Bershad
Vinnitsa Region
BERSHAD, small town in Vinnitsa district, Ukraine.
Jews started to settle there at the end of the 16th century. They were butchered by one of the Cossack bands during the Chmielnicki massacres, and in the 18th century by the Haidamak gangs.
The community numbered 438 in 1765; 650 in 1787; 3,370 in 1847; 6,600 (out of a total of 8,885) according to the 1897 census; and 7,400 (61%) in 1910.
At the beginning of the 19th century, when the Tsaddik Raphael of Bershad lived there, Bershad became a center of Hasidism.
It became celebrated for its tallit weaving industry which came to an end after many of the weavers immigrated to the United States. Most of the plants for sugar refining and distilling, flour mills, and tanneries established in Bershad toward the end of the century were owned by Jews. Of the town's 175 artisans, 163 were Jewish.
During the civil war of 1919–20, 150 Jews in Bershad were massacred by Ukrainian gangs and soldiers of Denikin's army.
In 1926 they numbered 7,016 (total population 11,847), dropping to 4,271 in 1939. During this period, under the Soviets, many Jews worked in artisan cooperatives, some of which later developed into factories; about 20% of the Jews were blue-collar workers and clerks, and 20% were unemployed. A Yiddish high school had 621 students.
Bershad was occupied by the Germans and Romanians on July 29, 1941, and included in Transnistria on September 1. A ghetto was established in the town and 25,000 Jews deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina were sent there. Many died of hunger and disease as up to 25 people were packed into a room.
By August 1942, 10,000 Jews remained. The situation improved after financial aid arrived from Jewish organizations in Bucharest. A hospital, pharmacy, soup kitchen, and orphanage were opened. Local Jews organized an armed underground and later took to the forest and joined Soviet partisan units.
The Jews numbered 2,200 in 1959 and 553 in 1993. There was a synagogue, and both a rabbi and kosher poultry were available.
Jews started to settle there at the end of the 16th century. They were butchered by one of the Cossack bands during the Chmielnicki massacres, and in the 18th century by the Haidamak gangs.
The community numbered 438 in 1765; 650 in 1787; 3,370 in 1847; 6,600 (out of a total of 8,885) according to the 1897 census; and 7,400 (61%) in 1910.
At the beginning of the 19th century, when the Tsaddik Raphael of Bershad lived there, Bershad became a center of Hasidism.
It became celebrated for its tallit weaving industry which came to an end after many of the weavers immigrated to the United States. Most of the plants for sugar refining and distilling, flour mills, and tanneries established in Bershad toward the end of the century were owned by Jews. Of the town's 175 artisans, 163 were Jewish.
During the civil war of 1919–20, 150 Jews in Bershad were massacred by Ukrainian gangs and soldiers of Denikin's army.
In 1926 they numbered 7,016 (total population 11,847), dropping to 4,271 in 1939. During this period, under the Soviets, many Jews worked in artisan cooperatives, some of which later developed into factories; about 20% of the Jews were blue-collar workers and clerks, and 20% were unemployed. A Yiddish high school had 621 students.
Bershad was occupied by the Germans and Romanians on July 29, 1941, and included in Transnistria on September 1. A ghetto was established in the town and 25,000 Jews deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina were sent there. Many died of hunger and disease as up to 25 people were packed into a room.
By August 1942, 10,000 Jews remained. The situation improved after financial aid arrived from Jewish organizations in Bucharest. A hospital, pharmacy, soup kitchen, and orphanage were opened. Local Jews organized an armed underground and later took to the forest and joined Soviet partisan units.
The Jews numbered 2,200 in 1959 and 553 in 1993. There was a synagogue, and both a rabbi and kosher poultry were available.
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| Such was the Great Synagogue Bershad | House in the Jewish quarter | Former Jewish street | |
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| Memorial on the site of the ghetto |
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| For the first time in Bershad we got just that. 1998) | Small but lovely Catholic church | Monument in the center | |
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| The building of the former Jewish school | |||
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| It is the only preserved of all synagogues of Bershad | It is now operating | Interior for 100 years has not changed | |
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| The treatise of the Babylonian Talmud | 1882! | Preserved Torah | |
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| In the old Jewish cemetery |
Bershad, 2009, 2015
More detail you can read on the Russian-language version of the site, as the English version in the process of finalizing
My shtetl
My shtetl
Jewish towns of Ukraine
Jewish towns of Ukraine