republic was non-existent and overthrown by theUkrainian State ofPavlo Skoropadsky,[20][56] who ended the experiment in Jewish autonomy.[53]
The February 1917 revolution brought a liberalProvisional Government to power in the Russian Empire. On 21 March/3 April, the government removed all "discrimination based upon ethnic religious or social grounds".[57] The Pale was officially abolished. The removal of the restrictions on Jews' geographical mobility and educational opportunities led to a migration to the country's major cities.[58]
One week after the 25 October / 7 November 1917Bolshevik Revolution, the new government proclaimed the "Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples [Nations] of Russia," promising all nationalities the rights of equality, self-determination and secession. Jews were not specifically mentioned in the declaration, reflecting Lenin's view that Jews did not constitute a nation.[59]
In 1918, theRSFSR Council of Ministers issued a decree entitled "On the Separation of Church from State and School from Church", depriving religious communities of the status of juridical persons, the right to own property and the right to enter into contracts. The decree nationalized the property of religious communities and banned their assessment of religious tuition. As a result, religion could be taught or studied only in private.[60]
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On 1 February 1918 the Commissariat for Jewish National Affairs was established as a subsection of the Commissariat for Nationality Affairs. It was mandated to establish the "dictatorship of the proletariat in the Jewish streets" and attract the Jewish masses to the regime while advising local and central institutions on Jewish issues. The Commissariat was also expected to fight the influence ofZionist and Jewish-Socialist Parties.[61][62] On 27 July 1918 the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree stating that antisemitism is "fatal to the cause of the ... revolution". Pogroms were officially outlawed.[63] On 20 October 1918 the Jewish section of the CPSU (Yevsektsia) was established for the Party's Jewish members; its goals were similar to those of the Jewish Commissariat.[57][64][65][66][67]
During theHryhoriv Uprising in May 1919, almost 3000 Jews of Yelisavetgrad (todayKropyvnytskyi) were murdered and their property stolen during a mutiny ofBolshevik troops.
In contrast with the Bolshevik government's official policy of equality among citizens, antisemitism remained deeply entrenched in the political and social ideologies of the tsarist counterrevolutionaries, especially among paramilitary groups such as theBlack Hundreds. These militias incited and organized pogroms against Russian Jews. The official slogan of the Black Hundreds was "Bei Zhidov," meaning 'Beat the Jews.'[68] Thus, during theRussian Civil War that followed the1917 Revolution, the Jews became a crucial site of the conflict between revolutionaryReds and counterrevolutionaryWhites, particularly in the contested territory of Ukraine. The Bolsheviks' official opposition to antisemitism—coupled with the prominence of Jews such asLeon Trotsky within the Bolshevik ranks—allowed the Christian nationalist movements of both theWhite Army and the emergentUkrainian National Republic to link Ukrainian Jews to the despised communism. These connections, combined with the cultural tradition of antisemitism among Russian peasantry,[69] provided ample justification for the Whites to attack Ukraine's Jewish population. Between 1918 and 1921, almost all[dubious –discuss] of the approximately 2,000 pogroms carried out in Ukraine were organized by White Army forces.[70] eyewitnesses reported hearing counterrevolutionary militia members expound slogans such as, "We beat the Yids, we beat the Commune", and "This is the answer to the Bolsheviks for theRed Terror."[69] Recent studies hold that about 30,000 Jews were killed in these pogroms, while another 150,000 died from wounds sustained during the violence.[70]
During thePolish-Ukrainian War in late 1918Galician Jews were suspected by many Poles to have collaborated with forces of theWest Ukrainian People's Republic. As a result, after Polish troops entered Lviv on 22 November 1918 apogrom was perpetrated by Poles in the city's Jewish quarter, killing at least 75 inhabitants, although higher estimates also exist. The event caused indignation in global press. After the pogrom Polish military command accused Lviv's Jews of not restraining their compatriots and threatened with catastrophic circumstances in case of their opposition toPolish authorities.[71]
In the territory controlled by Ukrainian forces pogroms erupted in January 1919 in the northwest province ofVolhynia and spread during February and March to the cities, towns, and villages of many other regions of Ukraine.[22] AfterSarny it was the turn ofOvruch, northwest of Kyiv. InTetiev on 25 March, approximately 4,000 Jews were murdered, half in a synagogue set ablaze by Cossack troops under Colonels Kurovsky, Cherkowsy, and Shliatoshenko.[22] ThenVashilkov (6 and 7 April).[72] In Dubovo (17 June) 800 Jews were decapitated in assembly-line fashion.[22] According to David A. Chapin, the town of Proskurov (nowKhmelnitsky), near the city ofSudilkov, "was the site of theworst atrocity committed against Jews this century before the Nazis." Pogroms continued until 1921.[23]
On 15 February 1919, during the Ukrainian-Soviet war,OtamanIvan Semesenko initiated a pogromProskurov in which many Jews were massacred onShabbat (parashah Tesaveh). Semesenko claimed that the pogrom was in retaliation for a previous Bolshevik uprising that he believed was led by Jews.[73]
According to thepinqasim record books those murdered in the pogrom included 390 men, 309 women and 76 children. The number of wounded exceeded 500. Two weeks later Order 131 was published in the central newspaper[clarification needed] by the head ofDirectorate of Ukraine. In itSymon Petliura denounced such actions and eventually executed Otaman Semesenko by firing-squad in 1920. Semesenko's brigade was disarmed and dissolved. This event is especially remarkable because it was used to justifySholem Schwarzbard's assassination of the Ukrainian leader in 1926. Although Petliura's direct involvement was never proven, Schwartzbard was acquitted in revenge. The series of Jewish pogroms around Ukraine culminated in theKyiv pogroms of 1919 between June and October of that year.[74][75]
In July 1919, the Central Jewish Commissariat dissolved thekehillot (Jewish Communal Councils). Thekehillot had provided social services to the Jewish community.[76]
From 1919 to 1920, Jewish parties and Zionist organizations were driven underground as the Communist government sought to abolish all potential opposition.[77][78] TheYevsektsiya Jewish section of the Soviet Communist party was at the forefront of the anti-religious campaigns of the 1920s that led to the closing of religious institutions, the break-up of religious communities and the further restriction of access to religious education.[64] To that end a series of "community trials" against the Jewish religion were held. The last known such trial, on the subject of circumcision, was held in 1928 inKharkiv.[65][66] At the same time, the body worked to establish a secular identity for the Jewish community.[67]
In 1921 many Jews[79]emigrated to Poland, as they were entitled by a peace treaty inRiga to choose the country they preferred. Several hundred thousand joined the already numerous Jewish minority of thePolish Second Republic. Also, during the interwar period, thousands of Jewish refugees from theSoviet Ukraine migrated to Romania.[80][81][82]
On 31 January 1924 the Commissariat for Nationalities' Affairs was disbanded.[83] On 29 August 1924 an official agency for Jewish resettlement, the Commission for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land (KOMZET), was established. KOMZET studied, managed and funded projects for Jewish resettlement in rural areas.[84][85] A public organization, the Society for the Agricultural Organization of Working Class Jews in the USSR (OZET), was created in January 1925 to help recruit colonists and support the colonization work of KOMZET.[86] For the first few years the government encouraged Jewish settlements, particularly in Ukraine. Support for the project dwindled throughout the next decade.[87] In 1938 OZET was disbanded, following years of declining activity. The Soviets set up three Jewish nationalraions in Ukraine as well as two in the Crimea – nationalraions occupied the 3rd level of the Soviet system, but were all disbanded by the end of World War II.[88]
The cities with the largest populations of Jews in Soviet Ukraine in 1926 were Odesa, 154,000 or 36.5% of the total population; Kyiv, 140,500 or 27.3%; Kharkiv, 81,500 or 19.5%; andDnipropetrovsk, 62,000 or 26.7%. In 1931Lviv's Jewish population numbered 98,000 or 31.9%, and inChernivtsi, 42,600 or 37.9%.[89] Under the Soviet rule stateYiddish theatres were organized in cities such as Kharkiv (1925), Kyiv (1929), Odesa (1930),Vinnytsia (1934),Zhytomyr (1935), as well as Lviv andTernopil (1939-1940). All of them were closed in the postwar era during thewave of repressions against Jewish culture in the Soviet Union.[90]
As part ofkorenization polcies, compulsory education of Yiddish-speaking pupils was introduced. In 1924 there were 268 schools of this type with 42,000 pupils in Soviet Ukraine; by 1931 their number had grown to 1096, and they were attended by 94,800 pupils. Yiddish schools in the Soviet Union provided children with proficiency in Yiddish cultire, but at the same time engaged in propaganda against Judaism: religious instruction was banned by Soviet legislation, and in 1923 Saturday was replaced with Sunday as the day off for Jewish pupils. This made such institutions increasingly unpopular among Jewish families, and after the end of korenization in the mid-1930s the enrollment in Yiddish schools in Soviet Ukraine rapidly declined, although some of them, especially innewly annexedWestern Ukraine, continued to function until the Second World War.[54]
On 8 April 1929 the new Law on Religious Associations codified all previous religious legislation. All meetings of religious associations were required to have their agenda approved in advance; lists of members of religious associations had to be provided to the authorities.[91] In 1930 theYevsektsia was dissolved,[67] leaving no central Soviet-Jewish organization. Although the body had served to undermine Jewish religious life, its dissolution led to the disintegration of Jewish secular life as well; Jewish cultural and educational organizations gradually disappeared.[92] When the Soviet government reintroduced the use of internal passports in 1933, "Jewish" was considered an ethnicity for those purposes.[93]
TheSoviet famine of 1932–1933 affected the Jewish population,[94] and led to a migration fromshtetls to overcrowded cities.[95]
As the Soviet government annexed territory fromPoland,Romania (both would be incorporated into theUkrainian SSR afterWorld War II[20]) and theBaltic states,[96] roughly two million Jews became Soviet citizens.[97][98] Restrictions on Jews that had existed in those countries were lifted.[99] At the same time, Jewish organizations in the transferred territories were shut down and their leaders were arrested and exiled.[100] Approximately 250,000 Jews escaped or were evacuated from the annexed territories to the Soviet interior prior to the Nazi invasion.[101]
In 1921, Crimea became an autonomous republic. In 1923, the All-UnionCentral Committee passed a motion to resettle a large number of the Jewish population from Ukrainian and Belarusian cities to Crimea, numbering 570,400 families. The plan to further resettle Jewish families was confirmed by the Central Committee of the USSR on 15 July 1926, assigning 124 million roubles to the task and also receiving 67 million from foreign sources.[102]
The Soviet initiative of Jewish settlement in Crimea was opposed bySymon Petliura,[103] who regarded it as a provocation. This train of thought was supported byArnold Margolin[104] who stated that it would be dangerous to set up Jewish colonies there.
The Soviets twice sought to establishJewish autonomy in Crimea; once, in the 1920s, with the support of theAmerican Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and again in 1944, by theJewish Anti-Fascist Committee.[24][105]
The total number of civilians who died during the war and the German occupation of Ukraine is estimated to be as high as seven million. This estimate includes over one million Jews who were shot and killed by theEinsatzgruppen and local Ukrainian collaborators.[106] The excuse of "Jewish Bolshevism" was also used to carry them out.[107][108]
The total number of Jews killed in theHolocaust in Eastern Ukraine, or the Ukrainian SSR (within its 1938 borders), is estimated to be slightly less than 700,000 out of a total pre-Holocaust Jewish population of slightly over 1.5 million.[109] Within the borders of modernUkraine, the death toll is estimated to be around 900,000.
Ukraine had 840,000 Jews in 1959, a decrease of almost 70% from 1941 (within Ukraine's current borders). Ukraine's Jewish population declined significantly during theCold War. In 1989, Ukraine's Jewish population was only slightly more than half of what it had been in 1959.
Such immigrants included artists, such asMarina Maximilian Blumin and street artistKlone,[110] as well as activists includingGennady Riger andLia Shemtov.
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1650 | 40,000 | — |
| 1765 | 300,000 | +650.0% |
| 1897 | 2,680,000 | +793.3% |
| 1926 | 2,720,000 | +1.5% |
| 1941 | 2,700,000 | −0.7% |
| 1959 | 840,446 | −68.9% |
| 1970 | 777,406 | −7.5% |
| 1979 | 634,420 | −18.4% |
| 1989 | 487,555 | −23.1% |
| 2001 | 106,600 | −78.1% |
| 2010 | 71,500 | −32.9% |
| 2014 | 67,000 | −6.3% |
Source:
| ||
In1989, a Soviet census counted 487,000 Jews living in Ukraine.[121][122] Although discrimination by the state all but halted afterUkrainian independence in 1991, Jews were still discriminated against during the 1990s.[123] For instance, Jews were not allowed to attend some educational institutions.[123] Antisemitism has since declined.[124]
The overwhelming majority of the Jews who remained in Ukraine in 1989 then moved to other countries in the 1990s during and after thecollapse of Communism.[27]
Some 266,300 Ukrainian Jewsemigrated to Israel in the 1990s.[124] The2001 Ukrainian Census counted 106,600 Jews living in Ukraine[125] (the number of Jews also dropped due to a negative birthrate).[124] According to thePublic Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister of Israel, early 2012 there were 250,000 Jews in Ukraine, half of them living in Kyiv.[8] According to the European Jewish Congress, as of 2014, 360,000–400,000 Jews remained.[120]
By 1999 there were various Ukrainian Jewish organizations that disputed each other'slegitimacy.[126]
In November 2007, an estimated 700Torah scrolls confiscated from Jewish communities during the Soviet era were returned to Jewish communes by state authorities.[127]
TheUkrainian Jewish Committee was established in 2008 in Kyiv to concentrate the efforts of Jewish leaders in Ukraine on resolving the community's strategic problems and addressing socially significant issues. The Committee declared its intention to become one of the world's most influential organizations protecting the rights of Jews and "the most important and powerful structure protecting human rights in Ukraine".[128]
In the2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections,All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" won its first seats in theUkrainian Parliament,[129][130][131][132][133][134] garnering 10.44% of the popular vote and the fourth most seats among national political parties;[135][136] This led to concern among Jewish organizations thataccused "Svoboda" of Nazi sympathies and antisemitism.[137][129][130][131][138][133][134][139] In May 2013, theWorld Jewish Congress listed the party asneo-Nazi.[140] "Svoboda" has denied the charges.[130][141][142][143][144][145][146]
Antisemitic graffiti and violence against Jews were still a problem in 2010.[147]
After theEuromaidan protests, unrest grippedsouthern andeastern Ukraine, and this escalated in April 2014 into thewar in Donbas[148] and the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In April 2014, in the city ofDonetsk occupied by Russian-backed forces, leaflets were distributed by three masked men as people left a synagogue, ordering Jews to register to avoid losing their property and citizenship "given that the leaders of the Jewish community of Ukraine support theBanderitejunta inKyiv[a] and are hostile to theOrthodoxDonetsk Republic and its citizens".[149][150][151] After the distribution of the flyers was reported,Denis Pushilin, whom the leaflets claimed had issued the discriminatory order, denied any involvement on behalf of himself and the government of theDonetsk People's Republic. The chief rabbi of the city of Donetsk, Pinchas Vishedski, later called the distribution of the flyers a "hoax" that was carried out by an unknown party, adding "I think it's someone trying to use the Jewish community in Donetsk as an instrument in this conflict. That's why we're upset."[149]
After the Euromaidan, the number of Ukrainian Jews makingaliyah from Ukraine grew 142% during the first four months of 2014 compared to the previous year.[152] 800 people arrived inIsrael over January–April, and over 200 signed up for May 2014.[152] However, chief rabbi andChabad emissary ofKyiv RabbiJonathan Markovitch said in late April 2014 "Today, you can come to Kyiv,Dnipro orOdesa and walk through the streets openly dressed as a Jew, with nothing to be afraid of".[153]
In August 2014, theJewish Telegraphic Agency reported that theInternational Fellowship of Christians and Jews was organizing chartered flights to allow at least 150 Ukrainian Jews to immigrate to Israel in September. Jewish organizations within Ukraine, as well as theAmerican Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, theJewish Agency for Israel and the Jewish community ofDnipropetrovsk, arranged temporary homes and shelters for hundreds of Jews who fled the war in Donbas in eastern Ukraine. Hundreds of Jews reportedly fled the cities ofLuhansk and Donetsk.[154][155]
In 2014Ihor Kolomoyskyi andVolodymyr Groysman were appointed Governor ofDnipropetrovsk Oblast andSpeaker of the Parliament respectively.[156][157][158][159] Groysman becamePrime Minister of Ukraine in April 2016.[160]
Ukraine elected its first Jewish president in the2019 presidential election, when comedian, head ofKvartal 95 Studio, and lead actor in the TV seriesServant of the PeopleVolodymyr Zelenskyy defeated incumbentPetro Poroshenko with 73.23% of the vote, the biggestlandslide victory in the history ofUkrainian presidential elections.[161] During the brief overlap of Zelenskyy's and Groysman's terms (20 May to 29 August 2019), Ukraine was the only country in the world apart from Israel to have both a Jewish president and prime minister.[161][162][163]
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In February 2022Russia invaded Ukraine. The Israeli Embassy stayed open on the Sabbath to facilitate the evacuation of Jews. A total of 97 Jews chose to travel to Israel.[164] In addition, 140 Jewish orphans fled to Romania and Moldova.[165][166] 100 Jews fled to Belarus in order to prepare for their eventual move to Israel.[167] On 2 March 2022, the Jewish Agency for Israel reported that hundreds of Jewish war refugees sheltering in Poland, Romania and Moldova were scheduled to leave for Israel the following week.[168] Refugee estimates ranged from 10,000[169] to 15,200 refugees had arrived in Israel.[170] In September 2023 it was reported that over 43,000 Jews from Russia and over 15,000 Jews from Ukraine have fled to Israel.[171] By August 2024, out of an estimated 30,000 Jews who immigrated to Israel since 7 October 2023, 17,000 Jews were from Russia and 900 Jews from Ukraine.[172]
In 2023, the first Ukrainian-languagehaggadah was released; most printed religious material used by Ukrainian Jews until then had been in Russian. The new haggadah included material such as prayers for those defending Ukraine, as well as sections on Jewish writers from today's Ukraine who had been classified as Russian in the past.[173]
In December 2024, chief of theMain Directorate of Intelligence of UkraineKyrylo Budanov ceremonially lit the first candle on aHanukkiah made from fragments of Russian drones and rockets fired at Ukraine.[174]
On 8 June 2025, theFederation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine announced that at least 200 Jewish-Ukrainian soldiers had been killed during the Russian invasion.[175]
As of 2012, Ukraine had the fifth-largest Jewish community in Europe and the twelfth-largestin the world, behindSouth Africa and ahead ofMexico. The majority live inKyiv (about half),[8]Dnipro,Kharkiv andOdesa.[176] RabbisJonathan Markovitch of Kyiv andShmuel Kaminetsky[177] of Dnipro are considered to be among the most influential foreigners in the country.[178] Opened in October 2012 in Dnipro, the multifunctionalMenorah center is among the world's largestJewish community centers.[179][180]
A growing trend among Israelis is to visit Ukraine on a "roots trip" to learn of Jewish life there.[181] Kyiv is usually mentioned, where it is possible to trace the paths ofSholem Aleichem andGolda Meir;Zhytomyr andKorostyshiv, where one can follow the steps ofHaim Nahman Bialik;Berdychiv, where one can trace the life ofMendele Mocher Sforim;Rivne, where one can follow the course ofAmos Oz;Buchach – the path ofS.Y. Agnon;Drohobych – the place ofMaurycy Gottlieb andBruno Schulz.[181]
Ukraine is known as a major exporter of handmadematzah to the United States.[182][183]
Ukrainian-born Jews[edit]
| Notable Jews of Ukrainian descent[edit]
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Припускають, що прізвище спікерки має єврейське походження.
