History of Ukraine

Jewish settlements in Ukraine can be traced back to the 8th century, when Jewish refugees from the Byzantine Empire, Persia and Mesopotamia fleeing persecution. 

During the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth period (1569-1795), Jews in Ukraine were one of the country's largest and most important ethnic minority groups. But as they prospered, anti-Semitism flourished. The Cossack Uprising, led by Hetman Chelminitzky, which began in 1648, took place under the premise that “the Poles had sold the Cossacks as slaves into the hands of the accursed Jews.” The resulting infamous Chelminitzky Massacres killed some 30,000 Jews and destroyed around 300 Jewish communities. 

As is so common in Jewish history, significant tragedy and destruction gave way to a new era of renewal. Indeed, soon after the Cossack Uprising and massacres, Ukraine was to become the birthplace of Hasidism, a new expression of Judaism. The teachings of Israel Ben Eliezer (1698-1760), known as the “Ba’al Shem Tov,” profoundly influenced global Jewry, even today. The rise of the Ba’al Shem Tov’s movement, which was heavily influenced by Jewish mysticism – Kabbalah - became known as “Hasidic Judaism,” and it enhanced the development and reputation of Jewish life in Ukraine. In 1791, Catherine the Great established a vast area in the west of her Russian Empire that became known as “The Pale of Settlement.” The region, which included all of Ukraine, was the only area of the Empire where Jews were permitted to live. 

As a result of the creation of the Pale of Settlement, during the 19th century, Ukraine was densely populated by Jews. Despite restrictions, Jews played a prominent role in the development of commerce and industry in the region, and especially in the growth of its major cities, including Kiev, Odessa, and Kharkov. 

Although anti-Semitic attacks have made frequent appearances throughout the history of Ukrainian Jewry, matters became significantly worse from 1881. In that year, Czar Alexander II was assassinated and Jews were falsely blamed for the killing. The resulting attacks on Jews throughout the Pale became known as the first “pogrom.” These pogroms intensified and continued through the following three decades. 

The anti-Semitic policies of the new Russian emperor, Alexander III, further tightened restrictions on where Jews could live in the Pale of Settlement and restricted the occupations that Jews could attain. Jews were subjected to frequent internal expulsions – including an edict that expelled all Jews from Kiev in 1886. 

The ongoing persecution and policies under both Alexander III and his successor, Nicholas II (who was to be the last Czar), resulted in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Jews opting to emigrate to the United States and other countries at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. 

While millions of Jews fled the region, others began looking for alternative answers and ideologies. As a result, Jews were at the forefront of the emerging communist movement, with Czar Nicholas II even falsely declaring that “90% of revolutionaries are Jews.” At the same time, other Jews promoted different ideologies. Most significantly, many Ukrainian Jews began to see Jewish nationalism as an answer to their problems, and this resulted in widespread adoption of the teachings of Zionism. Indeed, many of Zionism’s founders and leaders emerged from the region. 

Following the Russian Revolution, a short-lived independent Ukrainian People’s Republic was established. This new country became the first modern state to establish a Ministry of Jewish Affairs, and Yiddish was declared an official language. 

Nonetheless, pogroms continued, and according to recently released state archives, at least 100,000 Jews were killed in attacks in Ukraine between 1918-21. 

Ukraine soon became a republic of the newly formed Soviet Union, and its Jewish population was subjected to communist attempts to stifle religion and religious practice. Despite this, the Jewish community continued to grow, and reached 2.7 million by the start of World War II. 

During World War II more than half of Ukraine’s Jews (over one million) were murdered by the Nazis and their local Ukrainian accomplices. The most infamous incident of the War in Ukraine occurred at Babi Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. A series of massacres of Jews took place there, carried out by German forces and local collaborators, killing some 100,000 Jews in total. The most notorious and the best documented of these massacres took place September 29-30, 1941, when 33,771 Jews were murdered over a two-day period, following a decision to kill all the Jews in Kiev that was made by the military governor. The massacre was the largest mass killing for which the Nazi regime and its collaborators were responsible during its campaign against the Soviet Union. 

Some 840,000 Jews remained in Soviet Ukraine following the War but the repression of Jewish cultural and spiritual life was especially severe in the country. The years of Communist oppression and restrictions led to further immigration and assimilation, and by the beginning of 1989, there were only 500,000 Jews left in the region. 

The 1989 collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state in 1991 set the stage for two dramatic events in the history of Ukrainian Jewry -- further mass immigration and a renaissance of Jewish life. 

The precarious economic situation, coupled with an uncertain political future and ongoing anti-Semitism encouraged almost 80% of Ukrainian Jews to leave the country in the decade following the fall of the Soviet Union. The majority who left (some 266,000) moved to Israel, while others immigrated to the United States, Germany, and other countries.