Jewish people lived in Ternopil since the very moment of its founding. They were allowed to reside in the entire area of the town except for the market square. Their right of settlement was protected by the privilege granted to Jews by Hetman Jan Tarnowski in 1550, and confirmed by Hetman Józef Potocki nearly 200 years later (in 1740)[1.1].

In return, they were required to defend the city. In 1623, after Ternopil was completely destroyed in a fire, the city owners permitted Jews to rebuild their houses and construct a synagogue, but only if it was fortified. The erected Old Synagogue was a stone building whose architecture and décor stunned visitors even in the 20^th century. Before the invasion of Khmelnitsky’s troops, there were 300 Jewish families living in the city[1.1.1]. A part of the Jewish community managed to escape the Khmelnitsky Uprising, but the rest was slain by the Cossack troops. During the Polish-Cossack wars, the Jewish population of Ternopil was required to defend the city together with gentile citizens. The Jews had to form their own division equipped with arms (including a cannon) to defend the synagogue. The commanding officer of the Jewish unit was commonly called the “Jewish hetman.”

The Jewish community managed to recover at the end of the 17^th century. Jews mainly made a living from grain and cattle trade with Germany. Jewish Ternopil was known as a wealthy city with a stable economy. In 1765, there were 1,264 Jews living in the town[1.1.1].

From the mid-18^th century onwards, various members of the Babad family held the position of the rabbi in Ternopil, leading some to refer to them as a dynasty. The most prominent among them was Jehoshua Heshel Babad (1754–1839), who worked as the rabbi of Ternopil for over 40 years (with a short break when he worked in Lublin, where he was called the “Ternopiler”; he was forced to leave the town as the local Jews accused him of flaunting his Hasidic provenance). Jehoshua Babad was a supporter of Hasidism and an avid opposer of the Haskalah. However, Ternopil soon became one of the most important centres of the Jewish Enlightenment and had wide influence not only in Galicia, but in the entirety of Russia. At the time, one of the residents of Ternopil was Joseph Perl (1773–1839) – writer, educator, and fierce supporter of the Haskalah associated with the maskilim from Brody. In his youth, he was fascinated by Hasidism, but he soon became its bitter enemy. In 1786, he sent his memorandum On the Nature of the Hasidic Sect to Franz von Hauer, the governor of Galicia. He demanded a state intervention to curb the spread of Hasidism. It was a radical petition, and as such was not published by the Austrian authorities until 1816. Joseph Perl enjoyed the support of a large number of Haskalah supporters. Thanks to his efforts, a German-Jewish school (Perlsche Schule) was founded in Ternopil in 1813 (at the time, the town was under the Russian rule). At the facility, secular subjects (history, geography, mathematics, and science) were taught in German, while Hebrew was used for religious classes on the Bible and the Talmud. In the first year of its activity, it was attended by 13 students, but the number increased every year. In 1869, the school boasted 656 students. In the second half of the 19^th century, the facility became the breeding ground for assimilationist active in Ternopil and entire Galicia. Its graduates were permitted to study in public secondary schools in Galicia. Apart from the school, Joseph Perl founded the first Reformed synagogue in Galicia; a pipe organ was installed in the temple. The school, the synagogue, and the newly established library were supposed to form a modern municipal centre. The Perl School survived until the outbreak of the WWII (in the interwar period it was a Polish school for a Jewish children). Before WWII, a part of the library collection was moved to Jerusalem, including Perl’s private archive[1.2].

In his campaign against Hasidism, Joseph Perl criticised the most prominent tzaddikim of his era, accusing them of depravity and corruption. One of his targets was Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin, founder of the Sadigura dynasty, who in the aftermath of Perl’s allegations was arrested by the Russian authorities on the charges of hiding a murderer. He subsequently fled from Russia and settled down in Sadhora near Chernivtsi, Bukovina region. Perl also contributed to the removal of Rabbi Zvi Hirsh of Zhydachiv from office in Zbarazh after the tzaddik gave a public speech criticising the maskil school in Ternopil. One of the best-known works by Perl, since included into the canon of Hebrew literature, is Megaleh Timirin – a satire on the thaumaturgy of the tzaddikim. Published in 1819, it is recognised as the first modern novel written in Hebrew. Joseph Perl died in 1839, on the holiday of Simchat Torah. It is said that the Hasidim from Ternopil danced with joy on Perl’s grave at the Old Jewish Cemetery[1.3]. Unfortunately, the tombstone was devastated during the German occupation.

With Perl’s support, Shlomo Yehuda Rapaport (SHNIR) was elected rabbi of Ternopil in 1838. He was a Haskalah sympathiser and therefore became the first Reformed rabbi holding a high office in Galicia. Unfortunately, he was forced to leave the post after two years in view of vehement attacks from the Hasidim and the Orthodox Jews. In 1840, Rapaport left Galicia and settled in Prague, where he became chief rabbi in 1847. The office in Ternopil was taken over by a son of Yehoshua Heshel Babad, Josef Babad. The Babad family’s hold over the office lasted until 1942. The last rabbi hailing from the family was probably deported to the Bełżec extermination camp.

Perl left behind a strong legacy in Ternopil, consisting of an influential group of maskilim, initially assimilated into German culture, but opting to follow Polish customs since the mid-19^th century. Concomitantly, Ternopil continued to be considered an important Hasidic centre. In the 19^th century, a characteristic feature of the Jewish community in Ternopil was the cultural war between Hasidim and maskilim. Street fights or knocking out windows of maskilim’s houses were quite common. The Hasidic and Orthodox rabbis in Galicia even tried to put a curse on the Reformed Jews from Ternopil.

Ternopil was one of the first cities in Galicia where Jews were legally allowed to take part in municipal elections – the appropriate regulation was adopted in the years 1843–1844. In 1868, there were 11,000 Jews living in the town; by 1910, 14,000 out of all 30,145 Ternopil inhabitants were Jewish[1.1.1]. In the second half of the 19^th century and at the beginning of the 20^th century, most of the local commercial establishments belonged to Jews. The main source of income for the town was trade with Russia.

In the late 19^th century, modern Jewish ideologies started to emerge. The first Zionist organisation in Ternopil was founded in 1893; at the same time, the conflict between the assimilated and the ultra-Orthodox Jews continued.

During World War I, the economic life of the Jewish community suffered significantly. When the West Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR) was established, Jews from Ternopil declared neutrality in the ongoing Polish-Ukrainian conflict. At the same time, the ZUNR authorities allowed them to establish the Jewish militia and the Jewish National Committee. Although the Ukrainian government promised protection to the Jewish population, it remained passive when local Ukrainian peasants were trying to carry out a pogrom in February 1919. Serious riots were prevented by the presence of the Jewish militia in the city. Some of the militia units supported the Ukrainians in their war against Poles. A Jewish squadron (called “the Jewish Legion” in Ukrainian literature) was formed to fight alongside Ukrainians. The unit was defeated in the Ternopil battles taking place in the summer of 1919.

In the interwar period, Ternopil was gradually rebuilt and started to develop, which in turn resulted in the growth of the local Jewish population. In the domain of local Jewish education, the Perl school was soon joined by other private Jewish schools. A Jewish amateur theatre and various political organisations operated in the town. The local community mostly supported the Zionist movement and its numerous factions, combatting both the assimilationist movement and the ultra-Orthodox groups. In 1939, the Jewish population comprised 18,000 people[1.1.1].

The Red Army entered Ternopil on 17 September 1939. While some local Jews decided to collaborate with the Soviet authorities, many were persecuted on the grounds of their social origins or political affiliation. Many wealthy Jews and members and supporters of the Zionist movement were imprisoned. The Soviet occupation also brought about the first seizures of Jewish property. Many Jews from Ternopil and the surrounding areas were deported to Siberia.

After Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, very few Jews managed to escape the city. The Germans seized Ternopil on 2 July 1941. The occupiers soon took over the NKVD prison on Mickiewicza Street, where they discovered bodies of murdered prisoners, mostly Ukrainians and Poles, but also Jewish victims. The discovery was used as a pretext for Ukrainians and Germans to carry out pogroms, which took place on 4–11 July 1941. Germans mostly murdered men held in prisons, but executions also took place at the synagogue on Staroszkolna Street, in Gurfein's school, and in the house of Majka, a gentile butcher. Some part of the Ukrainian population of Ternopil also took part in the pogroms, which resulted in the death of more than 2,000 people. One of the victims was well-known Jewish photographer Alter Kacyzne[1.4].

In the meantime, the Germans established a Judenrat headed by teacher Marek Gottfried. When its members (60–70 people) reported at the headquarters of the German authorities, most of them (including Gottfried) were arrested and later shot in Zagrobla near Ternopil.

New members of the Judenrat were recruited in August 1941. A tribute of 1.5 million roubles was imposed on the Jewish population for having allegedly damaged the Ukrainian Folkshouse.

In September 1941, Gerhard Hager, the Krieshauptmann of the Ternopil Province, approved the establishment of the ghetto in Ternopil. It was the first closed ghetto in the District of Galicia. Its area covered 5% of the city, with its boundaries marked along the following streets: Kazimierzowska, Rejtana, Perla, Wincentego Pola, Lwowska, Podolska, Miodowa, Szeptycki, Czacki, Staroszkolna, Ruska, and Barona Hirscha (some of these do not exist today). The ghetto also comprised Rynek and Mały Rynek (the Market Square and the Small Market Square, respectively). Before the war, the area had been inhabited by 4,000–5,000 people. The population of the ghetto, meanwhile, amounted to 12,000–13,000 Jews[1.5]. The area could be entered through two gates: one near the Orthodox synagogue and the other at the corner of Szeptyckiego and Miodowa Streets. According to other sources, there may have been three gates to the ghetto, with the third entrance supposedly located on Żarna Street[1.1.5].

Apart from the people who worked for German authorities, the inhabitants of the ghetto were prohibited to leave the area under death penalty. Nevertheless, the Jewish population established several illegal workshops catering to the so-called “Aryan side.” Until the beginning of 1942, the ghetto had an efficient system of self-aid, comprising folk kitchens and food aid for the poor and the rabbinical families. An orphanage was opened in the beth midrash, and a home for the elderly was established in the Chortkov Hasidim synagogue.

Lawyer Gustaw Fischer became the head of the Judenrat established in August 1941, and his deputy was Jakub Lipper. The Leistungsabteilung was the most important department of the council: its task was to seize Jewish property and hand it over to German public and private institutions. The Judenrat was also in charge of providing Jewish forced labourers to the camps near Ternopil: in Kamianka, Pidvolochysk, Hlybochok, Zagrobla. Jews also worked on road construction. Matzevot from the Old Cemetery were used as paving.

On 25 March 1942, the first Aktion in the ghetto was carried out. The Germans demanded that the Judenrat prepare a list of “asocial” persons: the unemployed, elderly, members of the families of communists and people drafted into the Red Army. Jewish policemen arrested 600–700 people on the basis of the list[1.1.1]. Among the apprehended people were residents of the nursing home and children from the orphanage. All arrested Jews were later shot in Yanivka near Ternopil. No deportations from Ternopil to Bełżec were carried out in March 1942 as the broad-gauge railway tracks had not yet been converted to standard-gauge.

The subsequent Aktion in the ghetto took place from 29 to 31 August 1942. People were gathered at the Market Square. Officially, the Aktion was aimed at the unemployed. Ca. 3,000–4,000 people were herded to the train station; train cars with Jews from Zbarazh and Mykulyntsi were attached to the same transport. The train was headed to the extermination camp in Bełżec. At least 6,700 people were deported[1.6]. The cars stood in Ternopil for two days. No one was allowed to help the people locked inside.

After the Aktion, the Germans reduced the area of the ghetto. On 30 September, the Judenrat was ordered to prepare another list, this time of people over 60 years of age. A group of 600–700 was arrested and kept in the mill on Barona Hirscha Street. They were later deported to Bełżec with other inhabitants from the Ternopil District[1.7].

In the summer of 1942, the Judenrat changed its president, with the function now held by Karol Prohoryles (who survived the war). However, soon afterwards Germans deemed him too reluctant to cooperate and therefore replaced him with Pinchas Grinfeld from Zbarazh, who also became the chief of the Jewish Police.

Another Aktion took place on 10 November 1942. Jews from Ternopil were once again gathered at the Market Square and in the mill on Barona Hirscha Street. They were then ordered to march to the train station, accompanied by a Ukrainian orchestra. They were forced into train cars, which were attached to the transport from Zbarazh. During the Aktion, 2,500 people from Ternopil were deported to the Bełżec extermination camp[1.8].

At the end of 1942, the area of the ghetto was further reduced. The Germans established a Jewish labour camp on the outskirts of the quarter. Known as Julag, it became a subcamp of the camp on Janowska Street in Lviv at the beginning of 1943. The living conditions in the Julag were relatively good compared to the Janowska camp.

The liquidation of the ghetto began on 8–9 April 1943. Young and able people were moved to the Julag, while the majority of the ghetto residents were transported to Petrikav and shot. The liquidation was concluded on 20 June 1943, when the last 500 people were shot in Petrikav[1.9]. The elderly and children were shot in the ghetto. Resistance was put up by the Jewish policemen, who hid in a bunker.

On July 1943, Germans started to liquidate the Julag labour camp. Some of the Jews had learned about it beforehand and managed to escape, but the majority of prisoners were shot in Petrikav. Those who had fled the Julag were hiding in the Ternopil area. Many people sought shelter in the bunkers in the Ternopil Ghetto. In March 1944, when the German-Soviet battles started, many of them left the bunkers. A significant number of people was shot by Germans, but 739 survivors were left in the city after its liberation by the Soviets[1.1.1]. In 1945, the first monument to commemorate the murdered Jews of Ternopil was erected, but it was pulled down by the Soviet authorities in the 1950s. The vast majority of Survivors migrated to Poland in 1945 and then scattered around the world.

Original text by Robert Kuwałek

Bibliography:

• Kuwałek R., Obóz zagłady w Bełżcu, Lublin 2010, p. 246.
• Meir J., “Perl Yosef” [in] The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe [online] https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Perl_Yosef [Accessed: 10 August 2023].
• Pohl D., Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941– Organisation und Durchführung eines staatlichen Massenverbrechens, München 1996.
• “Ternopil” [in] Pinkas ha-kehilot Polin: enciklopedja szel ha-jiszuwim ha-Jehudijim le-min hiwasdam we-`ad le-ahar Szo'at Milhemet ha-`olam ha-sznija, eds. D. Dąbrowska, A. Wein, A. Weiss, Jerusalem 1980 [online] http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol2_00234.html [Accessed: 10 August 2023].