The history of the Jews in Odesa dates to 16th century. Since the city's founding in
1795, Odesa has been home to one of the largest population of Jews in the Ukraine. They comprised
the largest ethno-religious group in the region throughout most of the 19th century and until
the mid-20th century. Background
Jews have been a part of the region's economic activities for many centuries. Starting in
16th century, Jews from the Polish Crown have been settling in what is today southern Ukraine,
working as merchants, importers and translators among the Cossacks in the Zaporozhian Sich.
They were also active in exporting goods from Crimea to the mainland and owned a substantial
share of the stores and taverns in the region. After the abolition of the Zaporozhian Sich
in 1775, when Russians took control over the area, Jews moved to the newly established
coastal towns, one of them being Khazhibei, which was renamed Odesa in 1795.
The early Jewish settlers in the region were possibly Sephardi Jews, who had migrated from
Crimea. Several tombstones written in Hebrew dated between 1765 and 1789 have been found
in the region.
Initial growth By 1799, the Jewish population of the city
numbered 317, comprising 187 males and 130 females. Around this period, there were multiple
Jewish religious institutions, including a burial society, a synagogue, and a school
for orphans named Talmud Torah. A hekdesh was built and a Kehillah was organised.
Immigration to the region happened in two distinct waves during the first two decades
of 19th century, on which the remote and newly formed Jewish community relied heavily for
its growth. As Steven Zipperstein argues, Jewish immigrants "looked upon Odesa, with
its wide streets and limestone buildings, as a world apart from the ancient settlements
to which they were accustomed, and Odesa came to represent to Jews elsewhere the option
of a fresh start, offering a change in climate, economic possibilities, and perimeters of
acceptable religious behavior".
Economic life Jewish participation in commerce played an
important role in the city, despite the number of Jews declining from 240 in 1794 to 135
in 1797. According to a report from the latter year, the Jews possessed most of the city's
commercial capital and dominated commodity trade in items such as silk, cotton, wool,
hardware, iron, and shoes and largely controlled the export of salt. Many Jews also worked
for the Russian army as petty traders or artisans while they were stationed in the fortress.
However, only two Jews were wealthy enough to register themselves under the kuptsy category
in 1801. The richer Jews lived largely in the centre of the city, while the poor were
concentrated in Moldavanka and the Peresyp region.
Second wave The second wave of settlers, who came from
Volhynia, Podolia, White Russia and the town of Brody, arrived immediately following the
first one. These new settlers grew aware of the potential importance of the Russian
Black Sea port and were trying to profit from fluctuations on the grain market. More
arrivals of Jewish families came from city of Kherson.
In contrast to the first wave, where people came individually, the second wave was characterized
by arrival of families. Between 1809 and 1819, Odesa become a city of international importance,
which gave the Jewish community in the region a wide range of opportunities. The process
of immigration also weakened the normally strict adherence to religious activities.
For example, on one evening in 1817, the city's rabbi Berish Ben Yisrael was beaten to death
in the streets by a group of Jews who were unhappy with stringent observation of ritual
law.
Galician Jews Around 1830s, Galician Jews dominated the
roles of middlemen and agents in the grain trade of the city, while also being employed
as bankers, merchants, and brokers, with 86% of brokers in Odesa being Jewish.– Emerging
as the wealthiest sector of the Jews, they took control of local Kehillah. Even after
the Russian government had dissolved all Jewish Kehillah in 1844, the Odesa Kehillah continued
to function as a semi-autonomous body in the region, whose meetings were held at regular
intervals.
Between 1837 and 1844, the number of Jewish merchants who were members of the kuptsy category
increased from 169 to 221. In 1842, 228 businesses, 67 factories and workshops, and 26 crockery
stores in the city were owned by Jews. By 1850, Jews had become the fastest-growing
group in city commerce and constituted its majority − out of 5,466 individuals engaged
in the commercial economy in 1851, 2,907 were Jews.
In 1826, Galician Jews opened a modern elementary school, which taught secular as well as Jewish
subjects. Despite the opposition of Jewish traditionalists, headed by Moshe Tsvi, this
act was supported by city authorities. In the first year, over 250 students had enrolled
in the school. Max Lilienthal noted that in 1842 the school had around 400–500 students.
In 1852, when the school was merged into the state school system, this number increased
to 2,500.
Synagogues In the 1840s, the "Brody" Jews leased their
first synagogue, at the corner of Pushkin and Postal streets in a relatively small house,
from the wealthy Greek businessman Ksenysu. The Cantor was Rabbi Nissan Blumenthal, who
had come from the town of Brody. The reformation of synagogues was one of the priorities of
Maskilim in the city, which proved a success, as the Brodsky Synagogue soon become the model
for Jewish prayer in the region. The older Glavaina synagogue, formerly known as Beit
Knesset Ha Gadol, established in 1795 and located on the main arteries of the city , was
renovated on the model of the Brody Synagogue.
In 1863, the Brody Synagogue announced its commitment to build a new structure. The purchase
of a dedicated lot and construction cost 35,646 rubles, contributed by 197 individuals. It
was designed by architect Joseph N. Kollovich in the Gothic Florentine style. Built with
local limestone, the synagogue, which became the largest in the southern regions of the
Russian Empire, was completed in 1863 and served as a local landmark of Moorish architecture.
The Brody Synagogue become the most prominent synagogue in Odesa and the first modern synagogue
in the Russian Empire.
The 19th century Under the reign of Nicholas I, the persecution
of Jews become official. The major provisions regarding Jews under his reign included: conscription
of Jews, including their children, which was passed in 1827; provisions regarding travel
and settlement restrictions, signed into law in 1835; abolition of Qahal system in 1844;
expulsions of Jewish populations from Kyiv, Kherson, and Sevastopol; and bans regarding
use of Hebrew and Yiddish in public. The Tsar also issued an 1844 decree providing for creation
of new Jewish schools, similar to district and governmental schools, which were aimed
at assimilation of Jews.
Due to the blockade of Odesa port during the Crimean war and subsequent disruption of trade,
the city's exports rapidly dropped tenfold from 1853 to 1855. The losses forced Greek
magnates of the city to close their offices, and the city failed to recover its lost clients
following the war. However, unlike the Greeks, the Jews were able to withstand the recession
due to their close contact with the producers, which greatly improved their ability to assess
the market and allowed them to trade with a smaller profit margin. As a result, the
Greek stake in the export trade was quickly superseded by that of the Jews. By 1872–1875,
Jews owned 60% of the commercial firms and most of retail stores in the city.
During 1860s, the city become a center of modern Jewish intelligentsia. With Yiddish
being spoken by almost a third of the population, the city rose as a centre of Yiddish literature
during the 1860s, playing a large role in the cultural transformation of Russian Jewry.
Many of the most successful Jewish institutions existed in Odesa, which attracted many Jewish
intellectuals from across Russia.
The community had, however, fallen victim to increased tensions with other nationalities,
which eventually evolved into open anti-Semitism. During the 1821 anti-Jewish riots in Odesa,
which occurred after the death of the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople, 14 Jews
were killed. Overall, the pogroms in Odesa were carried out in 1821, 1859, 1871, 1881,
and 1905, although the Jewish Encyclopedia does not count the 1821 riot as an instance
of such. The term became common after a wave of large-scale anti-Jewish violence swept
the southern Russian Empire, including Ukraine, between 1881 and 1884, incited by rumours
blaming Jews for the assassination of Alexander II.
Additionally, the May Laws of 1882 gave impetus to political activism among Russian Jews and
mass emigration. More than two million Jews fled Russia between 1881 and 1920, the vast
majority emigrating to the United States and the Ottoman region that became Palestine,
and the city became an important base of support for Zionism.
In 1882, members of Bilu and Hovevei Zion made what came to be known as the First Aliyah
to Palestine, then a part of the Ottoman Empire. Initially, these organizations were not official,
and to attain a legally recognized framework, a Jewish organization had to be registered
as a charity in various European countries; American Jews provided most of the funding.
After arduous negotiations, the Russian government approved the establishment of the Society
for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Palestine in early 1890. It
was based in Odesa, headed by Leon Pinsker, and dedicated to practical aspects of establishing
Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine. The Tsarist government also sporadically encouraged
Jewish emigration. Before the First Zionist Congress in 1897, the Odesa Committee counted
over 4,000 members. When the Zionist Organization was founded in 1897, most of the Hovevei Zion
societies joined it. The Odesa Committee continued to function until it was closed in 1913.
Despite the efforts to promote Zionism and subsequent emigration, however, the share
of Jews in the population of Odesa remained fairly constant, at about 35%. Even after
World War I and the Russian Civil War, there were more than 150,000 Jews in Odesa, constituting
36.7% of the total population.
Second World War and beyond During the Second World War, Odesa was attacked
by the combined forces of Romanian and German troops in August 1941. Following the 73-day
Siege of Odesa, the city was captured and put under Romanian administration, becoming
the capital of the Transnistria Governorate. On 23 October, with the arrival of Axis forces
in the city, an order was issued directing all people of Jewish origin to report to the
village of Dalnyk the following day; around 5,000 Jews obeyed. The first 50 people were
brought to the anti-tank ditch and shot by the commander of the 10th machine-gun battalion,
Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolae Deleanu. Between 5,000 and 10,000 Jews were killed and many
were taken hostage. During the first week of the Romanians' stay in Odesa, the city
lost about 10% of its population.
Approximately 25,000 Odesan Jews were murdered on the outskirts of the city and over 35,000
deported; this came to be known as the Odesa massacre. Most of the atrocities were committed
during the first six months of the occupation and perpetrated by Einsatzgruppen death squads.
By 17 October 1941, 80% of the 210,000 Jews in the region had been killed. This was in
contrast to Jews in Romania proper, where the majority survived.
When the Nazi forces had lost ground in the Eastern Front, the Romanian administration
amended its policy and declined to deport the remaining Jewish population of eastern
Europe to extermination camps situated in German-occupied Poland, while allowing Jews
to work as hired labourers. In contrast to other areas of occupied Eastern Europe, the
survival of Jewish population was significantly higher in Odesa. After the war, Jews constituted
more than ten percent of Odesa's population, and could be found in most occupational groups
from port stevedores and unskilled workers to the intellectual elite.
Since the 1970s, the majority of the remaining Jewish population emigrated in two distinct
aliyahs, one in the 1970s and the other after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Emigrants
went mainly to Israel, but some also moved to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast or other countries,
shrinking the Jewish community in the region.
Historical demographics From 1880 to 1920, Odesa had the second largest
Jewish population in the Russian Empire.
During its founding year , the city's population was recorded at 2,500 people. In 1848, the
city's population had risen to over 90,000 people, making it the third-largest city in
the Russian Empire. This growth was due to mass inflows of immigrants, leading to increases
of population from 86,729 in 1849 to 193,500 in 1873. In 1826, the Jews comprised 89% of
the total population in the city. The population rose to 404,000 in 1892, with Jews
comprising the second-largest group. There were 198,233 Russians followed by 124,511
Jews . However only 38.5% of the Jews were born in the city. Accordingly the Jewish population
of southern provinces in New Russia had increased by 333% between 1844 and 1880, and Jews comprised
around 5.6% of the total population of Russia.