[Page 9]

At the end of the Second World War, when the shocking news about the destruction of the Jewish communities in Europe - and among them the Jewish communities in Kamyanets Podilskyy and its surroundings - reached Israel, some of the expatriates of these places came up with the idea of a book in memory of the aforementioned communities.

In order to achieve this goal, in 1946 the organization of expatriates of Kamyanets Podilskyy and its surroundings was founded. However, due to the deaths of the two main initiators - Y. Goldman and B'Z Shteklis - and for reasons brought about by the times, the organization's operations ceased. Over time, there were several more attempts to publish the book of remembrance, but the indifference and passivity of the people from these aforementioned places delayed the start of the activity. Only in the summer of 1961 were the organization's activities renewed at the initiative of some of the expats of Kamyanets Podilskyy and its surroundings, led by the late Matityahu Segal. At the general assembly of the members of the organization, a council and an editorial committee of three members were elected.

The committee that was chosen by the council established a memorial plaque in the Chamber of the Holocaust at Mount Zion in Jerusalem, where the names of the communities in Kamyanets Podilskyy and its surroundings that were exterminated by the Nazis, were perpetuated. The committee also organized a fundraiser in order to publish the book through contributions and subscriptions.

Thanks to the efforts, and the material and spiritual support, of many of the members of the organization in Israel and of the expatriates of the aforementioned communities in the United States, Canada, Colombia and other countries, we have brought this project to completion.

Due to the non-responsiveness of many of the expatriates of the aforementioned communities, both regarding the creation of literary material and regarding the provision of the necessary means, the preparation of the book continued for almost three years.

[Page 10]

We are grateful to those who participated in the book with the fruit of their pen and those who took an active part in preparing it by organizing and rounding up the necessary financial means. We are also grateful to the directors and employees of “Israel” publishing, who invested a lot of work and effort in the printing of the book, to the owners of “Ha-Tsinkographia Ha-Yisraelit,” which prepared the engravings for the book, as well as to the members of the editorial team, who did not spare their time and energy in preparing the book without receiving a reward, and with their great dedication carried out the important task. All will be blessed.

Organization of Expatriates of Kamyanets Podilskyy and the Surrounding Area

The Committee:

Bar-Levi, Y. A.
Michaeli, Uri
Rechter, N.D.
Sharig, Hayyim
Sharir, Yaakov
Shilmover, Ben-Zion, Engineer

The Council:

Avnei-Kamenetzky, A.
Bahat-Buchhalter, Y.
Bar Levi-Weissman, Y. A.
Ben Avraham-Feldblit, Y.
Bernstein, Y.
Fuchs, D.
Golan-Yigolnitzer, R.
Goldschmidt, S.
Kaplan, S.
Landon, S.
Lerner, Z.
Leskov, Ts.
Michaeli-Pressman, A.
Pollack, Y.
Rechter, N.D.
Rosen-Rosenzweig, A.
Schor-Schwartz, G. (deceased)
Schrier, Y.
Segal, M. (deceased)
Sharig-Schreiberman, H.
Sharir, Y.
Shilmover, B.
Wasserman, A. (deceased)
Yaakovi-Kizhner, A.
Yigolnitzer, D.

[Page 11]

While recognizing the sacred national duty imposed on our contemporaries to establish a memorial for the Jewish communities of the European diaspora that were destroyed by the Nazi oppressor during the Second World War, we, too, have come to fulfill with this book the duty towards the cities of our origin, Kamyanets Podilskyy and its surroundings, which, too, were laid waste and erased off the face of the earth during the Holocaust.

Russian Jewry, including that of Podolia, occupied an important and valuable place in shaping the image of our people over the last centuries and contributed a lot to its national revival and the establishment of its homeland in the land of our ancestors. As an integral part of the entire nation, the communities of Kamyanets Podilskyy and its surrounding cities also participated in these actions, and many of their members even became famous among the various national movements that arose for us over the generations. In faithfully coming to this blessed collaboration, future generations will find this book of remembrance, which we present to them as a precious bequest from their ancestors in the diaspora.

The plan of the book was based mainly on a description of the life of the Jewish community, its history and way of life, its institutions and people, as well as its history during the Holocaust. Following the number of cities included in it, it is divided into ten sections, city by city and its section with, at their introductions, a concise overview of the city according to the data from before the Second World War. Except for assessments of personalities, the articles and notes on the aforementioned topics were written by local people who lived and worked in them in the diaspora, and their words serve as unshakable testimony to the recent past, which has passed and is no more, and an unfailing source for historians of the future.

We are very sorry that, due to a lack of material, we were unable to include in this book also the remaining cities and towns in the vicinity of Kamyanets Podilskyy. All our efforts to obtain the necessary material from the expatriates of these places were in vain. Let us hope that they will finally wake up and fill the gap by publishing another volume.

Finally, we thank all those who helped with our enterprise, whether with material or spirit, and thereby made possible the perpetuation of the memory of the holy communities of our cities of origin. May the blessing come upon everyone.

Tel Aviv, Nisan Tash”kah [5725=1964-65]

[Page 12]

[Page 13]

The region of Podolia covers 36,910 square versts in northwest European Russia. It borders Galicia and is separated from it by the Zbruch River. Its territory is a flat plain that flows towards the southwest and is dissected by the rivers Dniester (415 versts; bordering Bessarabia), with its tributaries: Zbruch, Smotrych, Ushitza, Liadva, Murafa, and others, and Bug (508 versts), with its tributaries: Buzuk, Ikva, Rob, Seniboda, Sinyota, and others.

Podolia soil is black and very fertile. In some places in the south, it contains lime. Its quarried substances: building stones, lithography stones, gypsum, and phosphates.

The climate is warm (the average annual temperature in the urban region of Kamyanets Podilskyy +8.6°).

Number of inhabitants^[1]: 3,544,000, of which 247 thousand live in cities. The densest settlement (96 inhabitants per square verst) of the rest of the regions of European Russia except for the Polish regions. 81% of the population are Ukrainians, the rest are Jews (12%), Russians, Poles, Moldavians, and others. There are 17 cities and 120 towns in the region.

The branches of agriculture: all kinds of grains, potatoes, beets, flax, tobacco and cotton plantations, fruits and vegetables, and cattle breeding. 293 factories for sugar, flour, schnapps, and textiles.

Trade: wheat, oats, flour, sugar, skins, and schnapps. In 1905, exports (wheat, eggs) reached 3037 rubles and imports (wooden materials) reached 899 rubles.

Transportation: train (1213 versts) and cargo ships across the Dniester. 2168 schools, of which 9 are high schools with 166 thousand students.

The county is divided into 12 districts, the city of the region Kamyanets Podilskyy.

[Page 14]

The beginning of the settlement of Podolia is very ancient. According to the Father of History, Herodotus the Greek, different peoples lived in Podolia for five hundred years before the Christian era. After Hadrian, Emperor of Rome, conquered the lands of Germany and Romania, this region, too, came under his rule. For about five hundred years after that, various wild peoples ruled until, at the beginning of the sixth century A.D., the Slavic tribes expelled them and replaced them.

From the fourteenth century until the second partition of Poland between Russia and Prussia in 1793, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Turkey ruled by turns. In 1793, this region, together with several other districts, passed from the country of Poland to the full possession of Russia.

The origin of the first Jewish settlers is disputed. Some historians believe that they came to Podolia from the countries of Russia and Poland, to which they immigrated from Western Europe, while others see them as deportees from Spain, who came via these countries. There is also an opinion that says that the Jews came to Podolia from the land of the Khazars and the Crimean Peninsula or from the principality of Kiev, from which they were expelled during the reign of Vladimir Monomakh in 1120.

There is also no uniform and agreed-upon opinion regarding the time of the Jews' settlement in Podolia. In any case it is clear that, already by the end of the twelfth century, there was a Jewish settlement there, which engaged in trade, leasing, and crafts, and was very successful. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), many of the Jews of Ashkenaz were added to them, among them families known there for Torah and wisdom.

During the entire time that Podolia was under the rule of the princes of Lithuania and Poland, the Jewish residents enjoyed certain rights and their economic and civil status far exceeded that of their brothers in the other provinces.

The study of the Torah was also widespread among the people who produced from their midst famous rabbis and scholars. The rabbis of the cities of Nemyriv, Tulchin, Beer, and Medzhybizh became famous.

However, this situation changed for the worse in 1648 with the outbreak of the uprising of the Cossacks living in Ukraine against their Polish enslavers, who severely struck not only at their civil and political rights, but also at their religion and traditions. In particular, the rebellion worsened under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytsky who poured out his wrath on the Jewish residents, too, who were in trade and leasing relationships

[Page 15]

with the owners of the Polish estates. In a flash, the Cossack regiments attacked the Jewish communities in Podolia and, like beasts of prey, oppressed, slaughtered, and murdered mercilessly, whether man, woman, child or elderly. Whole communities were destroyed and of all the Jewish population in Podolia, only a tenth remained. Many were forced to convert or were captured and ransomed by their brothers in the diaspora.

These horrible conditions of constricted life and calamities, along with fear of death by the sword of an enemy, prepared the ground among the masses for mysterious delusions and belief in supernatural miracles. And these days were the days of Shabbetai Zvi, when the belief in his Messianism flooded almost all of the diaspora, including Podolia. This great Messianic movement hit in waves (especially in the years 1676-1700) and breathed a spirit of hope into the hearts of the oppressed masses. However, the bitter disappointment that followed this movement did not spare Podolia either and shook the lives of its Jewish residents quite a bit.

In particular, the evil increased with the arrival (in 1787) of the successors of Shabbetai Zvi's Messianic movement, Jacob Frank and his group. As a result of their identifying themselves to the bishop of Kamyanets Podilskyy, he arranged a public religious debate between them and the rabbis who excommunicated them, which ended with the imposition of a heavy fine on the Jews and the confiscation of the books of the Talmud from the entire district and their public burning in the city market (in the year 5518=1757).

Thus, as a healing drug for the broken spirit of the people, discouraged from the suffering of their many hardships, Hasidism arose in the mid-eighteenth century, whose creator and founder was Rabbi Israel Ba'al-Shem-Tov (The Besht), born in the Podolia town of Okopy. This doctrine, which grew and was nurtured in the land of Podolia mainly among the simple people, expanded and deepened over a short period of time until it became a complete philosophy of life encompassing all avenues of the Jewish people, and despite the disputes and divisions between the various Hasidic sects and despite the opposition from the rabbis and Torah scholars, it paved a path to the diaspora of Israel as a popular movement with many virtues and content.

The “Enlightenment,” founded by the Jews of Western Europe (“the Berlin Enlightenment”) in the eighteenth century, also took root in Podolia. It destroyed the “Chinese wall” that surrounded the closed Jewish street, closed to outside influence, and introduced into it the spirit of the new times. Among the writers of the Jewish Enlightenment in Russia were also some who came from Podolia, such as: Yitzhak Satanov, writer and thinker; Menachem Mendel Lefin, writer and translator; Ben-Ami (Mordechai Rabinowitz), writer in Russian, and more.

[Page 16]

In the wake of the Enlightenment, the Zionist movement, too, visited Podolia Jewry in the mid-nineteenth century and found a loyal foothold among all its social sections. Zionist organizations of varying streams arose and began to prepare the generation for redemption. The new Hebrew school, which gave to its students a national Zionist education, replaced the old “Cheder,” which was only sufficient for religious studies, and trained them for a new life in the Land of the Fathers. And indeed, many of them even immigrated to Israel and contributed their part in building it.

Podolia Jewry also took part in the new Hebrew literature that arose with the Zionist movement and produced writers, poets, and thinkers, such as: M. Y. Berdyczewski, Prof. Yehezkel Kaufmann, Eliezer Steinman, Prof. Zvi Scharfstein, S. L. Blank, Avraham Rosen, Mordechai Michaeli, M. Poznansky, David Fogel, Yitzhak Shinhar, S. Shafan, B. Karu, A. Ashman, and more.

Thus, in the healthy body of former Russian Jewry, that of Podolia was a living and active part which contributed quite a bit of its life to the soul of the entire nation. However, with the Nazi severing of our people in the diaspora, it, too, was almost completely destroyed from the face of the earth. And it's a shame, a great shame for a large and important Jewish community that was and is no more.

Original Footnote

1. With the intention of the numbers being about the stable condition of the region, which was progressively weakened after the First World War, they are brought here from the period that came before it. return

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