History of the Jews of Kiev

The first mention of the Jews of Kiev dates back to the 10th century. The Kiev letter written by the local community in the Hebrew language has survived. This letter is the oldest document mentioning the name of the city. Famous Jewish travelers Veniamin Tudelsky and Petahia from Regensburg in the XII century mentioned Kiev as a city of a large Jewish diaspora. During the Mongol invasion of Russia, the community and the whole city were defeated. The community was revived when the city was captured by the Commonwealth . During Polish-Lithuanian rule, Jews were allowed to settle in the city; Despite this, Jews were deported twice in 1495 and 1619. ^[1] During the Khmelnitsky uprising in 1648, most of the Jews of Kiev, just like other Ukrainian cities, were killed by the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks .
After the capture of Kiev by the Russian Empire, Jews were forbidden to settle in the city. The ban was lifted only in 1793 after the Third Section of the Commonwealth .

In the 19th century, the Jewish community flourished and was one of the largest Jewish communities in Ukraine. During this period, many synagogues were built, among them was the largest synagogue in Kiev, Brodsky's choral synagogue . Also, Jewish schools and workshops were built. The community suffered from pogroms in 1882 and in 1905. ^[4] In 1913, the Beilis case became the most high-profile trial of a Kiev Jew in pre-revolutionary Russia. The local Jew Menachem Beilis was accused of killing a teenager, Andrei Yushchinsky, Beilis was convicted and sent to prison. Two years later, on October 28, 1913, Beilis was acquitted. ^[5] During the Russian and Ukrainian revolutions, power changed several times, a change of power was accompanied by new pogroms against Jews. After the proclamation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), the Jewish population of Kiev grew several times and reached 224,000 people (according to the 1939 census) ^[1] .

When the Nazis captured Kiev, most Jews fled the city. The remaining 33,771 were collected in Babi Yar and were shot on September 29-30, 1941. This shooting was one of the most tragic events during the Holocaust . 15,000 Jews were killed in Babi Yar in 1941-1942. After the war, the surviving Jews returned to Kiev. From September 4–7, 1945, the pogrom on September 4 ^{[6], the} pogrom on September ^{7 [7] [8] [9]} approximately a thousand Jews were beaten, 36 were hospitalized and five died from wounds ^[10] in 1946– m in Kiev worked only one synagogue. The last chief rabbi of the Kiev synagogue, Rabbi Panet, retired in 1960 and died in 1968, then a new rabbi was appointed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, most of the Jews of Kiev left the city.

After Ukraine gained independence, the stage of restoring the life of the Jewish community began. The center of communal and religious life of the city was the Jewish community at the Brodsky Synagogue ^[11] . At the moment, two Jewish gymnasiums, two Jewish Sunday schools, the college of the Jewish community "Ash Ha-Torah" and the school "Or Avner" were opened in Kiev ^[1] . A memory monument was also opened in honor of the victims of Babi Yar, the Menorah, in which a memory ceremony is held every year. ^[1] Today, about 20,000 Jews live in Kiev. They are divided into two Jewish religious denominations: Chabad (Rabbi Moshe Reuven Asman ) and Karlinsky Hasidut (Rabbi Yaakov Dov Blaikh ). Believers of these faiths pray in Brodsky’s Choral Synagogue and in the Synagogue of the Kiev Jewish religious community . ^[one]

During the unrest in Ukraine in 2014 on the occasion of a change of power , the Ukrainian rabbi Moshe Reuven Asman urged the Jews to leave Kiev and leave Ukraine, he was afraid that Jews could suffer from the conflict . The rabbi addressed the believers: “I told the parishioners to leave the city center or leave the city and if it is possible to leave the country ... I do not want to tempt fate ... I constantly receive information about the intention to attack Jewish institutions” (29). ^{[12] [13]} The CFCA Forum (the forum coordinating the fight against anti-Semitism) reported on more than three anti-Semitic incidents that occurred in Kiev after the Crimean crisis in 2014. ^[14] According to the Internet newspaper Obozrevatel UA: “The leaders of the Jewish community of the capital of Ukraine sent a letter to the US ambassador, Jeffrey Payette, urging the United States to intervene and put pressure on both sides of the political confrontation to prevent anti-Semitic incidents. The letter was signed by Alexander Levin, the head of the Kiev Jewish religious community, the president of the World Forum of Russian-speaking Jewry, as well as the chief rabbi of Ukraine Moshe-Reuven Asman. " ^[15] Supporters of the Ukrainian government and Ukrainians with pro-Russian sentiments accuse each other of escalating aggression against the Jewish population of Kiev. The leaders of the Ukrainian Jewish community claim that the latest cases of anti-Semitism, including three attacks ^[16] (attack on teachers ^{[17] [18]} ), are the work of pro-Russian Ukrainians in Kiev. However, according to CFCA, a report published by human rights activists in Ukraine indicates that the level of anti-Semitism is not a concern. “The only real basis for such allegations is the fact that certain marginalized small national radical groups participated in the broad public protest movement. This, however, in our opinion, is completely insufficient for the indiscriminate accusation of Euromaidan participants of anti-Semitism. In fact, in recent months there have been more cases of using anti-Semitic rhetoric by supporters of the current government. ”The statement says. ^[19] . According to One Republic, Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich , head of the Association of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine and chief rabbi of Kiev, signed a letter calling for Russia to stop aggression, and compared the situation in Crimea with Austria's pre-anschluss . An American historian, Timothy Snyder, claims that there are anti-Semites among the opposition, but among them there are also young Jews who created “hundreds” to fight the government. The Ukrainian opposition, the Freedom Party , is a neo-Nazi party supporting Stepan Bandera . Stepan Bandera, the founder of the OUN (b) nationalist party in Ukraine, was personally involved in the pogrom against Jews and the massacre of Jews during World War II. Bandera called to cleanse Ukraine from ethnic enemies. The leader of Freedom, Oleg Tyagnibok, repeatedly made anti-Semitic statements. ^[20] According to Snyder, the opposing sides in Ukraine use anti-Semitism and the Jews as an excuse to discredit an opponent. ^{[21] [22]} On the eve of the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah , unidentified people painted a swastika at the Menorah memorial, a monument dedicated to the victims of the Babi Yar tragedy. Another act of vandalism occurred a couple of months later, the swastika was painted on the memorial. ^{[23] [24]} In June 2015, an explosion occurred at the Roshen store in Kiev. The Roshen chain of stores is owned by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. The far-right organizations claimed responsibility for the incident and stated that their goal was to harm the “Jewish dictator.” ^{[25] [26]} . In the same month, an act of vandalism occurred in Babi Yar, while unknown people drew a swastika on the Menorah. ^[27] September 13, 2015, on the eve of the Jewish New Year, anti-Semites tried to set fire to the monument, the fire was stopped. ^[28] On November 22, 2015, a rally was held on Independence Square in the center of Kiev, which was called by the organizers a “people's council”. At the rally, they talked about the desire to create a new government and the need for a change of power, some speakers voiced anti-Semitic slogans, among them Tarasenko: “Enough to endure this power, led by President Valtsman, Speaker Groysman and other Jewish slut,” Alexander Borozenko: “There is a war. Terrible war. World Zionism wants to resettle all of Israel to Ukraine, all! And everything is getting ready for this. This whole war is in order to take and resettle Israel here. Get it! This is their task. And the blood of our sons is worth nothing to them! ” ^{[29] [30]}