History

The first mention of the Jewish presence in Rivne dates back to 1566. Other accounts, included in documents drawn up in 1571, are related to money loans.

The rapid development of the town began after 1723, when it came under the rule of the Lubomirski dukes, who encouraged Jews to settle there. In 1749, Stanisław Lubomirski issued an act defining the rights of the kehilla and the Chevra Kadisha society. In 1786, Józef Lubomirski assigned a plot for the enlargement of the Jewish cemetery and allowed for the construction of a synagogue; in 1789, he extended all previous privileges for Jews. In 1765, there were 890 Jews living in Rivne, and 296 in the neighbouring villages.

In 1793, after the Second Partition of Poland, Rivne became part of Russia. In 1801, there were 2,137 Jewish burghers in the town, including 10 merchants. In 1847, Rivne was inhabited by 3,788 Jews, in 1897 – by as many as 13,780, which amounted to 56% of the population. The influx of Jews was associated with the rapid development of the town after the construction of two railway lines passing through it.

In the second half of the 19^th century, Rivne became a large centre of the Haskalah. Private schools were established with Hebrew as the language of instruction. One of the first Reformed cheders in Russia was also opened in the town. In 1884, a branch of the Hovevei Zion movement was established in Rivne, followed by branches of various Zionist parties whose representatives took part in Zionist congresses. Various social circles opposing the Zionist ideology were also active in the town; in 1903, a local branch of the Bund was established in Rivne.

In 1909, Rivne was inhabited by 18,631 Jews (55.8% of the population). Five local factories, a cast iron foundry, and all nine printing houses in the town belonged to Jews. Among the 16 local doctors, seven were Jews. There was a Jewish hospital and an organisation helping the poor in the town. In 1911, the branch of the Hebrew Language Lovers Association started its activities in Rivne.

On 14 and 19 May 1919, during the battles taking place in the territories of the fallen Russian Empire, several pogroms were carried out in Rivne by the Ukrainian army of the Provisional All-Russian Government.

In the years 1920–1939, Rivne, at that time a large centre of Jewish cultural and social life, belonged to Poland. In 1919, the Tarbut secondary school was opened, followed a year later by two primary schools and a kindergarten with Hebrew, also forming part of the Tarbut network. During the interwar period, various Zionist organisations were active in Rivne, including HeHalutz, which organised migration to Palestine. In the years 1924–1939, the Yiddish weekly Woliner Lebn was published in Rivne.

According to the 1931 census, there were 22,737 Jews living in Rivne. On the eve of WWII, there were more than 25,000 Jews inhabiting the city. This number included refugees from the occupied parts of Poland who had not been deported to inner Soviet Union.

In September 1939, after the annexation of eastern parts of Poland by the USSR, all Jewish social and political activities were forbidden. Activists of Jewish parties and wealthy Jews were arrested and exiled deep into the Soviet Union. Hebrew schools were closed.

On 28 June 1941, Germans entered Rivne. Only a small fraction of the Jewish population had managed to escape. Shortly after the capture of the city, a twelve-member Judenrat was formed at the order of the occupation authorities, headed by former high school teacher M. Bergman. Germans introduced numerous restrictions against Jews, including the obligation to wear labels on clothing.

On 9 and 12 July 1941, 240 Jews were shot by the German Sonderkommando 4A. On 16 August 1941, a security police battalion carried out an Aktion, killing about 300 people. Members of the Judenrat together with M. Bergman committed suicide to avoid following the orders of the Germans, who demanded for them to denounce more Jews. On 8 December 1941, the 45^th Security Police Battalion shot most of the Jews living in Rivne. Only a group of men trained in professions useful for the Nazi administration, as well as the members of their families, were left alive. According to German reports, about 15,000 people were killed.

The remaining Jews were locked up in the ghetto and subjected to merciless exploitation. During one of the many confiscations of money and valuables, Jews had to pay 12 million roubles to the Germans. Gold, precious metals, furniture, and clothes were taken away from them. The most valuable items were sent to Germany, and what remained was given out or sold for symbolic prices to German soldiers and Ukrainian policemen.

Some people living in the ghetto formed underground groups gathering weapons. During the night of 13 July 1942, when security police units supported by the Ukrainian police entered the closed district, they encountered armed resistance. Some of the Jews managed to escape, although many of them were later shot in the woods by Germans and Ukrainian nationalists; those who survived participated in the battle for the liberation of the city on 5 February 1944. Nonetheless, most people died. On 13–14 July 1942, Germans captured 4,500 people, who were taken to Kostopol in echelon formations and shot. During the police raids in October 1942, several hundred hiding Jews were caught and killed. More than 20,000 Jews were shot over the course of the German occupation of Rivne.

In the autumn of 1944, after the city was captured by the Soviet army, the former inhabitants of Rivne began to return to the town. At that time, its Jewish population amounted to about 1,200 people. The Jewish community was re-established and a synagogue was opened at the initiative of former partisans. If possible, Jewish families adopted Jewish children living in orphanages or staying with Ukrainian or Polish families.

In the years 1945–1948, most Jews from Rivne left the town and migrated through Poland to Palestine. Those who stayed fell victim to various anti-Semitic campaigns, such as the one against “Jewish nationalism” (1948–1953), one exposing the so-called Doctors’ Plot (1953), and another aiming to prevent the robbery of socialist property (1961–1964). In 1957, the authorities closed the last remaining synagogue in the city; a sports school was opened in the building. In 1959, the Jewish cemetery was closed and converted into a park. According to data gathered in the national censuses, 1,311 Jews lived in Rivne in 1959, in 1970 – 1,787, in 1979 – 1,563, in 1989 – 1,230.

In the 1970s–1990s, a large number of Jews left for Israel, the United States, Germany, Canada, and other countries. According to the 2001 census, there were only 455 Jews living in the entire Rivne Oblast. Twenty four people declared Yiddish as their mother tongue. Nevertheless, in the 1990s, a Jewish community was established in the town. In 1992, it regained its synagogue and opened the Ohr Avner Sunday School. At the turn of the 21^st century, the function of the rabbi of Rivne was performed by Shlomo Shneurson, representing the Chabad movement.

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