Jews and the Ukraine: The long history of the Homelessness and Wandering

What is on my mind, thanks once again to the two old guys who would not stop arguing ALL night in my brain, was the story of the Ukraine and just how many different versions of this sad historical tale regarding "Our" history as the "Wandering Jews" is being spread but this time live online on the internet and social media.

And of course, we have the age-old Jewish part of the story, but with an ironic twist. In that the "hero" and leader of the nation of the story involved is Volodymyr Zelensky a "native born " Jew.

Zelensky is THE prime example of the modern-day Jew of the Diaspora. An atypical secular non-religious "person of Jewish heritage" who is totally assimilated in the culture and society of his native land. 

Yet, Zelensky is NOT the first "court Jew", whilst in our long diaspora several Jews have achieved a place of prominence in the lands we have settled in. There have been several Jews who have achieved-been appointed or been elected to "high office".

What is happening of course is an immense tragedy of human suffering that is caused by festering hatreds based on historical differences between peoples. These same areas that were latter termed the "Pale of Settlement" have been an area contested and vied for centuries between the Germanic tribes and those who would become the Polish people and the Russians.

What IS THE twist is that in THIS war is taking place in what   was once "The Pale of Settlement" "Galicia" that historical area   where Jews fleeing the immense hatred of the Catholic Church in the aftermath of the Alhambra Decree in 1492 against the Jews were invited to live and where confined to by Catherine the Great.

The area of the Ukraine is a vast burial ground of millions of Jews who were butchered and murdered by the Einsatzgruppen of the Nazis and their over eager local collaborators. The very presence of local Jews was totally erased from their villages during the "Holocaust" with the overly enthusiastic participation of many "fellow Ukrainians". Who out of fear in late 1943-1944 together with the Nazi's  brought Sonderkommandos; work units made up of Jewish death camp prisoners to exhume the bodies of the victims of the executions.

“We used to uncover the graves where there were people who had been killed during the past three years, take out the bodies, pile them up in tiers and burn these bodies, grind the bones, take out the valuables in the ashes, such as gold teeth, rings and so on, and separate them. After grinding the bones, we would throw the ashes up in the air so that they would disappear, replace the earth over the graves, and plant seeds so that nobody could recognize that there was once a grave there."

What IS different, THIS TIME. is that these Jews fleeing the hell of war are seeing the flag with the two blue stripes and the star of David flying on the borders symbolizing a place to flee to OUR homeland and freedom!! They see our representatives sent to shepherd them to life in OUR INDIGENOUS HOMELAND!!

Our enemies, the those ever so sad descendants of the self-inflicted tragedy of their ignomius defeat in 1948 whom I call the "Tragedy Tourists of Nachbaland™" and their overly enthusiastic minion of anti-Semite followers are once more frustrated and full of sick vile vulgar hatred once more!

Only this time they cannot refuse our people, who in dire need to flee death DO have the doors open to our homeland.

The long history of the Jews and the Ukraine

Many of the descendants of Jews in Europe are according to DNA studies descendants of the more than 100,000+ Jewish male and some female slaves sent to work the marble mines of Northern Italy with Vespasian's defeat of the "First" Jewish Revolt in 73CE.

Eastern Ukraine was home to the Khazar empire, a kingdom of Turkic people that arose in southeastern Russia in the 6th Century CE and extended as far west as Kiev, the capital of present-day Ukraine.

It is said that in the 8th Century, that the area was ruled by a semi-divine king called a Khagan, and local chieftains called “Begs”. Legend says that the Khazar king at that time invited representatives from the three monotheistic faiths to his palace and listened to each of them discuss their religion. It is said that the Khazar king was so struck with Judaism’s beauty and lucidity that he converted to Judaism and ordered that his followers do so as well. According to this story many Khazars became Jewish, embracing Jewish holidays and Shabbat and keeping kosher.

In the Middle Ages, the great Spanish Jewish sage Judah Halevi (1075-1141) wrote The Kuzari, a beautiful philosophical book that imagined the discussion between the king of the Khazars and the visiting rabbi. The Kuzari is accepted as a robust defense of Judaism against critics from other religions and from indifference.

In the early Middle Ages, the largely Jewish kingdom of the Khazars was buffeted by invading Russian forces, which ransacked its capital city in about the year 965 CE. The end of the Khazar kingdom came in the 1200s, when Mongol tribes invaded much of present-day Ukraine and Poland, causing huge devastation and loss of life.

In order to build back its power and wealth, Poland invited new residents to move into its territories from the west, primarily from Germanic lands. The Middle Ages were indeed a tumultuous time in Ukraine. Accounts describe the city of Kiev as being home to a substantial Jewish community in the 11th and 12th centuries. There were two heavily Jewish suburbs of the city, and one entryway into Kiev’s city walls that was known as the “Jewish Gate”. There are also references to a Jewish scholar at the time known as Moshe ben Yaakov of Kiev.

In 1264 Bolesław V the Chaste of what we call Poland today had invited Jews to settle and granted certain privileges to Jews. For example, he prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children under penalty of death for the purpose of enforced Christian baptism, and he inflicted heavy punishment for the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. Casimir III the Great confirmed these privileges granted the Jews and allowed the exiled Spanish Jews to settle in Poland in great numbers and protected them as people of the king

Poland’s invitation for immigrants to come attracted Jews who were fleeing massacres in central Europe in the wake of the Crusades and the Black Death. Jews settled throughout Poland, including in territories that form present-day Ukraine, most notably the region of Volhynia, which lies at the intersection of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. By the 1400s, up to 30,000 Jews were thought to be living in 60 different communities across Ukraine, including in the present-day capital city, Kiev.

Hasidim and the Ukraine

The founder of Hasidic Judaism, the Baal Shem Tov (1700-1760) didn’t live in Ukraine; his home was a couple of miles outside the Ukrainian border, in Poland. But the friend and disciple who spread the ideas of Hasidic Judaism and developed it into a distinct religious movement did so within Ukraine, from his base in the city of Mezeritch.

Rabbi Dov Ber, also known as the Maggid (preacher) of Mezeritch (1704-1772), first consulted with the Baal Shem Tov when he was ill. The Baal Shem Tov was known as a healer, as well as a religious sage. Rabbi Dov Ber was so impressed that he adopted the Baal Shem Tov’s worldview, which emphasized worshiping God with joy. Within a generation, Ukraine was home to some of the most important and influential Hasidic masters, including Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev and Menachem Nachum (and his son Modechai Twersky) of Chernobil. Ukrainian Jewish communities embraced Hasidic Judaism, with its emphasis on rigorously religious practice combined with spirituality and an emphasis on infusing religious observance with joy.

Perhaps the greatest Hasidic rabbi in Ukraine was Rabbi Nahman, from the Ukrainian town of Breslov (1772-1811), a great grandson of the Baal Shem Tov and a direct descendent of the Maharal, one of Europe’s greatest rabbis who lived in 16th century Prague. Rabbi Nahman built a large community in the Ukrainian town of Zlapotol in the early 1800s. He taught that Jews should strive to feel close to God at all times, and that feeling happy is best way to appreciate all of God’s many blessings.

The Ukrainian town of Uman, about 125 miles south of Kiev, is where Rabbi Nachman of Breslov lived during his final years and is buried. Uman has emerged as a major pilgrimage site for thousands of Jews each year. The most popular time to go is Rosh Hashanah, when tens of thousands of Jews visit Uman to celebrate the holiday together in the place where Rabbi Nahman taught.

The Cossacks and the Chmielnicki Massacres

A series of Cossack raids began in 1648, aimed at freeing Cossack communities from the domination of Polish landlords. The leader of these attacks was Bohdan Chmielnicki, who agitated for an independent Ukrainian country. Reflecting Cossack culture, Chmielnicki blamed Jews for his countrymen’s problems and encouraged his followers to massacre Jews.

Between 1648 and 1651, Chmielnicki’s followers killed about 20,000 Jews with unimaginable barbarity. Approximately half of all Jews living in Ukraine fled. So great was the Cossacks’’ depravity that some terrified Jews even fled into Crimea, where they faced slavery in the hands of Muslim Tatars.

The official records of the Jewish community in Kiev recorded the beginning of the massacres:

"Immediately after the death of the pious King Wladyslaw (1648) tens of thousands of villains, among them Cossacks…went forth and committed manu murders in the holy communities of Niemirow, Tulczyn, Machnowka, and other hold communities who congregated in order to save their lives from the…sword… Since the destruction of the Temple no other cruel murder like this one was committed for the sanctification of the name” of God."

Another eyewitness account described:

“they massacred about 6,000 souls in the town…and they drowned several hundreds in the water and by all kinds of cruel torments. In the synagogue, before the Holy Ark, they slaughtered with butchers’ knives…after which they destroyed the synagogue and took out all the Torah books…they tore them up…and they laid them out…for men and animals to trample on…they also made sandals of them…and several other garments.” The Cossacks knew no bounds in their sadism and cruelty and attacked and killed Jews – as well as some Polish nobles – with horrific barbarity."

Chmielnicki appealed for military aid from Russia and in 1654 much of Cossack-controlled Ukraine became a client state of Russia. Sporadic pogroms continued through the years, most notably in the city of Uman in 1768.

Ukrainians blamed Jews for their landlords’ greed.

Jewish life in present-day Ukraine became even more entrenched after 1569, when much of present-day Ukraine came under a new political alliance, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Ukraine was an uneasy mix of many different ethnic groups. Much of the farmland and industry in Ukraine was the property of Polish nobles who were Catholic. The peasants in Ukraine were a mix of Eastern Orthodox Ukrainians and groups known as Cossacks, who lived primarily in the southern part of Ukraine. In the far south, the Crimean Peninsula was owned by the Ottoman Empire and populated largely by Tatar Muslims, who engaged in constant, low level warfare with Cossacks along their border. Both groups would stage skirmishes into each other’s territories, seizing property and slaves.

With many farms and businesses owned by absentee Polish landlords and nobles, an exploitative system called "Arenda" developed, which allowed agents to manage farms and other enterprises on behalf of absent landlords. It was often Jews who were employed to manage the "Arenda economy", acting as caretakers for absentee nobles and landowners. Jews managed salt mines, farms, mills, and inns. They also became local tax collectors for Polish noblemen. Many "Arendas" were given out in the alcohol trade: brewing, selling alcohol and managing inns and taverns were often seen as Jewish professions.

Working for hated landlords put Jews in an impossible position: they needed the "Arenda" system in order to survive economically, but the local peasants blamed Jews for their employers’ increasingly abusive practices. When Polish nobles increased taxes on their already suffering tenants, it was their Jewish agents who bore the blame. In time, extreme antisemitism became engrained in much of Ukrainian culture.

The term “pogrom” was invented after riots in Ukraine.

In 1881, Czar Alexander II was murdered by a left-wing terrorist. Soon, it was being (incorrectly) reported across Russia that the new Czar Alexander III had ordered Russian subjects to kill Jews. Pogroms broke out, with the greatest number taking place in Ukraine. These weren’t the first massacres of Jews in Ukraine and elsewhere in the Pale of Settlement, but the frequency and intensity of the mob attacks resulted in the phenomenon being given a new name: pogrom, which means violence in Russian.

In April 1903 an Easter pogrom took place in Moldova’s capital, Kishinev.  Forty-nine Jews were murdered, hundreds brutally injured.

Pogroms continued throughout the end of the 19th century. Some of the most horrible pogroms took place in 1905, after Czar Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto, guaranteeing all Russian subjects some basic political rights. The manifesto came at a perilous time in Russian politics, with political rivals ready to attack each other. As violence broke out, mobs turned on the Jews in their midst. Some of the worst anti-Jewish attacks were in the Ukrainian city of Odessa: The Jewish newspaper Voskhod reported that over 800 Jews were murdered in pogroms in Odessa in the days following the October Manifesto, and several thousands more were wounded.

Among the many towns engulfed in pogroms in 1905 was Kiev, Ukraine’s capital. There, the rampaging crowds attacked Jews for three days and nights. One of the terrified Jews during that ordeal was the well-known Yiddish writer known as Sholem Aleichem (his real name was Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich). For three days, he and his family hid in a hotel, listening to the terrible screams from their fellow Jews as they were attacked, maimed and killed outside.

Sholem Aleichem’s daughter later described the moment they realized their lives were in danger: “We ran from our beds to the windows on the street and looked down on the scene of brutality and murder – a gang of hoodlums beating a poor young Jew with heavy sticks; blood was running over the face of the young man, who was vainly shrieking for aid. A policeman stood nearby, casually looking on and not moving a finger.”

After the Kiev pogrom, Sholem Aleichem’s entire family fled Ukraine, eventually settling in New York.

The Russian Revolution in 1917, the Polish Ukrainian War of 1918-1919, the Ukrainian War of Independence, and the Soviet-Polish War of 1919-1921 sparked waves of hundreds of pogroms across the region which killed approximately 100,000 Jews. (Ukraine was briefly independent, before being divided by Poland and Russia.)

The violence was unspeakably intense. In the Ukrainian town of Proskurov, for instance, a three-day pogrom that broke out on February 15, 1919 killed 1,500 Jews. The town of Pogrebinschi experienced two pogroms: in May, 1919 Soviet troops went on a murderous rampage, killing 400 Jews. Three months later, Ukrainian nationalists staged a second pogrom and murdered a further 350 Jews there. Over 1,300 towns became scenes of horrific violence towards Jews.