History

The earliest evidence of Jewish presence in Kyiv is the so-called Kievan Letter dating back to the 10^th century – an appeal to the Jewish communities of the world to raise funds to support a resident of Kyiv, Jacob bar-Hanukkah (it is in fact the oldest known document from Ruthenia, discovered in 1962 in a genizah in Cairo). The Jewish settlement was probably located in the wilderness of Kozare, perhaps named after the Khazars. Situated near the confluence of the Pochayny River and the Dnieper, it was mentioned in the chronicle of the year 945 forming part of the Hypatian Codex. In 986, Jews from the Khazar Khaganate made an official visit to Prince Vladimir, seeking to convince him to formally convert the region of Kievan Rus to Judaism. This lead to the so-called Khazar debate between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, described by Judah Halevi in his work Kuzari.

The new defensive walls erected in Kyiv in 1037 had several entrances, including the Jewish Gate adjacent to the local Jewish quarter. The hagiography of Theodosius of Kiev suggests that the Prior of Lavra would visit the Jews at night to discuss religious topics. Jewish sources mention a group of people called choilchei Rusya (“those headed to Rus”). These were probably Jewish merchants participating in the East-West trade on the commercial route crossing Kyiv. Members of the local community oversaw financial transactions and probably had connections with the princely court.

In 1113, after the death of Prince Sviatoslav, the residents of Kyiv attacked the Jewish quarter, having earlier warned Prince Vladimir II Monomakh: “Go to Kiev; if you do not go, you should know that evil will rule, that the court of [Governor] Putyata with the command [of the lévee en masse] and the sotnyks will go and rob the Jews.” Monomach did indeed intervene and managed to stop the riots. In 1129, Jewish Street was destroyed in a fire of the town.

In 1173, Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish traveller seeking to determine the number of Jews in the world, called Kyiv “a great city,” even though he had only reached Constantinople and never went farther east. The local community had many contacts with numerous towns, including Regensburg and Mainz. Rabbi Moses, spiritual leader of the Kyiv community in the 12^th century, exchanged letters with Samuel ben Ali Halevi, the head of the Baghdad Yeshiva. After the anti-Jewish riots of 1113, Moses and his disciples left the town and moved to France.

No information has been preserved on the situation of Jews of Kyiv during the conquest of Rus by the Tatars and Mongols, and after the occupation of the city by Lithuania in 1320. Documents from the 15^th century mention several Kievan Jews who were wealthy tax collectors. At the end of the century, the community was renowned for its high level of education, which could largely be attributed to the efforts of Rabbi Moses ben Yakov, author of religious commentaries which have retained relevance until the present day. When Khan Mengli I Giray attacked the town in 1482, many Jews were taken captive and deported to Crimea.

In 1495, Jews were exiled from Lithuania. They were also ordered to leave Kyiv. In 1503, the regulation was revoked and Jewish people were free to return to their previous homesteads. The Kyiv community was revived and received a plot for the cemetery by King Sigismund I the Old. It was located behind the Lviv Gate (former Jewish Gate). Despite this, the local Christian merchants strongly opposed Jewish settlement in the town and filed numerous complaints to the authorities. A series of restrictions on Jewish settlement was adopted in 1619, but Jews still owned land, houses, and market stalls in the town, and one of them worked as a tax collector. Many Jews were killed in the massacre perpetrated by the supporters of Khmelnytsky in 1648. In 1660, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich confirmed the ban on Jewish settlement in the city.

The Jewish community in Kyiv was only revived in 1794, when the town became part of the so-called settlement zone. It had 73 members, all of whom originated from Poland and Belarus. In 1798, the community had its own cemetery and was headed by Rabbi Abraham Abel ben Naftali. In 1815, the community had ca. 1,500 members. A synagogue was opened in the district of Pechersk; there was also a house of prayer operating in Podil.

In 1827, following numerous pleas from the local residents, Tsar Nicholas I issued a decree on the deportation of Jews from Kyiv. Its implementation was delayed until 1835, because the municipal authorities feared that the disappearance of Jews would have an adverse effect on the local economy. In 1843, the Governor General obtained a permit for the tsar allowing for Jews to temporarily reside in the town. Jewish people could stay in two inns and work arrive to the town as merchants and craftsmen. The restrictions became even more lax in 1859, as many Jewish merchants became suppliers of the Russian Army during the Crimean War.

The regulations introduced in 1861 allowed for the following groups of Jews to settle in Kyiv: merchants of the first guild, industrialists, officials, craftsmen, representatives of liberal professions with their students and servants. This resulted in rapid growth of the local Jewish population. In 1862, there were 1,411 Jews in the town, a year later – 3,013, in 1910 – over 50,000, and in 1913 – 81,261, constituting 13% of the total population. The actual number of Jews was even greater, as police data did not include those staying in the city temporarily. The districts of Podil and Lybid were particularly densely populated by Jews, as they were officially allowed to live there; restrictions in other districts were formally abolished in 1917. Jewish Kyiv was portrayed by many Jewish writers, including Sholem Aleichem, who called it “Yehupets” in his novels.

In 1862, Kyiv boasted several houses of prayer and a Jewish hospital. The community also set up numerous charities and educational institutions. At the end of the 19^th century, Jews constituted 44% of merchants in Kyiv, and the activity of Jewish-owned enterprises accounted for 25% of the entire local production. Sugar factories owned by the Brodsky family, Zeitsev, and Margolin were particularly important. The latter initiated the construction of a municipal water system and gas pipelines, helped launch of a river crossing on the Dnieper, and supported the establishment of the first tram line in Kyiv (1892). An important role in the local economic life was also played by the South Russian Industrial Bank, founded by the Polakov brothers in the 1870s.

At the turn of the 20^th century, the community had over 20 synagogues, including the Choir Synagogue founded in 1898 by L. Brodsky. There were also two Talmud Torah schools, a children's nursery, a school, and many other Jewish institutions in the town. In 1896, I. Zeitsev funded the construction of a Jewish surgical hospital which he donated to the community. Despite the relative wealth of the community, ca. 40% of the local Jews, especially those living in the artisan district of Podil, received support from charitable organisations.

With the growth of the community, the Jewish intelligentsia emerged in the town. It mainly included teachers, lawyers, and physicians. Jews constituted 7–9% of high school pupils and 17% of students at the University of Kyiv. The local branch of the Society for the Promotion of Education among Jews in Russia ran two kindergartens, a cheder, a weekend school for adults, and a library with 6,500 books.

The turn of the 20^th century was a period of vibrant development of political life, especially in the years 1905–1907. Zionism garnered particular popularity and enjoyed the support of many prominent local figures, including influential rabbis S. Aronson (Chief Rabbi of Kyiv in the years 1907–1921) and Y. Aleshkovsky. The Bund also played an important role in the town. Before 1914, there were ca. 20 synagogues in the town.

Kyiv gained notoriety as the site of numerous acts of anti-Semitism openly supported by the local authorities. Pogroms took place in the town on 26–29 April 1881 and 18–20 October 1905. Perpetrated with active participation of the army, they resulted many fatalities. One of their incendiaries was Tsekhovsky, chief of the local police, who ordered his men to disarm the Jewish self-defence. In March 1911, a notorious crime was committed in Kyiv, soon labelled a ritual murder by anti-Semites; it was followed by the notorious trial of Menachem Mendel Beilis, who was eventually acquitted. Anti-Semitic sentiments were further stirred up in the aftermath of the assassination of Prime Minister Stolypin (1 September 1911), with Jews once again identified as culprits.

World War I and the Russian Revolution were a period of intensified social and political activity. In 1915, the authorities allowed Jewish refugees from the warfront zone to settle in Kyiv. In 1917, there were over 87,000 Jews in the town – 19% of the population. After the restrictions on Jewish settlement were lifted following the February Revolution, Kyiv experienced an even greater influx of Jews. In 1919, the town had 114,524 Jewish residents – 21% of the total population.

The fall of the tsar added even more fuel to the fire of political and social activities. In Kyiv, the Zionist movement was led by Moshe Nachum Sirkin. The Tarbut and the Kultur-Lige published newspapers for their supporters. Schools with Yiddish and Hebrew as languages of instruction were opened in the town. Local Jews were also involved in the political activities of bodies formed by the newly established Ukrainian state. Some Jews sat on the Central Council, while the government of Ukraine also formed a separate Jewish Ministry. On 10 January 1918, the government adopted the resolution on national and cultural autonomy of Jews. The Jewish National Council became the supreme authority of democratic Jewish communities.

At the turn of 1919, Kyiv was fought over by the Ukrainian Directorate, the Red Army, and the White Volunteer Army of General Denikin. The belligerents repeatedly attacked Jews, many of whom were murdered, raped, and had their property plundered. Ataman Petlura ordered to shoot 36 members of the Jewish self-defence. After the short-term Bolshevik occupation of the city at the end of September 1919, the incoming White Guard accused Jews of shooting at their soldiers. On 1–5 October 1919, a pogrom was carried out by several military units; 294 Jews were killed.

After the Bolsheviks finally seized Kyiv in 1920, the local population started to face a new set of problems. Hunger and typhus were wreaking havoc in the city. The Bolsheviks began to thwart the Zionist movement and the religious life with the help of the Cheka secret police and the Jewish Section (Yevsektsiya). On 3 October 1921, on the day of Rosh Hashanah, the Section organised a show trial against Jewish religion. On 4 May 1922, 51 delegates to the Tseirei Zion conference were arrested; 27 people were sentenced to prison or exiled to labour camps. In 1926, the Choral Synagogue was closed. The local branch of the Hashomer Hatzair and the "Tarbut" lower secondary school were delegalised in 1924, but continued to operate underground until 1928. The illegal Chabad Lubavitch yeshiva, moved to the apartment of M. Rappoport, survived even longer – up to 1937.

Until the end of the 1930s, Kyiv was an important centre of Yiddish-language Soviet culture. Jewish-Soviet literature was flourishing, there were numerous Yiddish educational facilities operating in the town, including an artistic technical school, several Jewish departments at universities, and a department of Jewish culture at the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, transformed into the Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture in 1930. The town boasted theatres for adults and children, trade associations and community clubs, publishing houses and newspapers. In the mid-1930s, however, the authorities began to quash their activities. This process lasted until 1938. In 1939, Kyiv had 224,200 Jewish residents.

On 19 September 1941, the town was seized by the German army. Most of the local Jews had not managed to leave; ca. 150,000 were still residing in Kyiv. They were soon accused of setting fire to the city centre, including Khreschatyk Avenue, although the destruction had in fact been inflicted by Soviet sappers. Executions in Babi Yar began on 22 September 1941. Most acts of mass murder were committed between 29 September and 1 October 1941. The day before, on 28 September 1941, the occupation authorities ordered the Jews to bring all their valuables and clothes and gather in the vicinity of the Christian and Jewish cemeteries in Babi Yar. The area was located close to the railway line, which prompted many Jews to assume that they would be deported from the city. A total of 37,771 people was executed over three days by Germans from the Einsatzgruppe "C" and subunits of the Ukrainian police. At the end of September 1941, a group of 300 mentally ill patients from the Pavlov Psychiatric Hospital was murdered. On 9 November 1941, another group of 15,000 Jews was shot in Babi Yar. In the years 1941–1943, Jews in hiding would be hunted down and killed. The number of victims of the German genocide in Babi Yar is estimated at 125,000; the vast majority of them were Jews. This was not the only execution site in the town; many people were murdered in Syrets (today within the borders of Kyiv), and there were several labour camps operating in the town’s vicinity.

Many Jews of Kyiv were involved in the resistance movement, led by the Jewish communist Shimon Bruz. One of the most exceptional figures of the Jewish underground was Tatiana Markus, liaison officer of the covert Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Using false documents and introducing herself as a Georgian princess named “Tatiana Marcousisse,” she found employment in a canteen for German officers. She carried out various sabotage operations, first poisoning and assassinating Germans with the help of other underground activists, and later working on her own. She was eventually apprehended and killed in the summer of 1942.

In August 1943, Germans attempted to remove all traces of the genocide in Babi Yar. A group of 327 prisoners, including 100 Jews, was brought to the site from Syrets. They were ordered to dig up the graves, remove the corpses and burn them. Nine Jews from the group managed to escape and reveal the truth of German crimes in Kyiv to the world.

Anti-Semitic incidents occurred in Kyiv after the war and occupation, when a wave of survivors started to return to the town from the East. On 4 September 1945, NKVD Lieutenant Rosenstein was attacked by two military men whom he shot in self-defence. The funeral of the victims, which took place on 7 September 1945, turned into anti-Jewish riots. Five Jews were killed.

In 1946, the synagogue resumed its activities under Rabbi I. Shechtman. At the end of the 1940s, the Jewish community sought to open a second synagogue, but its efforts proved unsuccessful. After the death of Rabbi Shechtman in 1953, the authorities did not allow to appoint his successor. It was not until 1987 that I. Fuks became the next rabbi of Kyiv. He was born seven years after his predecessor's death.

For years after the war, the Jewish population suffered from numerous repressions and was unable to develop culturally or socially. During the Soviet anti-Jewish campaign of 1948–1953, the Studio of Jewish Culture at the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR was closed, and the Yiddish periodical Der Shtern was liquidated. Arrests started to take place, with many Jews sentenced to death or killed in prisons. In 1952, a group of "Jewish nationalists" was arrested. In early 1953, Jewish physicians were targeted with mass dismissals. The very same year, the authorities destroyed the old Lukyanovsky Jewish cemetery (although they agreed to the exhumation of some ashes, including the remains of Ber Borochov, the founder of Poale Zion, which were transported to Israel). Persecutions continued after Stalin's death as part of the anti-religious campaign of 1957–1964. Despite being officially presented as opposing Judaism as a religious doctrine, the actions taken by the authorities took on an anti-Semitic tone. An openly anti-Jewish campaign against the alleged "plunder of socialist property" was launched in 1961. In Ukraine, 79 Jews were sentenced to death for wrongful appropriation of property of negligible value. The national authorities continued to introduce laws bearing all hallmarks of anti-Semitism until the 1980s. These included, among others, restrictions imposed on Jewish youth during entrance examinations at the universities in Kyiv and the plan to build a stadium in Babi Yar. Repressions were introduced against Jews who avoided military service; they feared that having been granted access to confidential information, they would be unable to migrate to Israel in the future. In 1986, a ban was imposed on burials at the last open Jewish cemetery – Berkovetsky. Funeral ceremonies held in Babi Yar since the 1960s became the most important form of cultivating cultural identity.

Despite the repressions and gradual emigration, the number of Jews in Kyiv remained relatively high in the post-war period. In 1959, the town had 153,466 Jewish inhabitants (13.8% of the total population); in 1970 – 151,933 (9.3%); in 1979 – 132,197; in 1989 – 100,584 (3.9%). It was only after 1989 that the town experienced a wave of mass emigration to Israel, the United States and Germany. By 2001, the community had shrunk to only 17,900 people.

With the collapse of the USSR, the life of the Jewish community was revived. Many Jewish institutions were established, starting with schools (including secondary schools and Sunday schools), through scientific and cultural institutions (Judaica Institute, theatres, choir, dance group), down to social organisations and periodicals. In 1995, the Choral Synagogue was returned to the community. For decades, the building had served as the seat of the Puppet Theatre; the synagogue resumed operations in 2000. There are also two other active synagogues in the town. Kyiv is the seat of many central institutions of Ukrainian Jews, including the Union of Jewish Religious Organisations, the Union of All-Ukrainian Jewish Organisations, the Association of Jewish Communities, the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, and more.

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