JEWISH COMMUNITI IN KYIV
The history of Kyiv, which can be counted back many centuries, is inseparable
from the history of the local Jewish community, whose origin dates to
the time of the pre-Christian Rus'. There is a dispute among scholars
about the starting point of the Jews who came to Kyiv. However, nobody
would dispute the actual fact of the existence of a very old Jewish
community in Kyiv. The fact is supported by documents, such as a letter
sent in the first half of the 10th century by Kyiv Jews to their co-religionists,
discovered in a synagogue in Cairo. There are also Kyiv chronicles which
provide recorded evidence that in ancient Kyiv existed a Jewish quarter,
Zhydove, and Jewish Gates nearby one another. During the Tartar invasion,
Jews in Kyiv and other Kyiv residents were severely afflicted. Nevertheless,
already by the end of the 13th century, the Jewish community of the
city had been revived. The city became a cultural and religious center
of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. The fact is supported by the contemporane
ous Jewish saying: Teaching comes from Kyiv'. And the teaching influenced
not only the life of the Jewish community but, as contemporary scholars
submit, the development of ancient Russian philosophy and literature
as well.
The following centuries were not easy for the Jewish community in Kyiv.
Some periods, as for example, those of the Cossack wars, were considered
catastrophic for Jews. For more than a century, there were practically
no Jews in Kyiv. Only at the end of the 18th century, did the community
begin to revive. Jews set up commerce and artisan crafts and built their
private and religious houses. The revival was stopped by the restrictive
decrees of Nicolas I, according to which Jews were obliged to leave
the cities. It was only at the time of the reforms of Alexander II that
some Jews were allowed to return to Kyiv. However, in general, the Jewish
laws remained in operation until the February revolution of 1917. Over-all,
Kyiv Jewry suffered frequently from pogroms in the second half of the
19th and early 20th centuries. The shameful "Beilis case"
is also connected to Kyiv. Its organizers tried to find Jews guilty
of blood worshipping.
Nevertheless, in spite of all the impediments and .persecutions, the
Jewish community in Kyiv left a bright trace after itself in every sphere
of city life. In the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries,
there were celebrated entrepreneurs and businessmen, engineers and scientists,
lawyers and doctors, writers and artists. In Kyiv emerged a central
core of the Zionist movement, among its activists ≈ M. Mandelshtam and
B. Borokhov. Here future leaders of the state of Israel, Golda Meir
and Efraim Katsir, started their careers. The great Jewish writer Sholom
Aleikhem lived and worked here. I. Babel studied here, llya Erenburg
was born here. 0. Mandelshtam lived here...
The years of the Civil War were extremely hard for the Jews. They suffered
from famine, cold, and disruption. The threat of physical extermination
was upon them. Nevertheless, even at that time, there were people who
found the power in themselves to help those who were poorer than they.
The Soviet years also proved to be difficult. On the one side, they
were marked by the destruction of Jewish religion and traditional education
and by the prohibition of Hebrew, on the other side, by the revival
of Yiddish culture ≈ albeit in a restricted way ≈ beginning in the 1920s.
Until the end of the '30s, there were many Jewish academic and educational
institutions in Kyiv, alongside theatres and publishing houses that
published books, newspapers, and magazines. However, already before
World Word II started, Stalinist national policy had erased these achievements
to nothing.
The most horrific period in the history of Kyiv Jewry was the time of
Nazi occupied Kyiv. In Babyn Yar, more than 100 thousand Jews
were
killed, the memory of whom was neglected for a very long period. After
the war, Jews fell under the oppression of state anti-Semitism, which
took the form of "anti-Zionist" campaigns such as the struggle
against "cosmopolitans", the "doctors' plot", and
so on. This was one the reasons why emigration to Israel and other countries
was so intensive.
Only the independence of Ukraine and the signing of the international
human rights charters opened to the Jewish community real perspectives.
In our time, it has become possible for religious groups to protect
their rights; many international educational and charitable programs
are now in operation. Jews can study their history and culture. All
these factors provide evidence of the fact that the Jewish national
spirit in Ukraine is a reality.
The map provided does not pretend, of course, to be comprehensive. There
are many addresses that are omitted, though they are connected with
Kyiv Jews who were celebrated for their activities in science, industry,
the military, and so on. Nevertheless, the sites provided on the map
are enough to demonstrate the extent to which the Jewish spiritual and
material heritage in Kyiv runs
very deep and wide.
M.Kalnytsky
