Olizarka

Jewish colony Olizarka on the two-verst map of Ukraine 1930

Varash district, Rivne region

Sources:

- Jewish encyclopedia of Brockhaus & Efron;

- The All South-Western Territory: reference and address book of the Kyiv, Podolsk and Volyn provinces. Printing house L.M. Fish and P.E. Wolfson, 1913;

- The volost's and the most important settlements of European Russia. Edition of the Central Statistical Committee. The provinces of Little Russia and Southwest. St. Petersburg, 1885.

- Sara Rozenfeld, My town Olizarka. Memorial book for the towns of Old Rafalowka, New Rafalowka, Olizarka, Zoludzk and vicinity. Edited by Pinhas and Malkah Hagin, Tel Aviv, 1996. Translated by Sara Mages, JewishGen, Inc.

Rivne region - list of settlements and location of objects

Olizarka, 2022

Olizarka was founded in 1849 as a Jewish agricultural colony in the Rafalovsky volost of the Lutsk district of the Volyn province.
In 1919–39 - In the Volyn Voivodeship as part of Poland, since 1939 - as part of the Ukrainian SSR.

In 1849, about 300 Jews lived in Olizarka,
in 1872 - approx. 160,
in 1898 - 254,
in 1906 - 209 (54 yards),
In 1921 - 321 Jews (98.4%).

Initially, 60 relative to wealthy Jewish families settled in the colony on the state lands. The Jews of the colony received a small allowance, but, having no experience in agriculture, as well as working livestock and inventory, soon went bankrupt; many of them left Olizarka.
In 1869 there were 32 families who had 408 acres of land in use.

In 1872, the lustration commission requisition the land of part of the colonists who did not cultivate it.

In 1898, 144 acres of land belonged to Jews, but agriculture was of secondary importance for them. The main occupation of the colonists were crafts. Most of the Jews of Olizarka were masons.

In October 1915, the Jews were expelled from the colony.

In the 1920-30s brunches of various Jewish parties and organizations acted in Olizarka.

In the 1930s the Jew in Olizarka owned one shop; among the Jews there were 3 tailors, 2 shoemakers, 2 tinsmans.

The farms of Olizarka and Zholudsk were combined into an agricultural cooperative.

In the summer of 1941, the Wehrmacht troops occupied Olizarka. In May 1942, the Jews were sent to the ghetto of Rafalovka and on August 29, 1942 they were shot with local Jews.

The territory of the former colony is included in the territory of the village Sukhovolya of Varash district.

Some of the men in town were called “Storks” - “bocianes” in a foreign language. For many years I didn't understand why this nickname was attached to them until one day I received an explanation from my father z”l. “Storks are faithful to their nests even if they wander far. They always return to the roof-their nest.” So were the men of Olizarka, carpenter, tailors, plasterers and builders. In the summer they wandered to the big city to engage in their work and returned home before winter, to the family nest.
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In the center of town - the synagogue which served as a place for prayer, a gathering place for various preachers who occasionally came to our town.
In this synagogue was also the Hebrew School.

Prayers and pleadings emerged from this holy place in the early hours of the morning, and in later hours jubilant singing in Hebrew: “Sham Shualim Yesh” [There are foxes there] or “What's in the box.” This singing in Hebrew, by dozens of children, was the moving spirit that linked between the poverty of the town and the atmosphere of Eretz-Israel.

by Sara Rozenfeld, My town Olizarka