{"id":194,"date":"2021-02-22T21:12:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T00:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/wordpress\/?p=194"},"modified":"2021-11-08T11:06:43","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T13:06:43","slug":"berdichev-historical-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/berdichev.org\/index.php\/2021\/02\/22\/berdichev-historical-report\/","title":{"rendered":"BERDICHEV HISTORICAL REPORT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Courtesy: History of the Jewish Communities in Ukraine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Berdichev\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Barditchev (Yiddish), Berdicev (Romanian), Berditchev, Berditchov, Berditschew, Berdytschiw, Berdycz\u00f3w (Polish), \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0434\u0438\u0447\u0435\u0432 \u2013 Berdichev (Russian), \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0434\u0438\u0447\u0456\u0432 (Ukrainian)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berdychiv is a historic city in the Zhytomyr Oblast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How it all began<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cJerusalem of Volhynia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ideas of enlightenment (Haskalah) began to spread in Berdichev early in the 19th century, especially among the wealthier families. The Galician Haskalah pioneer and Hebrew author Tobias Feder Gutmann settled in Berdichev toward the end of his life. Influenced by Isaac Baer Levinsohn, a group of Maskilim was formed there in the 1820\u2019s, in which the physician Israel Rothenberg was to be particularly active. Among the opponents of the Maskilim was the banker Jacob Joseph Halpern, who had great influence in Hasidic circles and was close to the government. With the economic decline of Berdichev, the wealthier Maskilim left for the larger cities.\"Big<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big \u0421horal Synagogue. Pre revolution photo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first public school in Berdichev with instruction in Russian was opened in 1850. Because of the poverty of the majority of the Jewish population a large number of children were even unable to attend Heder. According to the 1897 census, only 58% of Jewish males and 32% of Jewish females were able to read or write any language. Sometimes a cold statistical summary gives a better idea of national and social character of a city than a relatively bright and artistically satisfying one.\"\"Jewish population of Berdichev:<\/strong>
1775 \u2014 788
1860 \u2014 50,399 (92,6%)
1897 \u2014 41,617 (80%)
1910 \u2014 57,209 (77%)
1926 \u2014 30,812 (55,6%)
1939 \u2014 23,266 Jews
1959 ~ 6,300 (11,8%)
1979 \u2014 4,637 (5,8%)
1989 \u2014 3,512 Jews
2011 less than 1,000 Jews<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first half of the 19th century the town\u2019s commerce was concentrated in the Jewish hands. Jews founded scores of trading companies and banking establishments there, with agencies in the Russian interior and even abroad. Jews also served as agents of the neighboring estates of the nobility, whose agricultural produce was sold at the Berdichev fairs. The expatriation of Polish nobles and decline of the Polish nobility after the uprising of 1863 dealt a blow to Jewish commerce in Berdichev. The economic position of most of the Berdichev Jews was further impaired by the restrictions imposed on Jewish settlement in the villages by the \u201ctemporary regulations\u201d (May Laws) of 1882 and other government restrictive measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"InsideInside one of the Berdichev\u2019s synagogue. Beginning of XX century.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the 19th century, about half of the Jewish wage earners were employed in manual trades, mostly in tailoring, shoemaking, carpentry, metalwork, etc. About 2,000 were hired workers, while the remainder gained their livelihood from trade. Berdichev became one of the foremost centers of the Bund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A prominent Yiddish and Hebrew writer, Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh (Mendele Mokher Seforim), worked there in 1897.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the population census of 1897, there were 53,728 Jews in Berdichev, but the numbers were \u201cgrowing rapidly\u201d. On 1 January 1899, 50,460 of the 62,283 total population were Jewish, there were 7 synagogues and 62 Jewish houses of worship, compared with 10 Russian Orthodox churches and one Roman Catholic church. According to the author of the passage, the number of primary schools jedarim-Jewish-in the city was so great that it \u201cwas not even recorded.\u201d There were 78 synagogues in 1907 and 67 in 1910.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business directory of 1903 lists many names of Jewish entrepreneurs in Berdichev (in Russian):http:\/\/berdichev.org\/berdichev_historical_report\/list.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the 1913 ethnographic expedition, Semen An-skiy visited Berdichev and recorded a number of Jewish stories and made some photos. Here you can find some of this material in Russian here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business directory of 1913 lists many names of Jewish entrepreneurs in Berdichev (in Russian):http:\/\/berdichev.org\/berdichev_historical_report\/photo.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"JewishJewish School of Commerce. Beginning of XX century.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the Russian Civil War (1918-1920), dozens of Jews were killed or wounded in pogroms carried out by the Ukrainian nationalist forces of Hetman Skoropadsky and Petlyura. During the 1917 revolution and the civil war of 1917\u201319 a Bundist leader D. Lipets was the head of the community and the town mayor. After the revolt of October 1917, Berdichev was inundated with Yevsektsiya activists, the Jewish section of the Communist Party, who arrested and disarmed the Zionists, a Jewish self-defense group formed on the eve of the Petliura pogroms in the early 1919. But when they defeated the followers of Petliura, and later, in June 1920, expelled the Polish troops from Berdichev, a new pogrom, this time instigated by the Bolsheviks befell the inhabitants of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Civil War<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As a result of the civil war and the Red Terror, there were only about thirteen thousand Jews living in Berdichev, according to the census of 1926, i.e., twenty thousand less than in 1899.\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the HeHaluts movement in an agricultural pioneering training farm (hachshara) in Berdichev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This photo was taken from a book called \u201cFighting for freedom\u201d which was published in Israel in 1950s. On the photo: 1 \u2013 Butya Froysburd; 2 \u2013 Rose Yaroshevskii; 3 \u2013 Batya Spiegel; 4 \u2013 Tanya Breen; 5 \u2013 Tanya Obidyanik; 6 \u2013 Keizer; 7 \u2013 Tova Handelsman-Burger; 8 \u2013 Inna Mintsker; 9 \u2013 Rose Dorfman; 10 \u2013 Ms. Foxman; 11 \u2013 Elkana Bilik; 12 \u2013 Yahezkel Friedman; 13 \u2013 ?; 14 \u2013 Sarah Bilik; 15 \u2013 Mrs. Zuckerman; 16 \u2013 ?; 17 \u2013 Frum Labovskii; 18 \u2013 Ephraim Dorfman (Artsieli);; 19 \u2013 Michael Chumash; 20 \u2013 Joseph Vaest; 21 \u2013 Yahizkiel Marder; 22 \u2013 Yehuda Yaroshevski; 23 \u2013 Ms. Feldmann; 24 \u2013 Zeev Melamed; 25 \u2013 ?; 26 \u2013 Monya Muchnik; 27 \u2013 Zemelmann; 28 \u2013 Frum Dryazhner-Fritsker; 29 \u2013 Yahushua Haznyuk; 30 \u2013 Yitzchak Yudkis; 31 \u2013 Moshe Bronstein; 32 \u2013 ?; 33 \u2013 Asher Kopyta; 34 \u2013 Abraham Shapira; 35 \u2013 Baruch Mintsker; 36 \u2013 Shalom Ladar; 37 \u2013 horticulture instructor; 38 \u2013 mashavets; 39 \u2013 Joseph Pihman\\Fihman<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabbi Shmuel Vaintrob was a head of community till the beginning of 1920th. In 1924, a government court of law was established there, the first in the Ukraine to conduct its affairs in Yiddish. According to the 1926 census, of the 30,812 Jews in Berdichev 28,584 declared Yiddish as their mother tongue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authorities could not ignore this and decided to use the language for communist re-education of the Jews \u201cleft\u201d of the former Land Settlement. However, there was strong resistance in Yevsektsiya policy Volhinia, and even the Jewish newspaper the Moscow Emes (Truth) was forced to admit that the workers in Zhitomir province refused to attend classes on Shabbat, as a result of which the whole process of instruction in schools for Jewish workers was close to collapse. Trying to gain the sympathy of the Jewish population, to start with the Soviet regime tried to uphold the principle of equal rights for different peoples and languages they spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1924, the first Ukrainian court of law with proceedings in Yiddish was established in the city, and later the police also worked in Yiddish. In 1928, a Historical and Cultural Reserve (a museum) was opened in the former monastery of the Discalced (Barefooted) Carmelites, where a great part of the exhibition dealt with Yiddish culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the mid-1930s, several Jewish schools were open in Berdichev, and the newspaper Der Arbeiter (The Worker)continued to be published 10 times per month. However, on the eve of World War II and in particular, once the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, the Jewish cultural and educational activities in the city were reduced significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"TitleTitle page Pinkas (record books) Berdichev Kahal. Photo of An-skiy expedition.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The only center for national and religious life among Jews in Berdichev in the pre-war years was an illegal Chabad Chassidim yeshiva under the leadership of a young rabbi E. Pinsky (1914-1942). Under the Soviet government, most synagogues were closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the 1920s-1930s, the Jewish population of the city had significantly decreased, due to a mass migration that had begun in the early twentieth century: the 1939 census revealed that only 23,266 Jews remained in Berdichev, comprising 37.5 percent of the total population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holocaust<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

On July 7, 1941, the Germans occupied Berdichev. About one third of the city\u2019s Jewish population, including refugees from Poland who had arrived there during the first month of World War II, managed to evacuate or escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first days of the occupation witnessed wanton Jewish murders perpetrated by German soldiers. By August 22, 1941, a ghetto was established in Berdichev, in the Yatki area. From August 1941 to June 1942, the Jewish population of Berdichev was annihilated in a number of murder operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate operation on April 27, 1942, some seventy Jewish women from mixed families were shot together with their children.\"Last<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last letter of Yacob Perelmutter from Berdichev. Yacob was murdered together with his wife Rebecca Fridman and other 20.000 Berdiched Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During every murder operation, the Germans separated Jewish \u201cspecialists\u201d needed for labor. Thus, after the mass murder operation of September 14, 1941, about 400 men remained alive. After the next killing in early November, only 150 of the best craftsmen of Berdichev were spared. They resided at a camp in Lysaya Gora. When in May 1942 they were joined by the craftsmen and youth from Yanushpol, their numbers increased to between 400 and 700 men. Most of them were shot in the summer of 1942. The remaining sixty specialists were incarcerated in the city prison and killed along with the other inmates in November 1943 or early January 1944.\"A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A house in a street in the Jewish ghetto. Photo from Yad Vashem<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berdichev was liberated by the Red Army on January 5, 1944.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only 15 Jews survived Holocaust in Berdichev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1990\u2019s Iosef Finkelshtein created this small list of 178 drafted Berdichev Jews who were perished in Red Army<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/td>\"\"<\/td>\"\"<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

List of Berdichev Jews which were drafted from another placesAfter the WWII<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the liberation of Berdichev, some Jews began to return from the evacuation and the synagogues were re-opened by Yakov Gorb in August 1944 (Lenina str, 40 and Marks str., 3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One report states that there were about 6,000 Jews in Berdichev after the war (March 1946). Although Matzah baking was prohibited in the early 1960\u2019s, it was resumed after a few years. In 1970, there were an estimated 15,000 Jews in Berdichev with a synagogue, a cantor, and a ritual poultry slaughterer. The cemetery was reported to be neglected but the Jews had erected a fence around the grave of Levi Isaac of Berdichev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One synagogue is still functioning in Berdichev. The rabbi was a Chabad Hasidic representative S. Plotkin (until 2003), from the beginning of 2004 \u2013 Rabbi M. Toller. In the city there is a yeshiva and a kollel, which is headed by Rabbi A. Nemoi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Indiana University piblished materials of AHEYM Project on their website. There I find 14 small interviews in Yiddish which were taken in Berdichev in 2000\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genealogy<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\nhttps:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheet\/pub?key=0AuxxbP5cX_tidFpaRmlDRUJlSUFMTVlBbnJOcktwd3c&single=true&gid=0&output=html&widget=true\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Places<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old Jewish Cemetery with Ohel of rabbi Levi Yitzchok<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The cemetery situated along Lenina street , directly behind the railway (see map in the beginning). It was established in the middle of 18th century but it wasn\u2019t the first cemetery in Berdichev. The cemetery has not been used since 1973 and most of it now looks abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grave of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok inside of Ohel. Photo by my.berdychiv.in.ua
\"\"
Contact persons who can open Ohel for pilgrim
\"\"
Holocaust victims monument
\"\"
New part of the cemetery
\"\"
Ohel of the rabbi Levi Yitzchok\"\"
Grave of rabbi Levi Yitzchok. Photo in the middle of XX century
\"\"
New part of the cemetery
\"\"
Old part of the cemetery<\/td>		\"\"
Old part of the cemetery
\"\"
Ohel of the rabbi Levi Yitzchok\"\"
Old part of the cemetery
\"\"
Part of the Levi Yitzchok wife\u2019s grave
\"\"
Old part of cemetery. Photo by vvsheva.livejournal.com
\"\"
Old part of the cemetery
\"\"
Old part of the cemetery











<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a monument to the Jewish victims of WWII. It was erected in 1953 near the airfield on one of the biggest Jewish mass graves of Berdichev. The memorial was funded by the local Jewish people. The fundraising was started by a Soviet Army colonel Spivak. However, the memorial survived for one day only, and was swiftly dismantled by the airfield staff. Colonel Spivak was sacked from his position in the Soviet Army and excluded from the Communist Party. In 1990 the memorial was found on the and later installed there. It was unveiled on 6 May 1990 with a new added inscription in Yiddish. The following members of the community took part in the restoration of the memorial: D.Y.Chris, Lev Tartakovsky, Mikola Gelber, Gennad\u0456y Rapoport and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ohel of rabbi Levi Yitzchok is there.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev (1740\u20131809), also known as the Berdichever, was a Hasidic leader. He was the rabbi of Ryczyw\u00f3\u0142, \u017belech\u00f3w, Pinsk and Berdychiv, for which he is best known. He was one of the main disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch, and his disciple Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg, whom he succeeded as rabbi of Ryczyw\u00f3\u0142. Reb Levi Yitzchok was known as the \u201cdefense attorney\u201d for the Jewish people, because it was believed that he could intercede on their behalf before God. Known for his compassion for every Jew, he was therefore one of the most beloved leaders of Eastern European Jewry. He authored the Hasidic classic Kedushas Levi, which is a commentary on many Jewish religious books and laws, and is arranged according to the weekly Torah portion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ohel was built in 1991 funded by an Israeli millionaire Nachman Elbaum and reconstructed in 2006. Inside the ohel there is Levi Yitzchok\u2019s and his disciples\u2019 graves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choral synagogue<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\"Now<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it is a glove factory.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Built in 1850. It is a two-story brick building. It was one of the first Choral Synagogues in the Russian Empire. In 1924 there were 230 members in synagogue\u2019s community but it was closed in 1929. In pre-war years the building housed the local atheists\u2019 club. After the war only the walls remained standing but the Jews were allowed to use one room for religious services. In 1946 the building was presented to the Jewish community and over the next 20 years it was being slowly restored. But in 1964 the building was taken away again and became part of the glove-making factory and remains such now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Address : Sverdlova str., 2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zagrebalnaya Synagogue<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\"Zagrebalnaya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zagrebalnaya Synagogue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Built in 1890 by a rich merchant called Magazinnikov. There are still his initials and date of building on the facade. In 1924 there were 200 members in synagogue\u2019s community. It was closed in 1930th. After the war it became a cinema and an archive. Nowadays the building of a former synagogue on Zagrebelna houses a library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Address : Voikova str., 22<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central synagogue<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now it is one of two working synagogues and a Jewish community center. It was never closed even during the Soviet period and shut only during Nazi occupation. After the WWII it was re-opened at the end of 1945 and was the third synagogue in Berdichev at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Windows\"\"
Inside the Synagogue\"\"
Text of prayer
\"\"Description of Yakov\u2019s Gorb life. He open this synagogue after the WWII<\/td>		\"\"
Photo of Yakov Gorb inside Syangogue\"'We
\u201cWe are Jews\u201d
\"\"
View to Synagogue from Sverdlova street







<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to the memories of Berdichev Jews, in the 1980s during high holidays the synagogue couldn\u2019t contain all willing to pray and all neighboring streets were full of people. This was before mass aliya to Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Address : Vorovskogo str., 3A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synagogue Habad<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Address : Chornovola str., 3
Phone: (04143) 2-02-35
E-mail: rabbi@berditchev.org
Head of Berdichev Habad: Moishe Taller\"Habad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Habad Synagogue in Berdichev<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central park with grave of rabbi Liber<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Old Jewish cemetery with graves dating back to the 18 century was destroyed in 1920s. It is now a city park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabbi Elnezer Liber \u201cGreat\u201d was a religious head of Berdichev Jewish community in the middle of 18th century. He died during an epidemic in 1771. His grave stone was destroyed too the actual burial mound remained. Later a new gravestone made from reinforced concrete was erected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Grave
Grave of Rabbi Elnezer Liber \u2018Great\u2019\"\"Enterance to Cetral park


<\/td>		\"\"
Jewish cemetery in 1912\"\"
Grave of Rabbi Elnezer Liber \u2018Great\u2019 in 1912.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An old legend survives about a Polish man who built a synagogue for Rabbi Liber as a sign of repentance and gratitude for saving his life. It was a famous old synagogue called \u201cAlte Shil\u201d. A group pious elderly Jews were burned alive by the Germans in this synagogue during the occupation. The synagogue was destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghetto during a war<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By August 22, 1941, a ghetto had been established in Berdichev, in the Yatki area (between the river and the market) \u2013 it was the older Jewish part of the city. Mass executions started two weeks later.\"Monumentsmy.berdichev.in.ua<\/a>” width=”334″ height=”350″ srcset=”http:\/\/jewua.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/g046_image001.jpg 600w, http:\/\/jewua.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/g046_image001-286×300.jpg 286w”><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monuments in tha place of former Jewish Ghetto during WWII. Photograph by my.berdichev.in.ua<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A memorial to the Holocaust victims was opened on November 17, 1999. The idea behind the memorial belongs to Savely Y. Vekselshteyn \u2013 the head of the Jewish community of Berdichev.
On September 16, 2001 during the 60th anniversary of the mass killings of the Jews another memorial was installed to commemorate the Righteous Gentiles among nations. This was the first memorial to the Righteous Gentiles in Ukraine and other former Soviet bloc countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holocaust mass graves<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n