View source for History of the Jews in Ukraine

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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Ukrainian Jews<br />{{Nobold|{{Script/Hebrew|יהדות אוקראינה}}<br />{{lang|uk|Українськi євреї}}}}
| image            = Europe-Ukraine (1991-2014).svg
| image_caption    = The location of [[Ukraine]] in [[Europe]]
| population       = 2021 est. '''43,000''' core – '''140,000''' enlarged&nbsp;<ref name="JPR2021">{{cite web |url=https://www.jpr.org.uk/insights/number-jews-living-ukraine-much-lower-estimated-and-will-only-decline-here |title=The number of Jews living in Ukraine is much lower than estimated, and will only decline from here |website=jpr.org.uk |date=2022-03-10 |access-date=2025-05-04}}</ref>
'''45,000''' by 2023 est.&nbsp;<ref name="Community in Ukraine">{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/UA|title=Ukraine|website=World Jewish Congress|accessdate=16 December 2024}}</ref>
| region1          = Kyiv
| pop1             = 110,000<ref name=wjc />
| region2          = Dnipro
| pop2             = 60,000<ref name=wjc />
| region3          = Kharkiv
| pop3             = 45,000<ref name=wjc />
| region4          = Odesa
| pop4             = 45,000<ref name=wjc />
| langs            = [[Russian language|Russian]] (83.0%), [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]<ref name=lnginUkiJews>{{Cite book |last=Grenoble |first=L. A. |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=Nn3xDTiL0PQC|page=65 }}
 |title=Language Policy in the Soviet Union |date=2003-07-31 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-4020-1298-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Berkhoff |first=Karel C. |authorlink=Karel C. Berkhoff|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=nd9WzIkTJrAC|page=60 }}
|page=60 |title=Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule |date=2008-03-15 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02078-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Trenin |first=Dmitriĭ |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=dXGqaeR1l0AC|page=25}} |title=The End of Eurasia: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization |date=2002 |publisher=[[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] |isbn=978-0-87003-190-8 |language=en | page = 256}}</ref><ref>[http://www.jta.org/2007/10/03/archive/ukraine-jews-expect-little-to-change-following-election Ukraine Jews Expect Little to Change Following Election], [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] (3 October 2007)</ref> (13.4%), [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]]<ref name=lnginUkiJews /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Berger |first=Shlomo |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=nLTfXTAziPMC|page=44}} |title=Speaking Jewish - Jewish Speak: Multilingualism in Western Ashkenazic Culture |date=2003 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-429-1429-2 |language=en}}</ref> (3.1%), [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]<ref name="Haaretz 5 February 2012">[http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/conservative-judaism-movement-to-establish-first-community-in-ukraine-1.411066 Conservative Judaism movement to establish first community in Ukraine], ''[[Haaretz]]'' (5 February 2012)</ref>
| related-c        = [[Jews]], [[Ashkenazi Jews]], [[Russian Jews]], [[Mountain Jews]], [[Belarusian Jews]], [[Romanian Jews]], [[Hungarian Jews]], [[Polish Jews]]
| rels             = [[Judaism]], [[Jewish Christian|Christianity]] and other (including [[Jewish atheism|atheism]])
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
| related_groups   = 
}}
{{Jews and Judaism sidebar |expanded=population}}
The '''history of the Jews in Ukraine''' dates back over a thousand years; [[Jews|Jewish]] communities have existed in the modern territory of [[Ukraine]] from the time of the [[Kievan Rus']] (late 9th to mid-13th century).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://serg-klymenko.narod.ru/Kyiv/Kyiv.Evbaz.htm |title=Серія "Між Львівською площею та Євбазом (сучасна площа Перемоги)" (Фото Києва ::: Фото Киева ::: Photo of Kiev ::: Pictures of Kyiv) |date=21 November 2014 |website= |accessdate=10 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141121004717/http://serg-klymenko.narod.ru/Kyiv/Kyiv.Evbaz.htm |archive-date=21 November 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Kipiani, V. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20141121013737/http://tsn.ua/analitika/cikavi-knizhki-evreyskie-adresa-kieva.html "Interesting Books": Jewish addresses of Kyiv]''. News Broadcasting Service (TSN). 6 April 2012</ref> Important Jewish religious and cultural movements, from [[Hasidism]] to [[Zionism]], arose there. According to the [[World Jewish Congress]], the Jewish community in Ukraine is Europe's fourth largest and the world's 11th largest.<ref name="wjc">[https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/UA Ukraine]. [[World Jewish Congress]].</ref>

The presence of Jews in Ukrainian territory is first mentioned in the 10th century. At times Jewish life in Ukrainian lands flourished, while at other times it faced [[Persecution of Jews|persecution]] and [[Antisemitism in Ukraine|anti-Semitic discrimination]]. During the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]] between 1648 and 1657, an army of [[Cossacks]] massacred and took large numbers of Jews, [[Roman Catholics]], and [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Uniate Christians]] into captivity. One estimate (1996) reported that 15,000-30,000 Jews were killed or taken captive, and that 300 Jewish communities were completely destroyed.<ref name="Paul Magocsi p. 350">[[Paul Magocsi]], ''A History of Ukraine'', p. 350. [[University of Washington Press]], 1996.</ref> More recent estimates (2014) report mortality of 3,000-6,000 people between the years 1648–1649.<ref name="Chmielnicki-Massacres">{{cite book |author-last=Batista |author-first=Jakub |year=2014 |chapter=Chmielnicki Massacres (1648–1649) |chapter-url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=jVqqAAAAQBAJ|page=100}} |editor-last=Mikaberidze |editor-first=Alexander |title=Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: An Encyclopedia |location=[[Santa Barbara, California]] |publisher=[[ABC-Clio]] |volume=1 |pages=100–101 |isbn=978-1-59884-926-4}}</ref>

During 1821 anti-Jewish riots in [[Odesa]] followed the death of the [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] [[Patriarch]] in [[Constantinople]], in which 14 Jews were recorded killed. Some sources claim this episode as the first [[pogrom]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-01-21 |title=Virtual Excursion on Jewish Odessa - Pogroms |url=http://www.moria.farlep.net/vjodessa/en/pogroms.html |access-date=2022-04-03 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070121190823/http://www.moria.farlep.net/vjodessa/en/pogroms.html |archive-date=21 January 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> At the start of the 20th century, anti-Jewish pogroms continued, leading to large-scale emigration. In 1915, the imperial Russian government expelled thousands of Jews from the Empire's border areas, including parts of Ukraine.{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=31}}{{sfn|Baron|1976|p=188–91}}

In the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] (1917–1920), [[Yiddish]] became a state language, along with Ukrainian and Russian. At that time, the Jewish National Union was created and the community was granted autonomous status.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20141121015737/http://www.info-library.com.ua/books-text-10395.html National policy of the Central Council in conditions of Ukrainian independence (January-April 1918)]. Electronic library of handbooks.</ref> Yiddish was used on [[karbovanets|Ukrainian currency]] between 1917 and 1920.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20141121012341/http://vaadua.org/Hadasot/2008-01/Had%2004-2008.htm Money with Yiddish labels]. Hadashot by Vaad of Ukraine. January of 2008</ref> Nevertheless, between 1918 and 1920 in the period after the [[Russian Revolution]] and ensuing [[Ukrainian War of Independence]], an estimated 31,071 but possibly up to 100,000 Jews were [[Pogroms of the Russian Civil War|killed in pogroms]]<ref name="Abramson"/> perpetrated by the [[Ukrainian People's Army|army of the Ukrainian People's Republic]]<ref name="Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation">{{cite book|last=Yekelchyk|first=Serhy|author-link=Serhy Yekelchyk|title=Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=yZLtAAAAMAAJ}}|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-530546-3}}</ref> under command of [[Symon Petliura]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-before-the-holocaust-pogroms-killed-100000-jews-then-were-forgotten/ | title=20 years before the Holocaust, pogroms killed 100,000 Jews – then were forgotten | website=[[The Times of Israel]] }}</ref> Pogroms erupted in January 1919 in the northwest province of [[Volhynia]] and spread to many other regions,<ref name="Midlarsky">{{cite book|last=Midlarsky|first=Manus I.|title=The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century|url=https://archive.org/details/killingtrapgenoc0000midl|url-access=registration|access-date=17 October 2017|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-81545-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/killingtrapgenoc0000midl/page/46 46]–47}}</ref> continuing until 1921.<ref name="books.google.com">{{Cite book |last=Mayer |first=Arno J. |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=B0jHwhsSNfQC|page=516}} |title=The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions |date=2002-01-15 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-09015-3 |language=en|page=516 }}</ref> The actions of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet government]] by 1927 <!-- such as? -->led to a growing antisemitism.<ref name="ReferenceB">Сергійчук, В. Український Крим К. 2001, p.156</ref>

Before [[World War II]], slightly less than one-third of Ukraine's urban population consisted of Jews.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/ukraine/EncJud_Ukraine01-16jh-1917-ENGL.html |title=Jewish Urban Population: 1897 |publisher=Geschichteinchronologie.ch |date=7 May 2007 |access-date=2013-04-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130623053824/http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/ukraine/EncJud_Ukraine01-16jh-1917-ENGL.html |archive-date=23 June 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Total civilian losses in Ukraine during World War II and the [[Reichskommissariat Ukraine|German occupation]] are estimated at seven million. More than one million Soviet Jews, including 225,000 in [[Belarus]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jul/16/holocaust-the-ignored-reality/|title=Holocaust: The Ignored Reality|last=[[Timothy Snyder]]|date=16 July 2009|publisher=The New York Review of Books|format=Internet Archive|access-date=17 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109073643/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jul/16/holocaust-the-ignored-reality/|archive-date=January 9, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> were killed by the [[Einsatzgruppen]] and their many [[Ukrainian collaboration with Nazi Germany|Ukrainian supporters]]. Most of them were killed in Ukraine because most pre-WWII Soviet Jews lived in the [[Pale of Settlement]], of which Ukraine was the biggest part. The major massacres against Jews occurred mainly in the first phase of the occupation, although they continued until the return of the [[Red Army]].

In 1959 Ukraine had 840,000 Jews, a decrease of almost 70% from 1941 totals (within Ukraine's current borders). Ukraine's Jewish population continued to decline significantly during the [[Cold War]]. In 1989, Ukraine's Jewish population was only slightly more than half of what it was in 1959. During and after the [[Revolutions of 1989|collapse of communism]] in the 1990s, the majority of Jews left the country and moved abroad (mostly [[1990s post-Soviet aliyah|to Israel]]).<ref name="autogeneratedil">{{cite web|url=http://www1.cbs.gov.il/publications/alia2001/pdf/tab30.pdf|title=Table 30. Immigrants from the USSR (former) by last republic of residence: 1990-2001|publisher=Central Bureau of Statistics, State of Israel|access-date=16 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714135307/http://www1.cbs.gov.il/publications/alia2001/pdf/tab30.pdf|archive-date=14 July 2014}}</ref> Antisemitism, including violent attacks on Jews, was still a problem in Ukraine in 2012, according to UN report.<ref>{{Cite web |publisher=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |title=Ukraine: Treatment of ethnic minorities, including Roma; state protection |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/507294fe2.html |date=2012-09-17 |access-date=2023-01-31 |website=Refworld |language=en}}</ref> The country's current president, [[Volodymyr Zelenskyy]], is Jewish.

==Medieval and Early Modern era==
===Kyivan Rus===
{{Main|Kievan Rus'|Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia}}
[[File:Signature Kiev letter transparent.png|thumb|left|[[Khazar]] signature from the letter written by members of the Kyiv Jewish community, 10th century]]
The presence of a Jewish community in the territory of modern-day Ukraine is first mentioned in the [[Kievan Letter]], which was composed in the 10th century and became the first written mention of the Ukrainian capital. The document is especially valuable because mentiones the names of members of the city's Jewish community, some of them of obvious [[Slavs|Slavic]] and [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] origin.

By the 11th century, [[History of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire|Byzantine Jews]] of [[Constantinople]] had familial, cultural, and theological ties with the Jews of [[Kyiv]]. For instance, some 11th-century [[History of the Jews in Kyiv|Jews from Kievan Rus]] participated in an anti-[[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]] [[Deliberative assembly|assembly]] held in either [[Thessaloniki]] or Constantinople.<ref>Kevin A. Brook, ''The Jews of Khazaria'', Second Edition, Rowman and Littlefield, pg. 198.</ref> One of the three Kyivan city gates in the times of [[Yaroslav the Wise]] was called Zhydovski (Jewish).

Popular dissatisfaction with the influence of Jewish financiers was claimed by chronicles to be one of the causes of a popular uprising, which engulfed Kyiv in 1113 after the death of prince [[Sviatopolk Iziaslavich]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Право на повстання: тисячолітня традиція|date=2021-11-21|url=https://uain.press/articles/pravo-na-povstannya-tisyacholitnya-traditsiya-880549#google_vignette|access-date=2025-06-02}}</ref> The rebels plundered the houses of Kyiv's Jews, who were accused by them of [[usury]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Як за старих часів кияни князів проганяли|date=2014-05-23|url=https://day.kyiv.ua/article/ukrayina-incognita/yak-za-starykh-chasiv-kyyany-knyaziv-prohanyaly|website=[[The Day (Kyiv)|Den]]|access-date=2025-06-02}}</ref>

In [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]], Jews were mentioned for the first time in 1030. From the second part of the 14th century, they were subjects of [[Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385)|Polish kings]] and [[magnate]]s.

===Polish-Lithuanian rule===
{{Main|Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|History of the Jews in Poland|Lithuanian Jews|Shtetl}}
[[File:Gwoździec - Synagoga.jpg|thumb|left|17th-century [[Gwozdziec Synagogue|wooden synagogue]] in [[Hvizdets|Gwozdziec]] (now Hvizdets, Ukraine), which was lost during WW2]]
Founded in 1569, the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] became one of the most diverse countries in Europe. Massive settlement of Jews in lands under Polish rule started in the 14th century in the aftermath of the adoption of the [[Statute of Kalisz]]. As a result, the kingdom became home to one of the world's largest and most vibrant Jewish communities. Jewish settlement also began in nearby [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]], which controlled many lands of today's Ukraine during that time.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschichte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|page=142|language=de}}</ref>

The Jewish community became one of the largest and most important ethnic minority groups in the territory of Ukraine during the Commonwealth era. Jews constituted 3 to 5% of the entire population of the Commonwealth, but in cities their share reached up to 20%. Many Jews worked as traders, but some also managed the estates of noble landowners ([[szlachta]]), which made them especially unpopular among Ukrainian peasants. Unlike the rest of the population, Jews spoke their own language - [[Yiddish]], and governed themselves through autonomous communities, whose leaders were elected in a democratic manner. On the other hand, many elements of Jewish culture, such as folk beliefs, clothing and architecture (e.g. the construction technology of [[Wooden synagogues in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth|wooden synagogues]]) were shared with the Christian majority. The supreme representative organ of Jews in the Commonwealth, including Ukrainian lands, was the [[Council of Four Lands]], which included members of Jewish communities from [[Greater Poland]], [[Lesser Poland]], [[Volhynia]] and [[Podolia]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschichte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=145–147|language=de}}</ref>

==17-18th centuries==
===Khmelnytsky Uprising===
{{Main|Khmelnytsky Uprising}}

In 1648-1657 Ukrainian [[Cossacks|Cossack]] [[Hetman of Zaporizhian Host|Hetman]] [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] led a [[Cossack uprisings|Cossack]] and peasant rebellion, known as [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]], during which Jews were targeted for their role as managers of noble estates, which was seen as oppression of [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox]] population on behalf of [[Catholicism|Catholic]] [[Polish people|Poles]].<ref name="Michael Brenner 2019 148">{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschichte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|page=148|language=de}}</ref> It is estimated that at that time the Jewish population in Ukraine numbered 51,325.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Subtelny |first1=Orest |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=FJjtAAAAMAAJ&bsq=Orest|page= 599}} |title=Ukraine: A History |last2=Studies |first2=Canadian Institute of Ukrainian |date=1994 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-7191-0 |language=en|page= 599}}</ref> As a result, hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed by the rebels, and tens of thousands of Jews were killed or sold as [[slavery|slaves]]. 
[[File:CossackMamay.jpg|thumb|[[Cossack Mamay]] and the [[Haidamaka]] hang a Jew by his heels. Ukrainian folk art, 19th century]]
Historians consider the massacres under Khmelnytsky to have been the bloodiest episode of anti-Jewish violence until the 20th century.<ref name="Michael Brenner 2019 148"/> A 1996 estimate reported that 15,000-30,000 Jews were killed or taken captive, and that 300 Jewish communities were destroyed.<ref name="Paul Magocsi p. 350"/> A 2014 estimate reduced the toll to 3,000-6,000 from 1648 to 1649; of these, 3,000-6,000 Jews were killed by Cossacks in [[Nemyriv]] in May 1648 and 1,500 in [[Tulczyn]] in July 1648.<ref name="Chmielnicki-Massacres"/><!-- numbers don't add up correctly --> Among contemporary Jews the effect of Khmelnytsky Uprising was compared to the destruction of the [[First Temple|First]] and [[Second Temple]]s. As a result of the massacres, many Jews from Ukraine moved to western regions of Poland, or emigrated to [[Holy Roman Empire|German lands]], [[Amsterdam]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="Michael Brenner 2019 148"/>

===Rise of Hasidism and internal struggles===
{{Main|Hasidic Judaism|Jacob Frank|Haskalah}}
The Cossack Uprising and following massacres left a deep and lasting impression on Jewish social and spiritual life and led to the rise in popularity of [[Jewish mysticism]] including [[Kabbalah]]. The 1648 events in Ukraine played a role in the development of a number of [[messianism|messianic]] movements in Judaism, such as the sect of [[Sabbatai Zevi]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschichte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|page=137|language=de}}</ref> These movements opposed traditional [[Rabbinic Judaism|rabbinism]] and put an emphasis on magical healing practices, [[amulet]]s  and physical activity such as singing, dancing and prayer. 
[[File:Iсроеля Баал Шем Това1.jpg|thumb|Grave of Baal Shem Tov in Medzhybizh]]
The teachings of [[Israel ben Eliezer]], better known as the ''Baal Shem Tov'', or ''BeShT'' (1698–1760), who lived in the Ukrainian town of [[Medzhybizh]], produced a massive religious movement which had a profound effect on Eastern European Jews. Known as Hasidism, it influenced [[Haredi Judaism]], with a continuous influence through many [[List of Hasidic dynasties|Hasidic dynasties]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschichte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=150–151|language=de}}</ref> The emergence of Hasidism with its specific rules and rites produced a strong opposition from traditional [[Ashkenazi]] Jewish circles. As a result of a split between Hasidic Jewish communities and their opponents ([[Misnagdim|''Mitnagdim'']]) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a teritorial division emerged, with Hasidic rites dominating among poorer and less educated Jews in Volhynia, Podolia, Galicia and [[Carpathian Ruthenia|Hungarian-ruled territories]] of modern-day Ukraine.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschichte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=152–153|language=de}}</ref>

A different movement was started by [[Jacob Frank]] in the middle of the 18th century. Frank's teachings were unorthodox (such as purification through transgression and adoption of elements of [[Christianity]]) and were supported by part of the Catholic clergy, including the bishop of [[Kamianets-Podilskyi|Kamieniec Podolski]], which led to his excommunication along with his numerous followers. In 1759 Frank and his supporters converted to [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] in [[Lviv|Lemberg]]. As a result, a group of up to 20,000 Jewish converts emerged, who gradually assimilated with Christians, but preserved some peculiar traditions. In 1817 Frankists were officially recognized as Catholics by the [[Russian Empire|Russian imperial government]].<ref name=CM-JS-M-13>{{cite web |url=https://www.jpost.com/judaism/on-this-day-230-years-since-jewish-messiah-claimant-jacob-franks-death-688402|title=This Day: 230 years since Jewish messiah claimant Jacob Frank's death|work=The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)|date=10 December 2021 |access-date=10 February 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschichte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=153–154|language=de}}</ref>

==19th century==

===In the Russian Empire===
{{Main|Pale of Settlement|Cantonist|Jewish agricultural colonies in the Russian Empire|History of the Jews in Odesa}}
[[File:Map showing percentage of Jews in the Pale of Settlement and Congress Poland, c. 1905.png|thumb|Map of the [[Pale of Settlement]]]]

In [[Russian Empire]] until the [[partitions of Poland]] Jewish communities were not officially recognized. However, as a result of the partitions, between 1772 and 1795 around 750,000 Jews in Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania became subjects of the Russian Empire, followed by Jews of [[Congress Poland|Central Poland]], which also came under Russian control as a result of the [[Congress of Vienna]]. As a result, Imperial Russia became home to the largest Jewish community in the world. Empress [[Catherine the Great]] (1762-1796), a follower of the European [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideas, initially provided the Jews equal rights with the rest of her subjects, categorizing them as [[burgher (social class)|burgher]]s. However, due to protests of Moscow merchants, whose businesses suffered due to competition with their Jewish counterparts, in 1791 the Jewish right of residence was limited to the [[Pale of Settlement]], which included territories annexed from Poland-Lithuania, as well as the [[Black Sea]] region.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschichte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=202-205|language=de}}</ref>

The 1804 Statute for the Jews obliged Jews in the Russian Empire to adopt surnames, required them to use official languages in documentation and put [[rabbi]]s under special supervision of the state. In rural localities Jews were limited in their right to act as tavernkeepers, and the government made unsuccessful attempts to expel Jews from villages to cities. Under the rule of [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] Jewish families were required to provide recruits for the army, with boys as young as 12 years old ([[cantonists]]) having to leave their families to receive military training; many of them later converted to [[Orthodox Christianity]]. In 1844 the government abolished the [[qahal|kahal]], depriving Jewish communities of their officialy recognized autonomy. Special taxes were also introduced on [[kosher]] meat and [[sabbath]] candles. Those rules were partially relaxed under the rule of [[Alexander II of Russia]], but after 1870 Jews were still limited from executing rights in many areas. For example, Jewish members were banned from taking more than one-third of places in local councils , even if the locality had a Jewish majority, and Jews were also banned from being appointed mayors.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschichte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=205-206|language=de}}</ref>

Odesa became the home of a large Jewish community during the 19th century, and by 1897 Jews were estimated to account for some 37% of the population.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170711235736/http://www.sras.org/odessa "Odessa: A City Born Again and Again"], by Katherine Avgerinos and Josh Wilson</ref> The city also became known as a centre of publishing and education, with the first Jewish magazines in Russian (''Rassvet'', 1860) and Yiddish (''[[Kol Mevasser]]'', 1863) being published there.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschicte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=209|language=de}}</ref>

===In the Habsburg Empire===
{{main|Jewish-Ukrainian relations in Eastern Galicia}}
[[File:Brzezany in 1917. Jews.jpg|thumb|Jews in [[Berezhany]], [[Austrian Galicia]], 1917]]
After the establishment of Austrian rule in formerly Polish Galicia, a number of requirements were introduced for local Jews, such as the need to pass a German language exam in order to receive a marriage ceritficate, as well as taxes on kosher meat and candles. Activists of the [[Haskala]] introduced measures against Hasidic influence in the region, which included publishing of rabbinical texts and foundation of schools. However, reform movements in Judaism remained unpopular among the majority of Galician Jews. 

After 1848 emancipation was gradually introduced, and by 1874 71 Jews were represented in local parliaments, as well as 5 in the [[Galician Sejm]]; many Jewish representatives were also active in local councils, and 10 of them served as mayors. In [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungarian]]-ruled areas most limitations against the Jewish population were abolished in 1859-1860, and after the formation of [[Austria-Hungary]] in 1867 Jews were recognized as equal citizens.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschicte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=210-214|language=de}}</ref>

In the late 19th century the Jewish population of Austria-Hungary reached about 2 million people and comprised the seccond biggest Jewish community in the world. In Galicia Jews formed around 10% of the local population, but in some cities, such as [[Brody]], their share stood at 90%. In [[Lviv|Lemberg]] during that time more than one third of the population was Jewish. Many localities in the region served as points of pilgrimage for followers of various Hasidic dynasties.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschicte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=210-211|language=de}}</ref>

===Pogroms and persecutions===
{{main|Pogrom|May Laws}}
During 1821 anti-Jewish riots in [[Odesa]] after the death of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] patriarch in [[Constantinople]], 14 Jews were killed. Some sources mark this episode as the first [[pogrom]],<ref>[http://www.moria.farlep.net/vjodessa/en/pogroms.html Odessa pogroms] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070121190823/http://www.moria.farlep.net/vjodessa/en/pogroms.html |date=21 January 2007 }} at the Center of Jewish Self-Education "Moria"</ref> while according to others (such as the ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'', 1911 ed.) say the first pogrom was an 1859 riot in Odesa. The term became common after a wave of anti-Jewish violence swept the southern Russian Empire (including Ukraine) between 1881 and 1884, after Jews were blamed for the [[Alexander II of Russia#Assassination|assassination of Alexander II]].

In May 1882, [[Alexander III of Russia]] introduced temporary regulations called ''[[May Laws]]'' that remained in effect until 1917. Systematic policies of discrimination, strict [[Jewish quota|quotas]] on the number of Jews allowed to obtain education and professions caused widespread poverty and mass emigration. In 1886, an [[expulsions and exoduses of Jews|edict of Expulsion]] was applied to Jews in [[Kyiv]]. In 1893–1894, some areas of Crimea were removed from the Pale.

When Alexander III died in Crimea on 20 October 1894, according to [[Simon Dubnow]]: "as the body of the deceased was carried by railway to [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]], the same rails were carrying the Jewish exiles from [[Yalta]] to the Pale. The reign of Alexander III began with pogroms and concluded with expulsions."<ref>''The Newest History of the Jewish People, 1789–1914'' by [[Simon Dubnow]], vol. 3, Russian ed., p. 153.</ref>

===Political activism and emigration===
{{Main|Bilu (movement)|Odessa Committee|General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia}}
Jews were over-represented in the Russian revolutionary leadership. However, most were hostile to [[Jewish culture]] and Jewish political parties, and were loyal to the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]]'s [[atheism]] and [[proletarian internationalism]], and committed to stamping out any sign of "Jewish cultural particularism".

[[Counter-revolutionary]] groups, including the [[Black Hundreds]], opposed the Revolution with violent attacks on socialists and pogroms against Jews. A backlash came from the conservative elements of society, notably in spasmodic anti-Jewish attacks – around five hundred were killed in a single day in Odesa. [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] claimed that 90% of revolutionaries were Jews.

[[Leon Pinsker]], a doctor from Odessa, became one of the founders of political Zionism with his [[pamphlet]] ''[[Auto-Emancipation]]'' (1882), which called for the emergence of Jews as a separate political nation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kleine jüdische Geschicte|author=Michael Brenner|date=2019|publisher=München: C.H.Beck|isbn=9783406738159|pages=238|language=de}}</ref>

==Early 20th century==
===Before WW1===
[[File:Ekaterinoslav1905.jpg|thumb|The victims of a 1905 pogrom in [[Dnipropetrovsk|Yekaterinoslav]]]]
At the start of the 20th century, anti-Jewish pogroms continued to occur in cities and towns across the Russian Empire such as [[Kishinev pogrom|Kishinev]], [[Kiev Pogrom (1905)|Kyiv]], [[Odessa pogroms|Odesa]], and many others. Numerous Jewish self-defense groups were organized to prevent the outbreak of pogroms among which the most successful one was under the leadership of [[Mishka Yaponchik]] in Odesa.

In 1905, a series of pogroms erupted at the same time as the [[Revolution of 1905|Revolution]] against the government of Nicholas II. The chief organizers of the pogroms were the members of the [[Union of the Russian People]] (commonly known as the "[[Black Hundreds]]").{{sfn|Baron|1976|p=67}}

From 1911 to 1913, the [[antisemitism|antisemitic]] tenor of the period was characterized by a number of [[blood libel]] cases (accusations of Jews murdering Christians for ritual purposes). One of the most famous was the two-year trial of [[Menahem Mendel Beilis]], a Jew from Kyiv, who was charged with the murder of a Christian boy.<ref>Lowe 1993, 284–90</ref> The trial was showcased by the authorities to illustrate the perfidy of the Jewish population.{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=30}}

In 1912-1914, [[S. An-sky]] led the [[Jewish Ethnographic Expedition]] to the Pale, which visited around 70 shtetls in Volyn, Podolia, and Galicia (all in modern Ukraine) gathering folk stories, artifacts, recording music, and making photos, as an attempt to preserve and salvage traditional Ashkenazim culture that was vanishing because of modernization, pogroms, and emigration.

From March to May 1915, in the face of the German army, the government expelled thousands of Jews from the Empire's border areas, mainly the Pale of Settlement.{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=31}}{{sfn|Baron|1976|p=188–91}}

===Ukrainian People's Republic===
{{Main|Ukrainian People's Republic|Pogroms of the Russian Civil War}}
[[File:100karbovantsevUNR_R.jpg|thumb|right|1917. 100 [[karbovanets]] of the Ukrainian National Republic. Revers. 3 languages: Ukrainian, Polish and [[Yiddish]].]]
After the establishment of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] (UPR, 1917–1921) in the aftermath of the [[February Revolution]],<ref name="Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation"/> [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] was recognized as one of its official languages,<ref name=HoUJsntui /> while all government institutions had Jewish members.<ref name=HoUJsntui /> A Ministry for Jewish Affairs was established (Ukraine was the first modern state to do so)<ref name="Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation" /><ref name=HoUJsntui /> and rights of Jewish culture were guaranteed.<ref name="Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation" /> During that time many Yiddish schools functioned in Ukraine, initially supported by the [[General Secretariat of Ukraine|Vice-Secretariat for Jewish Affairs]], and later by the Ministry for Jewish Affairs.<ref name="yivo">{{Cite web|title=Soviet Yiddish-Language Schools|author=Arkadi Zeltser|url=https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/127|access-date=2025-07-01}}</ref> However, Jewish deputies abstained or voted against the [[Tsentralna Rada]]'s [[Declaration of Ukrainian Independence, 1918|Fourth Universal]] of 25 January 1918 which was aimed at breaking ties with [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Bolshevik Russia]] and proclaiming a sovereign Ukrainian state,<ref name=HoUJsntui>{{Cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul R. |authorlink=Paul Robert Magocsi|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=BNUtdVrw6lIC|page=537}}|title=A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples |date=2010 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |isbn=978-1-4426-4085-6 |language=en|page=537}}</ref>  since all Jewish parties were strongly against Ukrainian independence.<ref name=HoUJsntui/> 

During the ensuing [[Russian Civil War]], an estimated 70,000 to 250,000 Jewish civilians were killed in atrocities throughout the former Russian Empire. In  modern Ukraine an estimated 31,071 died in 1918–1920.<ref name="Abramson"/> Other estimates give the number of civilian Jews killed during the period as 35,000 to 50,000. Archives declassified after 1991 provide evidence of a higher number; in the period from 1918 to 1921, "according to incomplete data, at least 100,000 Jews were killed in Ukraine in the pogroms."<ref>[http://www.eastview.com/docs/FR-3050-vstuplenie%20Eng.pdf Kyiv District Commission of the Jewish Public Committee for Relief to Victims of Pogroms. State Archive of the Kyiv Oblast. Fond FR-3050] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630060125/http://www.eastview.com/docs/FR-3050-vstuplenie%20Eng.pdf |date=30 June 2007 }} by Vladimir Danilenko, Director of the State Archive of the Kyiv Oblast.</ref> The Ukrainian People's Republic did issue orders condemning pogroms and attempted to investigate them,<ref name="Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation"/> but it lacked authority to stop the violence.<ref name="Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation" /> In the last months of its existence the state lacked any power to create social stability.<ref name=HoUJsntui />

Among the prominent Ukrainian Jewish statesmen of this period were [[Moisei Rafes]], Pinkhas Krasny, Abram Revutsky, Moishe Zilberfarb, and many others. (see [[General Secretariat of Ukraine]]) The autonomy of Ukraine was openly greeted by [[Volodymyr Zhabotinsky]], himself a native of Ukraine.

Between April and December 1918 the Ukrainian People's Republic was non-existent and overthrown by the [[Ukrainian State]] of [[Pavlo Skoropadsky]],<ref name="Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation"/><ref name=endSkoro>{{Cite book |last=Europa Publications |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=qmN95fFocsMC|page=849}}|title=Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, 1999 |date=1999 |publisher=Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-1-85743-058-5 |language=en|page=849}}</ref> who ended the experiment in Jewish autonomy.<ref name=HoUJsntui/>

===Provisional Government of Russia and Soviets===
{{main|October Revolution}}
The February 1917 revolution brought a liberal [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]] to power in the Russian Empire. On 21 March/3 April, the government removed all "discrimination based upon ethnic religious or social grounds".<ref name="Korey 1978, 90">Korey 1978, 90.</ref> The Pale was officially abolished. The removal of the restrictions on Jews' geographical mobility and educational opportunities led to a migration to the country's major cities.<ref>Insight on the News 21 May 1990b, 17.</ref>

One week after the 25 October / 7 November 1917 [[Bolshevik Revolution]], the new government proclaimed the "Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples [Nations] of Russia," promising all nationalities the rights of equality, self-determination and secession. Jews were not specifically mentioned in the declaration, reflecting Lenin's view that Jews did not constitute a nation.{{sfn|Sawyer|2019|pp=14–15}}

In 1918, the [[RSFSR Council of Ministers]] issued a decree entitled "On the Separation of Church from State and School from Church", depriving religious communities of the status of juridical persons, the right to own property and the right to enter into contracts. The decree nationalized the property of religious communities and banned their assessment of religious tuition. As a result, religion could be taught or studied only in private.<ref>Soviet Jewish Affairs Autumn-Winter 1990, 27.</ref>

[[File:Kropyvnytskyi Chmilenka 90 40 Sinagoga (YDS 3964).jpg|thumb|Main Synagogue of Yelisavetgrad looted by Hryhoriv's rebels]]
On 1 February 1918 the Commissariat for Jewish National Affairs was established as a subsection of the Commissariat for Nationality Affairs. It was mandated to establish the "dictatorship of the proletariat in the Jewish streets" and attract the Jewish masses to the regime while advising local and central institutions on Jewish issues. The Commissariat was also expected to fight the influence of [[Zionist]] and Jewish-Socialist Parties.<ref>Korey 1978, 79</ref>{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=58–59}} On 27 July 1918 the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree stating that antisemitism is "fatal to the cause of the ... revolution". Pogroms were officially outlawed.{{sfn|Weinryb|1970|p=306}} On 20 October 1918 the Jewish section of the CPSU ([[Yevsektsia]]) was established for the Party's Jewish members; its goals were similar to those of the Jewish Commissariat.<ref name="Korey 1978, 90"/><ref name="Survey January 1968, 77-81">Survey January 1968, 77–81.</ref>{{ sfn|Rothenberg|1970|pp=172–73}}{{sfn|Levin|1988|pp=78–80}}{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=62}}

During the [[Hryhoriv Uprising]] in May 1919, almost 3000 Jews of Yelisavetgrad (today [[Kropyvnytskyi]]) were murdered and their property stolen during a mutiny of [[Bolshevik]] troops.

===The White Army and counterrevolutionary pogroms===
{{main|Jewish Bolshevism}}
[[File:Who Rules Moscow.png|thumb|Antisemitic poster issued by the Whites during the Russian Civil War]]
In contrast with the Bolshevik government's official policy of equality among citizens, antisemitism remained deeply entrenched in the political and social ideologies of the tsarist counterrevolutionaries, especially among paramilitary groups such as the [[Black Hundreds]]. These militias incited and organized pogroms against Russian Jews. The official slogan of the Black Hundreds was "Bei Zhidov," meaning 'Beat the Jews.'<ref>Klier, John D., and Shlomo Lambroza, eds. Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.</ref> Thus, during the [[Russian Civil War]] that followed the [[1917 Revolution]], the Jews became a crucial site of the conflict between revolutionary [[Bolsheviks|Reds]] and counterrevolutionary [[White Movement|Whites]], particularly in the contested territory of Ukraine. The Bolsheviks' official opposition to antisemitism—coupled with the prominence of Jews such as [[Leon Trotsky]] within the Bolshevik ranks—allowed the Christian nationalist movements of both the [[White Army]] and the emergent [[Ukrainian National Republic]] to link Ukrainian Jews to the despised communism. These connections, combined with the cultural tradition of antisemitism among Russian peasantry,<ref name="auto5">{{Cite book |last=Bemporad |first=Elissa |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1135962272 |title=Legacy of blood : Jews, pogroms, and ritual murder in the lands of the Soviets |isbn=978-0-19-046645-9 |oclc=1135962272|year=2019|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> provided ample justification for the Whites to attack Ukraine's Jewish population. Between 1918 and 1921, almost all{{dubious|date=June 2025}} of the approximately 2,000 pogroms carried out in Ukraine were organized by White Army forces.<ref name="auto4">{{Cite book |last=Hanebrink|first= Paul |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1357256139 |title=A Specter Haunting Europe The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism |isbn=978-0-674-98856-9 |oclc=1357256139|publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2018}}</ref> eyewitnesses reported hearing counterrevolutionary militia members expound slogans such as, "We beat the Yids, we beat the Commune", and "This is the answer to the Bolsheviks for the [[Red Terror]]."<ref name="auto5"/> Recent studies hold that about 30,000 Jews were killed in these pogroms, while another 150,000 died from wounds sustained during the violence.<ref name="auto4"/>

===Pogroms in western Ukraine===
[[File:The Jewish quarter after the November 1918 Pogrom in Lviv.jpg|thumb|Jewish quarter in Lviv after the November 1918 pogrom]]
During the [[Polish-Ukrainian War]] in late 1918 [[Galician Jews]] were suspected by many Poles to have collaborated with forces of the [[West Ukrainian People's Republic]]. As a result, after Polish troops entered Lviv on 22 November 1918 a [[Lwów pogrom (1918)|pogrom]] was perpetrated by Poles in the city's Jewish quarter, killing at least 75 inhabitants, although higher estimates also exist. The event caused indignation in global press. After the pogrom Polish military command accused Lviv's Jews of not restraining their compatriots and threatened with catastrophic circumstances in case of their opposition to [[Second Polish Republic|Polish authorities]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Львів.1918.Єврейський погром|date=2019-12-04|url=https://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/5de7745143964/|access-date=2025-06-03}}</ref>

In the territory controlled by Ukrainian forces pogroms erupted in January 1919 in the northwest province of [[Volhynia]] and spread during February and March to the cities, towns, and villages of many other regions of Ukraine.<ref name="Midlarsky"/> After [[Sarny]] it was the turn of [[Ovruch]], northwest of Kyiv. In [[Tetiev]] on 25 March, approximately 4,000 Jews were murdered, half in a synagogue set ablaze by Cossack troops under Colonels Kurovsky, Cherkowsy, and Shliatoshenko.<ref name="Midlarsky" /> Then [[Vasylkiv|Vashilkov]] (6 and 7 April).<ref name="Tcherikower">{{Cite web |title=The Pogroms in Ukraine in 1919 |url=http://www.berdichev.org/the_pogroms_in_ukraine_in_1919.htm |access-date=2023-02-01 |website=www.berdichev.org|first=Elias |last=Tcherikower}} originally in Yiddish, YIVO Institute, 1965; ''The Berdichev Revival''</ref> In Dubovo (17 June) 800 Jews were decapitated in assembly-line fashion.<ref name="Midlarsky" /> According to David A. Chapin, the town of Proskurov (now [[Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine|Khmelnitsky]]), near the city of [[Sudilkov]], "was the site of the [[Proskurov pogrom|worst atrocity]] committed against Jews this century before the Nazis." Pogroms continued until 1921.<ref name="books.google.com" />
[[File:Khodorkiv Pogrom.jpg|thumb|alt=The victims of a pogrom in Khodorkiv, committed by the Directorate of Ukraine in 1919. From The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, The National Library of Israel|The victims of a pogrom in {{Ill|Khodorkiv|uk|Ходорків}} (Ходорків), committed by forces subject to the [[Directorate of Ukraine]] in [[1919]]. From The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, [[National Library of Israel]]]]

===Pogroms across Podolia===
{{See also|Schwartzbard trial}}
On 15 February 1919, during the Ukrainian-Soviet war, [[Otaman]] [[Ivan Semesenko]] initiated a pogrom [[Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine|Proskurov]] in which many Jews were massacred on [[Shabbat]] ([[Tetzaveh|parashah Tesaveh]]). Semesenko claimed that the pogrom was in retaliation for a previous Bolshevik uprising that he believed was led by Jews.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grossmanproject.net/pogroms.htm |title=The Pogroms |publisher=Grossmanproject.net |date=7 November 1905 |access-date=2013-04-16}}</ref>

According to the [[Pinkes|''pinqasim'']] record books those murdered in the pogrom included 390 men, 309 women and 76 children. The number of wounded exceeded 500. Two weeks later Order 131 was published in the central newspaper{{clarify|date=April 2022}} by the head of [[Directorate of Ukraine]]. In it [[Symon Petliura]] denounced such actions and eventually executed Otaman Semesenko by firing-squad in 1920. Semesenko's brigade was disarmed and dissolved. This event is especially remarkable because it was used to justify [[Sholem Schwarzbard]]'s assassination of the Ukrainian leader in 1926. Although Petliura's direct involvement was never proven, Schwartzbard was acquitted in revenge. The series of Jewish pogroms around Ukraine culminated in the [[Kyiv pogroms of 1919]] between June and October of that year.<ref>{{Cite book|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=I3_XlAUeEqsC|page=105}}|page=105|title=Our Hands Are Stained with Blood|first=Michael L.|last=Brown|date=10 May 1992|publisher=Destiny Image Publishers|isbn=9781560430681 |accessdate=10 May 2022|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/reflectionsofpos0000carg|title=Reflections of a post-Auschwitz Christian|date=10 May 1989|publisher=Detroit : Wayne State University Press|accessdate=10 May 2022|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><!-- quote=Kiev pogrom 1919. -->
{{Pogroms in Ukraine 1918–1920}}

==Interwar era==
===Consolidation of Soviet power===
In July 1919, the Central Jewish Commissariat dissolved the [[kehilla (modern)|''kehillot'']] (Jewish Communal Councils). The ''kehillot'' had provided social services to the Jewish community.{{sfn|Levin|1988|pp=81}}

From 1919 to 1920, Jewish parties and Zionist organizations were driven underground as the Communist government sought to abolish all potential opposition.{{sfn|Schechtman|1970|p=113}}{{sfn|Levin|1988|pp=90–91}} The [[Yevsektsiya]] Jewish section of the Soviet Communist party was at the forefront of the anti-religious campaigns of the 1920s that led to the closing of religious institutions, the break-up of religious communities and the further restriction of access to religious education.<ref name="Survey January 1968, 77-81" /> To that end a series of "community trials" against the Jewish religion were held. The last known such trial, on the subject of circumcision, was held in 1928 in [[Kharkiv]].{{ sfn|Rothenberg|1970|pp=172–73}}{{sfn|Levin|1988|pp=78–80}} At the same time, the body worked to establish a secular identity for the Jewish community.{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=62}}

In 1921 many Jews{{sfn|Carr|1971|pp=401, 413}} [[Jews in Russia#Jews in the revolutionary movement|emigrated to Poland]], as they were entitled by a peace treaty in [[Riga]] to choose the country they preferred. Several hundred thousand joined the already numerous Jewish minority of the [[Polish Second Republic]]. Also, during the interwar period, thousands of Jewish refugees from the [[Soviet Ukraine]] migrated to Romania.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.romania-actualitati.ro/emisiuni/istorica/refugiati-emigranti-din-urss-catre-romania-interbelica-id46059.html | title=Refugiaţi, emigranţi din URSS către România interbelică }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://adevarul.ro/stiri-locale/piatra-neamt/cum-a-gestionat-romania-criza-refugiatilor-din-1654737.html | title=Cum a gestionat România criza refugiaţilor din perioada interbelică. 100.000 de evrei, ruşi şi ucraineni s-au refugiat aici la începutul anilor '20 | date=29 September 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://historia.ro/sectiune/general/refugiatii-evrei-din-ucraina-sovietica-in-582478.html | title=Refugiaţii evrei, din Ucraina sovietică în Basarabia română }}</ref>
[[File:1930 Jewish kolkhoz AJJDC 05.jpg|thumb|Jewish workers on a [[collective farm]] in Ukraine, 1930]]
On 31 January 1924 the Commissariat for Nationalities' Affairs was disbanded.{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=59}} On 29 August 1924 an official agency for Jewish resettlement, the Commission for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land ([[Komzet|KOMZET]]), was established. KOMZET studied, managed and funded projects for Jewish resettlement in rural areas.{{sfn|Levin|1988|pp=131}}{{sfn|Schwarz|1951|p=162–63}} A public organization, the Society for the Agricultural Organization of Working Class Jews in the USSR ([[OZET]]), was created in January 1925 to help recruit colonists and support the colonization work of KOMZET.{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=64}} For the first few years the government encouraged Jewish settlements, particularly in Ukraine. Support for the project dwindled throughout the next decade.{{sfn|Levin|1988|pp=131–51}} In 1938 OZET was disbanded, following years of declining activity. The Soviets set up three Jewish national ''raions'' in Ukraine as well as two in the Crimea – national ''raions'' occupied the 3rd level of the Soviet system, but were all disbanded by the end of World War II.{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=65}}

The cities with the largest populations of Jews in 1926 were Odesa, 154,000 or 36.5% of the total population; Kyiv, 140,500 or 27.3%; Kharkiv, 81,500 or 19.5%; and [[Dnipropetrovsk]], 62,000 or 26.7%. In 1931 [[Lviv]]'s Jewish population numbered 98,000 or 31.9%, and in [[Chernivtsi]], 42,600 or 37.9%.<ref>[http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/J/E/Jews.htm Jews], encyclopediaofukraine.com</ref> Under Soviet rule state [[Yiddish theatre]]s were organized in cities such as Kharkiv (1925), Kyiv (1929), Odesa (1930), [[Vinnytsia]] (1934), [[Zhytomyr]] (1935), as well as Lviv and [[Ternopil]] (1939-1940). All of them were closed in the postwar era during the [[rootless cosmopolitan|wave of repressions]] against Jewish culture in the Soviet Union.<ref name="yivo">{{Cite web|title=Soviet State Yiddish Theaters|author=Jeffrey Veidlinger|url=https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/2188|access-date=2025-07-01}}</ref>

As part of [[korenization]] polcies, compulsory education of Yiddish-speaking pupils was introduced. In 1924 there were 268 schools of this type with 42,000 pupils in Soviet Ukraine; by 1931 their number had grown to 1096, and they were attended by 94,800 pupils. Yiddish schools in the Soviet Union provided children with proficiency in Yiddish cultire, but at the same time engaged in propaganda against Judaism: religious instruction was banned by Soviet legislation, and in 1923 Saturday was replaced with Sunday as the day off for Jewish pupils. This made such institutions increasingly unpopular among Jewish families, and after the end of korenization in the mid-1930s the enrollment in Yiddish schools in Soviet Ukraine rapidly declined, although some of them, especially in [[Soviet invasion of Poland|newly annexed]] [[Western Ukraine]], continued to function until the Second World War.<ref name="yivo">{{Cite web|title=Soviet Yiddish-Language Schools|author=Arkadi Zeltser|url=https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/127|access-date=2025-07-01}}</ref>

On 8 April 1929 the new Law on Religious Associations codified all previous religious legislation. All meetings of religious associations were required to have their agenda approved in advance; lists of members of religious associations had to be provided to the authorities.<ref>Problems of Communism May–June 1973, 10–11.</ref> In 1930 the [[Yevsektsia]] was dissolved,{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=62}} leaving no central Soviet-Jewish organization. Although the body had served to undermine Jewish religious life, its dissolution led to the disintegration of Jewish secular life as well; Jewish cultural and educational organizations gradually disappeared.{{sfn|Rothenberg|1970|pp=177–78}} When the Soviet government reintroduced the use of internal passports in 1933, "Jewish" was considered an ethnicity for those purposes.{{sfn|Pinkus|1988|p=57}}

The [[Soviet famine of 1932–1933]] affected the Jewish population,<ref>{{cite news|title=Losses Suffered by the Population of the USSR, 1918–1958 |work=The Samizdat Register |editor-first= R. |editor-last=Medvedev }}</ref> and led to a migration from [[shtetl]]s to overcrowded cities.<ref>Khiterer, V. (2020). The Holodomor and Jews in Kyiv and Ukraine: An Introduction and Observations on a Neglected Topic. Nationalities Papers, 48(3), 460-475. doi:10.1017/nps.2018.79</ref>

As the Soviet government annexed territory from [[Soviet annexation of the western Ukrainian territories|Poland]], [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|Romania]] (both would be incorporated into the [[Ukrainian SSR]] after [[World War II]]<ref name="Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation"/>) and the [[Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)|Baltic states]],{{sfn|Dmytryshyn|1965|pp=210–14}} roughly two million Jews became Soviet citizens.{{sfn|Rothenberg|1970|pp=180}}{{sfn|Altshuler|1993|p=85}} Restrictions on Jews that had existed in those countries were lifted.<ref>''Soviet Jewish Affairs'' Summer 1991, 53–54.</ref> At the same time, Jewish organizations in the transferred territories were shut down and their leaders were arrested and exiled.{{sfn|Baron|1976|p=294}} Approximately 250,000 Jews escaped or were evacuated from the annexed territories to the Soviet interior prior to the Nazi invasion.{{sfn|Gitelman|1993|p= 4}}

===Jewish settlement in Crimea===
{{anchor|Crimea}}
{{Main|Jewish autonomy in Crimea}}
{{Further|Khazar Judaism|Crimean Karaites|Krymchaks}}
[[File:Base OZET Djansloi Crimée 1926.jpg|thumb|Jewish agricultural settlers in the district of [[Dzhankoy]], Crimea, 1926]]
In 1921, Crimea became an autonomous republic. In 1923, the All-Union [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]] passed a motion to resettle a large number of the Jewish population from Ukrainian and Belarusian cities to Crimea, numbering 570,400 families. The plan to further resettle Jewish families was confirmed by the Central Committee of the USSR on 15 July 1926, assigning 124 million roubles to the task and also receiving 67 million from foreign sources.<ref>Сергійчук, В. Український Крим К. 2001, p. 150</ref>

The Soviet initiative of Jewish settlement in Crimea was opposed by [[Symon Petliura]],<ref>Петлюра С. Статті, листи, документи – Н. Й. 1979 – Vol 2, p. 428</ref> who regarded it as a provocation. This train of thought was supported by [[Arnold D. Margolin|Arnold Margolin]]<ref>Margolin A. "The New Palestine", December 1926 also Тризуб, 1927 ч. 14 p. 13-14</ref> who stated that it would be dangerous to set up Jewish colonies there.

The Soviets twice sought to establish [[Jewish autonomy in Crimea]]; once, in the 1920s, with the support of the [[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee]], and again in 1944, by the [[Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee]].<ref name="ReferenceB" /><ref>{{cite web|author=Mykola Vladzimirsky |url=http://ukrlife.org/main/uacrim/conf_hebr.htm |title=Віктор Даниленко Проекти Єврейської Автономії В Радянському Криму |publisher=Ukrlife.org |access-date=2013-04-16}}</ref>

==World War II and aftermath==
===Holocaust in Ukraine===
[[File:WW2-Holocaust-Ukraine big legend.PNG|thumb|upright 1.2|A map of the Holocaust in Ukraine]]
{{Main|The Holocaust in Ukraine|Lviv pogroms|Reichskommissariat Ukraine|Ukrainian collaboration with Nazi Germany|Babi Yar|1941 Odessa massacre}}
The total number of civilians who died during the war and the German occupation of Ukraine is estimated to be as high as seven million. This estimate includes over one million Jews who were shot and killed by the [[Einsatzgruppen]] and local Ukrainian collaborators.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/ussr_nac_26.php?reg=4|title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей.|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-05-24}}</ref> The excuse of "[[Jewish Bolshevism]]" was also used to carry them out.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2013-12-16 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Stephen A. |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602056.001.0001 |journal=Oxford Handbooks Online |pages=245– |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602056.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-960205-6 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Richard |first=J. Evans |author-link= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WjoiVWGQ9HYC&q=Brzezany+Lemberg&pg=PT203 |title=The Third Reich at War: 1939-1945 |date=2009-03-19 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-1-101-02230-6 |pages=203–223 |language=en}}</ref>

The total number of Jews killed in the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] in Eastern Ukraine, or the Ukrainian SSR (within its 1938 borders), is estimated to be slightly less than 700,000 out of a total pre-Holocaust Jewish population of slightly over 1.5 million.<ref>{{cite book | url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=MJrnDwAAQBAJ|page=473}}| title=The Holocaust in the Soviet Union | isbn=9781496210791 | last1=Arad | first1=Yitzhak | date=27 May 2020 | publisher=U of Nebraska Press }}</ref> Within the borders of Modern [[Ukraine]], the death toll is estimated to be around 900,000.

===Post-war situation===
Ukraine had 840,000 Jews in 1959, a decrease of almost 70% from 1941 (within Ukraine's current borders). Ukraine's Jewish population declined significantly during the [[Cold War]]. In 1989, Ukraine's Jewish population was only slightly more than half of what it had been in 1959.

Such immigrants included artists, such as [[Marina Maximilian Blumin]] and street artist [[Klone (artist)|Klone]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thebubblist.org/2013/06/15/studio-visit-klone/|title=Studio visit : Klone {{!}} Documenting the real and unreal|date=2013-06-15|website=The Bubblist|language=en|access-date=2019-05-24}}</ref> as well as activists including [[Gennady Riger]] and [[Lia Shemtov]].

==Independent Ukraine==
{{Historical populations
|title=Historical Ukrainian Jewish population<ref name="yivo">[http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Ukraine Yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved on 2013-04-14.]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.berdichev.org/imagens/Jews_Table1.jpg|title=Jews in Ukraine 1897 and 1900}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.berdichev.org/imagens/Jews_Table2.jpg|title=Jews in Ukraine 1926 and 1933}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=OTLBmcAj3HAC|page=50}} |title=Judgment Before Nuremberg: The Holocaust in the Ukraine and the First Nazi |author=Greg Dawson |publisher=Open Road Media |date=2012 |isbn=9781453226339 |access-date=2013-04-16}}</ref><ref name="demoscope1">{{cite web|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/census_types.php?ct=6 |title=Приложение Демоскопа Weekly |publisher=Demoscope.ru |date=15 January 2013 |access-date=2013-04-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012173257/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/census_types.php?ct=6 |archive-date=12 October 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=autogenerated5>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/2002_13_WJP.pdf|title=World Jewish Population, 2002|website=www.ajcarchives.org|accessdate=10 May 2022|archive-date=21 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200721161017/http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/2002_13_WJP.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=autogenerated6>{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Rv2hLhme008J:www.jewishdatabank.org/Reports/World_Jewish_Population_2010.pdf+world+jewish+population+2010&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShFmlEo2XYeBjYVUGgz_STm8ZXvaFqIMHdpfxUC8uWpDuLqb9l7GvJbF2piXHqxgDaGkOY3jfCA_RkpUlKLSByoSQC3cLV-5LcpxgXggqUIYwzK9hdfmwVv4Sz0BdeFMxJ_-2To |title=Powered by Google Docs |access-date=2013-04-14}}</ref>
|type = Russia
|footnote =
|1650|40000
|1765|300000
|1897|2680000
|1926|2720000
|1941|2700000
|1959|840446
|1970|777406
|1979|634420
|1989|487555
|2001|106600
|2010|71500
|2014|67000
|source      =<br />
* The Jewish population data includes [[Mountain Jews]], [[Georgian Jews]], [[Bukharan Jews]] (or Central Asian Jews), [[Krymchaks]] (all per the 1959 Soviet census), and [[Tat people (Caucasus)|Tats]].<ref>[http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Population_and_Migration/Population_since_World_War_I YIVO | Population and Migration: Population since World War I]. Yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved on 2013-04-14.</ref>
* <ref name="American Jewish Year Book 2012">{{cite book|title=American Jewish Year Book 2012|year=2012|publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer Publishing]]|page=225|isbn=9789400752047|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=-MChymxEfdsC|page=225}}}}</ref>
* People with at least some Jewish ancestry: 360,000–400,000 (2014)<ref name="The Jewish Community of Ukraine">{{Cite web|url=https://eurojewcong.org/communities/ukraine/|title=Ukraine|website=European Jewish Congress|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref>
}}

===Emigration===
In [[Soviet Census (1989)|1989, a Soviet census]] counted 487,000 Jews living in Ukraine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2007/0303/analit02.php|title=Динамика численности еврейского населения Украины|website=www.demoscope.ru|access-date=2019-05-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/ukraine.html |title=The Virtual Jewish History Tour – Ukraine |publisher=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date=2013-04-16}}</ref> Although discrimination by the state all but halted after [[Ukrainian independence]] in 1991, Jews were still discriminated against during the 1990s.<ref name=IPP/> For instance, Jews were not allowed to attend some educational institutions.<ref name=IPP>{{Cite book |last=Stewart|first=Susan|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=sgyTAAAACAAJ|page=84}}|page=84|title=Demonen aan de Dnipr: de moeizame staatsvorming van Oekraïne |date=1994 |publisher=Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek |isbn=978-90-6473-295-9 |language=nl|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721195845/http://www.swp-berlin.org/uploads/tx_xozswpresearchgroups/Stewart_cv_0609._ks.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2011 }} [http://www.swp-berlin.org/uploads/tx_xozswpresearchgroups/Stewart_cv_0609._ks.pdf Author bio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721195845/http://www.swp-berlin.org/uploads/tx_xozswpresearchgroups/Stewart_cv_0609._ks.pdf |date=21 July 2011 }}</ref> Antisemitism has since declined.<ref name="Roth"/>

The overwhelming majority of the Jews who remained in Ukraine in 1989 then moved to other countries in the 1990s during and after the [[Revolutions of 1989|collapse of Communism]].<ref name="autogeneratedil" /> 

Some 266,300 Ukrainian Jews [[Russian aliya|emigrated to Israel]] in the 1990s.<ref name="Roth">{{Cite book |last1=Stephen Roth Institute |authorlink=Stephen Roth Institute|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=7Ds6X1j_qkgC|page=150}} |title=Anti-Semitism Worl Wide |last2=League |first2=Bnai Brith Anti-defamation |publisher=Ramot Publishing. |language=en|page=150}}</ref> The [[Ukrainian Census (2001)|2001 Ukrainian Census]] counted 106,600 Jews living in Ukraine<ref>[http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/ About number and composition population of UKRAINE by data All-Ukrainian population census'2001 data] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111217151026/http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/ |date=17 December 2011 }}, [[Ukrainian Census (2001)]]</ref> (the number of Jews also dropped due to a negative birthrate).<ref name="Roth" /> According to the [[Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister of Israel]], early 2012 there were 250,000 Jews in Ukraine, half of them living in Kyiv.<ref name="Haaretz 5 February 2012" /> According to the European Jewish Congress, as of 2014, 360,000–400,000 Jews remained.<ref name="The Jewish Community of Ukraine" />

===Jewish life and organizations in independent Ukraine===
By 1999 there were various Ukrainian Jewish organizations that disputed each other's [[legitimation|legitimacy]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gorchinskaya |first=Katya |date=1999-04-07 |title=Rabinovich rallies his supporters - Apr. 08, 1999 |url=https://archive.kyivpost.com/article/content/ukraine-politics/rabinovich-rallies-his-supporters-331.html |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Kyiv Post}}</ref>

In November 2007, an estimated 700 [[Torah]] scrolls confiscated from Jewish communities during the Soviet era were returned to Jewish communes by state authorities.<ref>"Ukraine President Orders Return of 700 Torah Scrolls Confiscated by Communist Government", Religious Information Service of Ukraine News, November 2007.</ref>

The [[Ukrainian Jewish Committee]] was established in 2008 in Kyiv to concentrate the efforts of Jewish leaders in Ukraine on resolving the community's strategic problems and addressing socially significant issues. The Committee declared its intention to become one of the world's most influential organizations protecting the rights of Jews and "the most important and powerful structure protecting human rights in Ukraine".<ref>{{Cite web|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120908131639/http://old.risu.org.ua/eng/news/article;21193|archive-date=8 September 2012|title=RISU /English /News /Ukrainian Jewish Committee Established to Address Jewish Issues in Ukraine|date=2012-09-08|website=archive.is|url=http://old.risu.org.ua/eng/news/article;21193|access-date=2019-05-24|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Rise of far-right sympathies and Jewish reaction===

In the [[2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election]]s, [[Svoboda (political party)|All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda"]] won its first seats in the [[Verkhovna Rada|Ukrainian Parliament]],<ref name="SvobBBC">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20113616|title=Ukraine election: President Yanukovych party claims win|work=BBC News |date=29 October 2012|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref name="auto3">{{Cite web |last=Faryna |first=Oksana |date=18 October 2012 |title=Extreme Choices: Svoboda plays nationalist card - Oct. 18, 2012 |url=https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/ukraine-politics/extreme-choices-svoboda-plays-nationalist-card-314617.html |accessdate=10 May 2022 |website=KyivPost}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=7929811&ct=12697485|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221013625/http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=7929811&ct=12697485|url-status=dead|title=2012 Top Ten Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic Slurs:Mainstream Anti-Semitism Threatens World Peace|archivedate=21 December 2013|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-okays-slur-zhyd-for-jews/|title=Ukraine okays 'zhyd' slur for Jews|first=Stuart|last=Winer|website=www.timesofisrael.com|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref name="auto2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20824693|title=Svoboda: The rise of Ukraine's ultra-nationalists|work=BBC News |date=26 December 2012|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibtimes.com/svoboda-rising-spectre-neo-nazism-ukraine-974110|title=Svoboda: The Rising Spectre Of Neo-Nazism In The Ukraine|date=27 December 2012|website=International Business Times|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref> garnering 10.44% of the popular vote and the fourth most seats among national political parties;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/oct-28-parliamentary-election/results-of-the-vote-count-continuously-updated-315153.html|title=Results of the vote count - Nov. 09, 2012|date=9 November 2012|website=KyivPost|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/126937.html|title=Party of Regions gets 185 seats in Ukrainian parliament, Batkivschyna 101 - CEC|website=Interfax-Ukraine|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref> This led to concern among Jewish organizations that [[Svoboda (political party)#Criticism towards Svoboda|accused]] "Svoboda" of Nazi sympathies and antisemitism.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Experts-weigh-in-on-rise-of-Ukrainian-Svoboda-party| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130427140748/http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Experts-weigh-in-on-rise-of-Ukrainian-Svoboda-party| archive-date = 2013-04-27| title = Experts weigh in on rise of Ukrainian Svoboda party {{!}} JPost {{!}} Israel News}}</ref><ref name="SvobBBC" /><ref name="auto3" /><ref name="auto1" /><ref>[http://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-okays-slur-zhyd-for-jews/ Winer, Stuart. Ukraine okays 'zhyd' slur for Jews], The Times of Israel, 19 December 2012.</ref><ref name="auto2" /><ref name="auto" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/svoboda-promoting-hatred-in-ukraine-320445.html|title=Svoboda promoting hatred in Ukraine - Feb. 14, 2013|website=KyivPost|date=14 February 2013 |accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref> In May 2013, the [[World Jewish Congress]] listed the party as [[neo-Nazi]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukrinform.net/|title=Ukrinform - Ukrainian National News Agency|website=www.ukrinform.net|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref> "Svoboda" has denied the charges.<ref name="auto3" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-03-31 |title=Oleh Tyahnybok: "The three opposition parties should not be required to act completely in sync" - The Ukrainian Week |url=https://ukrainianweek.com/oleh-tyahnybok-the-three-opposition-parties-should-not-be-required-to-act-completely-in-sync/ |access-date=2025-05-02 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Svoboda |url=http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/113523/ |access-date=25 September 2011 |newspaper=Kyiv Post |date=25 September 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ukrainian party picks xenophobic candidate |url=http://www.jta.org/news/article/2009/05/25/1005397/ukrainian-partys-presidential-candidate-worries-jews |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609170927/http://www.jta.org/news/article/2009/05/25/1005397/ukrainian-partys-presidential-candidate-worries-jews |archivedate=9 June 2012 |accessdate=10 May 2022 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/ukraine-politics/tiahnybok-denies-anti-semitism-in-svoboda-318205.html|title=Tiahnybok denies anti-Semitism in Svoboda - Dec. 27, 2012|date=27 December 2012|website=KyivPost|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/world/europe/ukraines-ultranationalists-do-well-in-elections.html|title=Ukraine's Ultranationalists Show Surprising Strength at Polls|first=David M.|last=Herszenhorn|newspaper=The New York Times |date=9 November 2012|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/jewish-world/jewish-news/ukraine-party-attempts-to-lose-anti-semitic-image|title=Ukraine party attempts to lose anti-Semitic image|website=The Jerusalem Post &#124; JPost.com|date=21 January 2013 |accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref>

Antisemitic graffiti and violence against Jews were still a problem in 2010.<ref name="Anti-Semitism in Ukraine in 2010">{{cite web|url=http://www.hrwf.net/images/reports/2010/2010%20antisemitism%20ukraine.pdf|title=Anti-Semitism in Ukraine in 2010|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]|date=7 October 2010}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Revolution of 2014 and start of Russo-Ukrainian war===
[[File:Donetsk sinagoga.jpg|thumb|Building of the Donetsk synagogue, where a provocation against the Jewish community was organized in 2014]]
After the [[Euromaidan]] protests, unrest gripped [[Southern Ukraine|southern]] and [[eastern Ukraine]], and this escalated in April 2014 into the [[War in Donbas (2014–2022)|war in Donbas]]<ref name="Ukraine crisis timeline BBC">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26248275|title=Ukraine crisis: Timeline|work=BBC News |date=13 November 2014|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref> and the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]].

In April 2014, in the city of [[Donetsk]] occupied by Russian-backed forces, leaflets were distributed by three masked men as people left a synagogue, ordering Jews to register to avoid losing their property and citizenship "given that the leaders of the Jewish community of Ukraine support the [[Banderite]] [[Military junta|junta]] in [[Kyiv]]{{efn|Apparently referring to the support of the [[Euromaidan]] protests (that ousted president [[Viktor Yanukovich]]) by prominent Jews in Ukraine.<ref name="theguardian.com"/>}} and are hostile to the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] [[Donetsk People's Republic|Donetsk Republic]] and its citizens".<ref name="theguardian.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/18/antisemitic-donetsk-peoples-republic-ukraine-hoax|title=Antisemitic flyer 'by Donetsk People's Republic' in Ukraine a hoax|date=18 April 2014|website=the Guardian|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/17/jews-ordered-to-register-in-east-ukraine/7816951/|title=Leaflet tells Jews to register in East Ukraine|first=Oren|last=Dorell|website=USA TODAY|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref>[http://antisemitism.org.il/article/86590/donetsk-leaflet-jews-must-register-or-face-deportation Donetsk leaflet: Jews must register or face deportation], antisemitism.org (16 April 2014)]</ref> After the distribution of the flyers was reported, [[Denis Pushilin]], whom the leaflets claimed had issued the discriminatory order, denied any involvement on behalf of himself and the government of the [[Donetsk People's Republic]]. The chief rabbi of the city of Donetsk, Pinchas Vishedski, later called the distribution of the flyers a "hoax" that was carried out by an unknown party, adding "I think it's someone trying to use the Jewish community in Donetsk as an instrument in this conflict. That's why we're upset."<ref name="theguardian.com" />

After the Euromaidan, the number of Ukrainian Jews making ''[[aliyah]]'' from Ukraine grew 142% during the first four months of 2014 compared to the previous year.<ref name="BVAOL">{{cite web |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/19-ukrainian-jews-make-aliyah-to-flee-growing-unrest/ |title=Ukrainian Jews immigrate to Israel amid growing unrest |work=The Times of Israel|date=4 May 2014 |access-date=12 May 2014}}</ref> 800 people arrived in [[Israel]] over January–April, and over 200 signed up for May 2014.<ref name="BVAOL" /> However, chief rabbi and [[Chabad]] emissary of [[Kyiv]] Rabbi [[Jonathan Markovitch]] said in late April 2014 "Today, you can come to Kyiv, [[Dnipro]] or [[Odesa]] and walk through the streets openly dressed as a Jew, with nothing to be afraid of".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Margolin |first=Dovid |title=In Dnepropetrovsk, a Stylish Passover Despite Ukraine's Rumblings |url=https://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/2565176/jewish/In-Dnepropetrovsk-a-Stylish-Passover-Despite-Ukraines-Rumblings.htm |access-date=2025-05-02 |website=www.chabad.org |language=en}}</ref>

In August 2014, the [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] reported that the [[International Fellowship of Christians and Jews]] was organizing chartered flights to allow at least 150 Ukrainian Jews to immigrate to Israel in September. Jewish organizations within Ukraine, as well as the [[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee]], the [[Jewish Agency for Israel]] and the Jewish community of [[Dnipropetrovsk]], arranged temporary homes and shelters for hundreds of Jews who fled the war in Donbas in eastern Ukraine. Hundreds of Jews reportedly fled the cities of [[Luhansk]] and Donetsk.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Liphshiz |first=Cnaan |date=2014-08-07 |title=150 Jews who fled Ukraine fighting expected in Israel |url=https://www.jta.org/2014/08/07/global/150-jews-who-fled-ukraine-fighting-expected-in-israel |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-05-27 |title=Israel rescues Ukrainian Jews stranded by fighting |url=https://www.jpost.com:443/National-News/Israel-rescues-Ukrainian-Jews-stranded-by-fighting-354543 |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=The Jerusalem Post |language=en}}</ref>

In 2014 [[Ihor Kolomoyskyi]] and [[Volodymyr Groysman]] were appointed Governor of [[Dnipropetrovsk Oblast]] and [[Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada|Speaker of the Parliament]] respectively.<ref name="JaU2014">{{Cite news |last=Bershidsky |first=Leonid |date=4 March 2014 |title=Putin Gets Personal in Ukraine |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2014-03-04/putin-gets-personal-in-ukraine |accessdate=10 May 2022 |newspaper=Bloomberg.com |via=www.bloomberg.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Liphshiz |first=Cnaan |date=27 March 2014 |title=Russia and Ukraine at war - among the Jews anyway |url=https://www.jta.org/2014/03/27/global/russia-and-ukraine-at-war-among-the-jews-anyway |accessdate=10 May 2022 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/236648.html|title=Hroisman elected Rada speaker|website=Interfax-Ukraine|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref name="ICFR">{{cite web |url=http://www.israelcfr.com/documents/8-2/simon-geissbuhler.pdf |title=The Ukrainian Crisis and the Jews: A Time for Hope or Despair?|access-date=2014-07-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812080239/http://www.israelcfr.com/documents/8-2/simon-geissbuhler.pdf |archive-date=12 August 2014}} "The Ukrainian Crisis and the Jews: A Time for Hope or Despair," ''Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs'' VIII : 2 (2014) pp 77–85.</ref> Groysman became [[Prime Minister of Ukraine]] in April 2016.<ref name="jp14416">{{Cite web |date=2016-04-14 |title=Ukrainian president taps Jewish politician to be next prime minister |url=https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Ukrainian-president-taps-Jewish-politician-to-be-next-prime-minister-451215 |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=The Jerusalem Post |language=en}}</ref>

===Presidency of Volodymyr Zelenskyy===
[[File:Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the Jewish community before Passover in Ukraine on 18 April 2024 - 9.jpg|thumb|Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with the leaders of Ukraine's Jewish community before [[Passover]], 2024]]
Ukraine elected its first Jewish president in the [[2019 Ukrainian presidential election|2019 presidential election]], when comedian, head of [[Kvartal 95 Studio]], and lead actor in the TV series ''[[Servant of the People (2015 TV series)|Servant of the People]]'' [[Volodymyr Zelenskyy]] defeated incumbent [[Petro Poroshenko]] with 73.23% of the vote, the biggest [[landslide victory]] in the history of [[Ukrainian presidential elections]].<ref name="nyt_zelenskyy">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/europe/volodomyr-zelensky-ukraine-jewish-president.html|title=Ukraine's Newly Elected President Is Jewish. So Is Its Prime Minister. Not All Jews There Are Pleased.|last=Higgins|first=Andrew|date=24 April 2019|work=The New York Times|access-date=25 April 2019|issn=0362-4331|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425012514/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/world/europe/volodomyr-zelensky-ukraine-jewish-president.html|archive-date=25 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> During the brief overlap of Zelenskyy's and Groysman's terms (20 May to 29 August 2019), Ukraine was the only country in the world apart from Israel to have both a Jewish president and prime minister.<ref name="nyt_zelenskyy"/><ref name="toi_both">{{cite news |last1=Liphshiz |first1=Cnaan |title=Zelensky win makes Ukraine 1st country outside Israel with Jewish PM, president |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/zelensky-win-makes-ukraine-1st-country-outside-israel-with-jewish-pm-president/ |access-date=29 November 2024 |work=Times of Israel |date=22 April 2019}}</ref><ref name="jc_both">{{cite news |last1=Sokol |first1=Sam |title=With two Jews in the country's top jobs, what is next for Ukraine? |url=https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/analysis/with-two-jews-in-the-countrys-top-jobs-what-is-next-for-ukraine-u223pbh6 |access-date=29 November 2024 |work=The Jewish Chronicle |date=24 April 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

===2022 Russian invasion===
[[File:A Ukrainian Family Arrives in Israel (51925490497).jpg|thumb|A Ukrainian Jewish family arrives in Israel on 6 March 2022]]
{{See also|Ukrainian refugee crisis (2022–present)}}
In February 2022 [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Russia invaded Ukraine]]. The Israeli Embassy stayed open on the Sabbath to facilitate the evacuation of Jews. A total of 97 Jews chose to travel to Israel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aish.com/in-ukraine-the-escape-road-not-taken/|title=In Ukraine, The Escape Road Not Taken|date=27 February 2022|website=aish.com|accessdate=10 May 2022 |author1=Hersh }}</ref> In addition, 140 Jewish orphans fled to Romania and Moldova.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/5423595/jewish/Jewish-Children-From-Orphanage-and-Yeshiva-Arrive-Safely-in-Romania-and-Moldova.html|title=Jewish Children From Orphanage and Yeshiva Arrive Safely in Romania and Moldova|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/2066471/watch-moving-havdalah-with-jewish-refugees-from-odessa.html|title=WATCH: Moving Havdalah With Jewish Refugees From Odessa|date=6 March 2022|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref> 100 Jews fled to Belarus in order to prepare for their eventual move to Israel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aish.com/leading-100-jews-out-of-ukraine/|title=Rescuing 100 Jews in Ukraine on Shabbat|website=aish.com|date=3 March 2022|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref> On 2 March 2022, the Jewish Agency for Israel reported that hundreds of Jewish war refugees sheltering in Poland, Romania and Moldova were scheduled to leave for Israel the following week.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-of-jews-fleeing-ukraine-to-arrive-in-israel-next-week/|title=Hundreds of Jews fleeing Ukraine to arrive in Israel next week|first=Judah Ari|last=Gross|website=www.timesofisrael.com|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref> Refugee estimates ranged from 10,000<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 April 2022 |title=In time for Passover: Israeli immigration minister visits Ukraine to get Jews to Israel |url=https://www.jns.org/israeli-immigration-minister-visits-ukraine-to-boost-aliyah-efforts/ |accessdate=10 May 2022 |website=Israel365 News &#124; Latest News. Biblical Perspective.}}</ref> to 15,200 refugees had arrived in Israel.<ref>Kershner, Isabel (23 March 2022). "Ukraine War Ignites Israeli Debate Over Purpose of a Jewish State". The New York Times. {{ISSN|0362-4331}}. Retrieved 26 March 2022.</ref> In September 2023 it was reported that over 43,000 Jews from Russia and over 15,000 Jews from Ukraine have fled to Israel.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://themedialine.org/by-region/will-jews-continue-to-flee-russia-in-large-numbers/|title=Will Jews Continue To Flee Russia in Large Numbers?|work=The Media Line|date=1 September 2023|first=Nicole|last=Jansezian|access-date=1 May 2025}}</ref> By August 2024, out of an estimated 30,000 Jews who immigrated to Israel since 7 October 2023, 17,000 Jews were from Russia and 900 Jews from Ukraine.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jns.org/aliyah-up-by-30000-since-oct-7-massacre/|title=30,000 new immigrants since Oct. 7 massacre|work=Jewish News Syndicate|first=Etgar|last=Lefkovits|date=27 August 2024|access-date=1 May 2025}}</ref>

In 2023, the first Ukrainian-language [[haggadah]] was released; most printed religious material used by Ukrainian Jews until then had been in Russian. The new haggadah included material such as prayers for those defending Ukraine, as well as sections on Jewish writers from today's Ukraine who had been classified as Russian in the past.<ref name="jta_haggadah">{{cite news |last1=Klein |first1=David I. |title=The first Passover haggadah in Ukrainian marks a community's break with Russia |url=https://www.jta.org/2023/03/29/global/the-first-passover-haggadah-in-ukrainian-marks-a-communitys-break-with-russia |access-date=24 June 2025 |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=29 March 2023}}</ref>

On 22 August 2024, [[Israel]]i [[Ynet]] news reported that at least 100 Jewish Ukrainian soldiers had been killed fighting Russia since the beginning of the invasion.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sycg7msoc|title=Dnipro's Jewish community bids farewell to a special ops. soldier|date=22 August 2024|work=[[Ynet]]}}</ref>

In December 2024, chief of the [[Main Directorate of Intelligence (Ukraine)|Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine]] [[Kyrylo Budanov]] ceremonially lit the first candle on a [[Hanukkiah]] made from fragments of Russian drones and rockets fired at Ukraine.<ref name="budanov">{{cite news |title=У Києві Буданов запалив першу свічку на ханукії, виготовленій з уламків ворожих ракет [In Kyiv, Budanov lit the first candle on a Hanukkiah made from fragments of enemy rockets] |url=https://bukvy.org/u-kyyevi-budanov-zapalyv-pershu-svichku-na-hanukiyi-vygotovlenij-z-ulamkiv-vorozhyh-raket/ |access-date=19 June 2025 |work=Bukvy.org |date=25 December 2024}}</ref>

==Jewish communities in modern Ukraine==
[[File:Єврейський Центр "Менора".jpg|thumb|Building of the Menorah centre in [[Dnipro (city)|Dnipro]] - Ukraine's biggest Jewish community institution]]
As of 2012, Ukraine had the fifth-largest Jewish community in Europe and the twelfth-largest [[Jewish population by country|in the world]], behind [[South Africa]] and ahead of [[Mexico]]. The majority live in [[Kyiv]] (about half),<ref name="Haaretz 5 February 2012"/> [[Dnipro]], [[Kharkiv]] and [[Odesa]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.risu.org.ua/eng/major.religions/jewish/|archiveurl=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20050420001149/http://www.risu.org.ua/eng/major.religions/jewish/|url-status=dead|title=RISU on Jewish Communities|archivedate=20 April 2005|accessdate=10 May 2022}}</ref> Rabbis [[Jonathan Markovitch]] of Kyiv and [[Shmuel Kaminetsky]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chabad.org/centers/default_cdo/aid/117953/jewish/Chabad-of-Dnepropetrovsk.htm|title=Chabad of Dnepropetrovsk - Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine|website=Chabad.org|access-date=1 December 2015}}</ref> of Dnipro are considered to be among the most influential foreigners in the country.<ref>"Ukrainian rabbis seen as 'powerful foreigners'," Jewish & Israel News</ref> Opened in October 2012 in Dnipro, the multifunctional [[Menorah center (Dnipro)|Menorah center]] is among the world's largest [[Jewish community center]]s.<ref name=jewj>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/jewrnalism/item/worlds_biggest_jewish_community_center_opens_in_dnipropetrovsk_ukraine|title=World's biggest Jewish community center opens in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine|first=Ian|last=Shulman|date=15 January 2013|work=Jewish Journal|access-date=1 December 2016|archive-date=5 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130305112604/http://jewishjournal.com/jewrnalism/item/worlds_biggest_jewish_community_center_opens_in_dnipropetrovsk_ukraine|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=jpost>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/The-Menorah-Center-Largest-Jewish-complex-in-world|title=The Menorah Center: Largest Jewish complex in world|first=Chaim|last=Chesler|date=22 October 2012|work=The Jerusalem Post|access-date=1 December 2016}}</ref>

A growing trend among Israelis is to visit Ukraine on a "roots trip" to learn of Jewish life there.<ref name="mits">''A mile in their shoes, By Moshe Gilad, RISU''</ref> Kyiv is usually mentioned, where it is possible to trace the paths of [[Sholem Aleichem]] and [[Golda Meir]]; [[Zhytomyr]] and [[Korostyshiv]], where one can follow the steps of [[Haim Nahman Bialik]]; [[Berdychiv]], where one can trace the life of [[Mendele Mocher Sforim]]; [[Rivne]], where one can follow the course of [[Amos Oz]]; [[Buchach]] – the path of [[S.Y. Agnon]]; [[Drohobych]] – the place of [[Maurycy Gottlieb]] and [[Bruno Schulz]].<ref name="mits"/>

Ukraine is known as a major exporter of handmade [[matzah]] to the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barberá |first=Marcel Gascón |date=2024-08-26 |title=Baking matzah and defying blackouts, Dnipro's Jews press on despite the grind of Russia's war on Ukraine |url=https://www.jta.org/2024/08/26/global/baking-matzah-and-defying-blackouts-dnipros-jews-press-on-despite-the-grind-of-russias-war-on-ukraine |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilensky |first=David A.M. |date=2022-03-18 |title=In Ukraine, much of the world's matzah supply is under fire |url=https://jweekly.com/2022/03/18/in-ukraine-much-of-the-worlds-matzah-supply-is-under-fire/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240826183242/https://jweekly.com/2022/03/18/in-ukraine-much-of-the-worlds-matzah-supply-is-under-fire/ |archive-date=2024-08-26 |access-date=2025-03-16 |work=J. |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Notable Ukrainian Jews==
{{Main|List of Ukrainian Jews}}
{{See also|:Category:People of Ukrainian-Jewish descent}}
{| width="100%"
|valign="top"|

===Ukrainian-born Jews===
* [[Al Sherman]]
* [[Aleksandr Rozenberg]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.kikar.co.il/world-news/s7zdsr | title=ראש הממשלה היהודי של המדינה המוז | date=28 January 2024 }}</ref>
* [[Alexander Galich (writer)|Alexander Galich]] - Soviet poet and dissident
* [[Alexander Rodnyansky]] - Ukrainian film producer
* [[Alexander Vindman]]
* [[Alexandru Hâjdeu]] - [[Romanian language]] Jewish writer<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kqUKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA756 | title=Basarabia in secolul XIX | last1=Arbure | first1=Zamfir C. | date=1898 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FUkcAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA855 | title=The Reform Advocate | date=1914 }}</ref><ref>http://filosofieromaneasca.uv.ro/bogdanpetriceicuhasdeu.htm {{Bare URL inline|date=May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.muzeulhasdeu.ro/index.php?meniu=11 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090420193005/http://www.muzeulhasdeu.ro/index.php?meniu=11 | archive-date=20 April 2009 | title=Home }}</ref>
* [[Arnold Margolin]] - Ukrainian diplomat
* [[Baal Shem Tov]] - founder of [[Hasidic Judaism]]
* [[Boris Sidis]]
* [[Bruno Schulz]] - [[Polish language]] writer of Jewish ethnicity
* [[Chaim Gliksberg]]
* [[Chana Orloff]] - French-Israeli sculptor
* [[Charles S. Zimmerman]] - American labour activist 
* [[Dmitry Salita]]
* [[Eduard Bagritsky]]
* [[Elina Bystritskaya]] - Soviet actress
* [[German Khan]]
* [[Golda Meir]] - [[prime minister of Israel]], born in [[Kyiv]]
* [[Hanna Hertsyk]] - spouse and personal secretary of [[Pylyp Orlyk]] (Jewish ancestry on [[Pavlo Hertsyk|her father]]'s side)
* [[Hayim Nahman Bialik]]
* [[Ida Fink]] - Israeli writer
* [[Ihor Kolomoyskyi]] - Ukrainian [[business oligarch]]
* [[Ihor Shamo]] - Soviet Ukrainian composer, author of the [[Yak tebe ne liubyty, Kyieve mii!|official anthem of Kyiv]].
* [[Ihor Surkis]] - president of [[FC Dynamo Kyiv]]
* [[Inna Vernikov]]
* [[Iosif Shklovsky]] - Soviet astronomer
* [[Isaac Stern]]
* [[Isaak Babel]] - Soviet writer of Jewish origin
* [[Iuliia Mendel]] - Ukrainian journalist, [[press secretary]] of the president of Ukraine (2019-2021)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Персона: Мендель Юлія Володимирівна|quote=Припускають, що прізвище спікерки має єврейське походження.|url=https://comments.ua/ua/dossier/item/person/149-mendel-yuliya-volodimirivna.html|website=comments.ua|lang=uk|access-date=2025-06-06}}</ref>
* [[Jan Koum]]
* [[Jonathan Markovitch]]
* [[Joseph Constant]]
* [[Kirill Reznik]]
* [[Lazar Brodsky]] - businessman and philanthropist in the Russian Empire
* [[Lazar Kaganovich]] - Soviet politician
* [[Len Blavatnik]]
* [[Lenny Krayzelburg]]
* [[Leon Trotsky]] - Soviet politician and military commander
* [[Lev Parnas]]
* [[Levi Eshkol]] - Prime Minister of Israel (1963-1969)
* [[Maksim Chmerkovskiy|Maksim]] and [[Valentin Chmerkovskiy]]
* [[Marina Weisband]] - German politician
* [[Mark Bernes]] - Soviet actor and singer
* [[Maurycy Gottlieb]] - Polish painter
* [[Max Levchin]] - software businessman
* [[Maya Deren]] - American filmmaker
* [[Meir Blinken]]
* [[Menahem Mendel Beilis]] - victim of a notorious [[blood libel]] case
* [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]] - [[Chabad|Lubavitcher rebe]]
* [[Mike Mazurki]]
* [[Mikhail Fridman]] - Russian businessman and oligarch
* [[Mikhail Turovsky]]
* [[Mila Kunis]] - American actress
* [[Milena Rudnytska]] - educator and [[women's rights]] activist
* [[Moysey Fishbein]]
* [[Nachman of Breslov]] - one of the key figures of Hasidic Judaism
* [[Oleksandr Rojtburd]] - Ukrainian painter
* [[Paul Celan]] - [[German language]] poet of Jewish ethnicity
* [[Petro Vesklyarov]] (born ''Pinchas Wechsler'') - Ukrainian actor
* [[Semion Mogilevich]] - Soviet and Russian [[vor v zakone|criminal boss]]
* [[Shmuel Yosef Agnon]] - Israeli writer
* [[Sholem Aleichem]] - [[Yiddish]] writer and dramatist
* [[Sholem Schwarzbard]] - anarchist activist in the Russian Empire and France
* [[Sholom Secunda]]
* [[Sidor Belarsky]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archives.lib.byu.edu/agents/people/2213|title=Belarsky, Sidor &#124; BYU Library - Special Collections|website=archives.lib.byu.edu}}</ref>
* [[Simon Wiesenthal]] - Holocaust survivor and [[Nazi hunter]]
* [[Sonia Greene]] - American publisher, spouse of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]
* [[Vadym Gutzeit]] - Ukrainian [[fencing|fencer]], Minister of Sport of Ukraine
* [[Vasyl Krychevsky]] - Ukrainian painter and architect (Jewish ancestry on his father's side)
* [[Viktor Pinchuk]] - Ukrainian businessman and oligarch
* [[Viktor Vekselberg]] - Russian businessman and oligarch
* [[Vladimir Drinfeld]]
* [[Volodymyr Groysman]] - [[Prime Minister of Ukraine]] (2016-2019)
* [[Volodymyr Zelenskyy]] - Ukrainian actor, comedian and politician, President of Ukraine (since 2019)
* [[Yakov Smirnoff]]
* [[Yan Frenkel]] - Soviet composer
* [[Yevgeny Tarle]] - Soviet historian
* [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi]] - President of Israel (1952-1963)
* [[Yitzhak Frenkel]]
* [[Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern]] - historian
* [[Yossele Rosenblatt]]
* [[Yukhym Zvyahilsky]] - Ukrainian businessman and politician, acting Prime Minister of Ukraine (1993-1994)
* [[Yulia Tymoshenko]] - Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2005 and 2007-2010 (Jewish ancestry on paternal side)
* [[Yuri Kondratiuk]] - Soviet engineer and mathematician (Jewish ancestry on father's side)
* [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] - [[Zionist]] activist and political leader 
* [[Zuzanna Ginczanka]] - Polish poet
|valign="top"|

===Notable Jews of Ukrainian descent===
* [[Abella Danger]] - American [[adult film]] actress
* [[Alan Rosen (restaurant owner)|Alan Rosen]]
* [[Amy Schumer]]
* [[Beverly Sills]]
* [[Bob Dylan]] - American musician
* [[Boris Pasternak]] - Russian writer and poet
* [[Bruce Blakeman]]
* [[Carl Sagan]]
* [[Chuck Schumer]]
* [[Darren Aronofsky]] - American film director
* [[David Copperfield (illusionist)|David Copperfield]] - American illusionist
* [[David Duchovny]] - American actor and musician
* [[Jonathan Safran Foer]] - American novelist
* [[Erving Goffman]]
* [[Frank Luntz]]
* [[Gary Baseman]]
* [[Irvin Kershner]] - American film director
* [[Jesse Eisenberg]]
* [[Jim Drucker]]
* [[Jon Stewart]]
* [[Joseph Brodsky]] - Russian poet
* [[Judith Resnik]]
* [[Katey Sagal]] - American actress
* [[Korney Chukovsky]] - Soviet children's poet (Jewish ancestry on paternal side)
* [[Leon Pinsker]] - Zionist activist
* [[Leonard Bernstein]]
* [[Leonard Nimoy]] - American actor
* [[Mel Brooks]] - American filmmaker
* [[Mickey Cohen]]
* [[Noam Chomsky]] - American linguist
* [[Paul Wellstone]]
* [[Peter Yarrow]]
* [[Pritzker family]] - American businessmen and philanthropists
* [[Richard M. Sherman]]
* [[Robert B. Sherman]]
* [[Roseanne Barr]]
* [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]
* [[Sheldon Adelson]] - American businessman
* [[Sidney Altman]]
* [[Stan Getz]]
* [[Steven Spielberg]] - American filmmaker
* [[Tina Karol]] - Ukrainian singer (Jewish ancestry on her father's side)
* [[Vitali Klitschko|Vitali]] and [[Wladimir Klitschko|Volodymyr Klitschko]] - Ukrainian boxers and political figures (Jewish ancestry on their father's side)
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|Judaism|Ukraine}}
{{colbegin|colwidth=25em}}
* [[Antisemitism in Europe]]
* [[Racism in Europe]]
* [[Racism in Lithuania]]
* [[Racism in Poland]]
* [[Antisemitism in Russia]]
* [[Racism in Russia]]
* [[Antisemitism in the Soviet Union]]
* [[Racism in the Soviet Union]]
* [[Antisemitism in Ukraine]]
* [[Racism in Ukraine]]
* [[Galician Jews]]
* [[History of the Jews in Carpathian Ruthenia]]
* [[History of the Jews in Europe]]
* [[History of the Jews in Kyiv]]
* [[History of the Jews in Lithuania]]
* [[History of the Jews in Poland]]
* [[History of the Jews in Russia]]
* [[History of the Jews in the Soviet Union]]
* [[Israel–Lithuania relations]]
* [[Israel–Poland relations]]
* [[Israel–Russia relations]]
* [[Soviet Union and the Arab–Israeli conflict]] 
* [[Israel–Ukraine relations]]
* [[Janowska concentration camp]]
* ''[[Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova]]'' (book)
* [[Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee]]
* [[Jewish Cossacks]]
* [[Jewish gauchos]]
* [[Jewish–Ukrainian relations in Eastern Galicia]]
* [[List of Galician Jews]]
* [[List of Polish Jews]]
* [[Lithuanian Jews]]
* [[Lwów Ghetto]]
* [[Lwów Uprising]]
* [[The Holocaust in Lithuania]]
* [[The Holocaust in Poland]]
* [[The Holocaust in Russia]]
* [[The Holocaust in the Soviet Union]]
* [[The Holocaust in Ukraine]]
* [[Three hares]]
* [[Wooden synagogues of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Wooden synagogue]]
* [[Yerusalimka]]
* [[List of synagogues in Ukraine]]
{{colend}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Pinkus |first=Benjamin |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=52Ew77pZsNUC}} |title=The Jews of the Soviet Union: The History of a National Minority |date=1988 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-38926-6 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Levin |first=Nora |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=IRrDQgAACAAJ}}|title=The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917: Paradox of Survival |date=1988 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-5034-6 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Carr |first=Edward Hallett |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=nt_MswEACAAJ}} |title=The Bolshevik Revolution: 1917-1923 |date=1971 |publisher=Penguin Books |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last=Rothenberg |first=Joshua  |chapter=Jewish Religion in the Soviet Union |editor-last1=Kochan |editor-first1=Lionel |title=The Jews in Soviet Russia Since 1917 |date=1970 |location=London |publisher=Institute of Jewish Affairs |url=https://archive.org/details/jewsinsovietruss0000unse |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rothenberg |first=Joshua |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/240873 |title=The Jewish religion in the Soviet Union. |date=1972 |publisher=Ktav Pub. House |isbn=0-87068-156-7 |location=New York |oclc=240873}}
* {{Cite book |last=Schwarz |first=Solomon M. |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=3cZtAAAAMAAJ}} |title=The Jews in the Soviet Union |date=1951 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Baron |first=Salo Wittmayer |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=KbRtAAAAMAAJ}} |title=The Russian Jew Under Tsars and Soviets |date=1976 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-02-507300-5 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |first=Mordechai |last=Altshuler |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/31729141 |title=Distribution of the Jewish population of the USSR 1939 |date=1993 |publisher=Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Centre for Research and Documentation of East-European Jewry |oclc=31729141}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dmytryshyn |first= Basil  |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1022825225 |title=Moscow and the Ukraine : 1918-1953 : a study of Russian Bolshevik nationality policy |date=1956 |publisher=Bookman Associates |oclc=1022825225}}
* {{cite book |last1=Dmytryshyn |first1=Basil |title=U S S R: A Concise History |date=1965 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kih1zQEACAAJ |language=en}}
* {{cite book |title=Jewish Identities in Postcommunist Russia and Ukraine: An Uncertain Ethnicity |last=Gitelman |first= Zvi |year=1993 }}
* {{Citation |last=Sawyer |first=Thomas E. |title=The Jewish Minority in the Soviet Union: Demographic and Cultural Profiles |date=2019-07-11 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429312090-2 |work=The Jewish Minority in the Soviet Union |pages=29–55 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780429312090-2 |isbn=978-0-429-31209-0 |s2cid=211404686 |access-date=2023-02-01|url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book |last=Schechtman |first=J.B. |chapter=The Jews in Soviet Russia |editor-last1=Kochan |editor-first1=Lionel |title=The Jews in Soviet Russia Since 1917 |date=1970 |location=London |publisher=Institute of Jewish Affairs |url=https://archive.org/details/jewsinsovietruss0000unse |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last=Weinryb |first=Bernard Dov |chapter=Antisemitism in Soviet Russia |editor-last1=Kochan |editor-first1=Lionel |title=The Jews in Soviet Russia Since 1917 |date=1970 |location=London |publisher=Institute of Jewish Affairs |url=https://archive.org/details/jewsinsovietruss0000unse |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Weinryb |first=Bernard Dov |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=K2DgBdSCQnsC}}|title=The Jews of Poland: A Social and Economic History of the Jewish Community in Poland from 1100 to 1800 |date=1973 |publisher=Jewish Publication Society |isbn=978-0-8276-0016-4 |language=en}}
* Velychenko, Stephen (2021) ''Ukraine's Revolutions and anti-Jewish Pogroms * (historians.in.ua)''.

==External links==
{{Commons category|History of Judaism in Ukraine}}
* [http://www.chabad.org/centers/default_cdo/country/Ukraine Chabad-Lubavitch Centers in Ukraine]
* [http://www.fjc.ru/ Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080225230804/http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Colonies_of_Ukraine/ Jewish Agricultural Colonies, adjacent towns and villages in Southern Ukraine]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071231150937/http://www.evkol.nm.ru/crimea_settlements_en.htm Jewish Agricultural Colonies of South Ukraine and Crimea webpage with names and maps of Jewish settlements]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110122024614/http://renaissance.jewishagency.org/2010/11/24/jewish-renaissance-in-odessa/ Jewish Renaissance in Odessa]
* [http://jewishhistorylectures.org/2013/02/19/nathan-of-hanover-and-the-ukrainian-revolution-of-1648-1649/ Video of Lecture on Jews of 17th-century Ukraine by Dr. Henry Abramson]
* ''[http://www.rtrfoundation.org/uk1.shtml Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova]'' at Routes to Roots Foundation
* [http://www.rtrfoundation.org/search.php Routes to Roots Foundation's Archive Database] – search includes Ukraine and Moldova
* [http://www.rtrfoundation.org/imagesearch.php Routes to Roots Foundation's Image Database] – search includes Ukraine and Moldova

{{National minorities of Ukraine}}
{{Ukraine topics}}
{{History of the Jews in Europe}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jews In Ukraine (history)}}
[[Category:Jewish Ukrainian history| ]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Ukraine|Jews]]
[[Category:History of religion in Ukraine|Judaism]]
[[Category:Judaism in Ukraine|History]]