PODOLIA, region in S.W. Ukraine; formerly a region of S.E. Poland, passing to Russia in 1793. The history of the Jews in the region was largely dominated by its position as a border territory between Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire. *Medzibozh, the most ancient community in Podolia, is first mentioned in 1518. On the eve of the Union of Lublin between Lithuania and Poland (1569), there were at least 750 Jews living in nine communities of Podolia, about half of them in Medzibozh. Under Polish rule Jews took part in the settlement of Podolia, though not at the same pace and extent as in neighboring regions. In many places the settlement of Jews met with opposition on the ground that their presence as a foreign element was undesirable in the vicinity of the Ottoman Empire (see *Kamenets-Podolski). In 1639 Jews of Podolia were granted the right to have lawsuits with Christians tried before the provincial governor (wojewoda). There were then 18 communities in the region, of which the most important were *Nemirov, *Tulchin, *Bar, and Medzibozh. Yom Tov Lippmann *Heller was rabbi in Nemirov.
On the eve of the *Chmielnicki uprising of 1648 there were 4,000 Jews in Podolia. During this period numbers of Jews were massacred in Nemirov, Tulchin, Bar, and other communities. Thousands of Jews from Podolia and other regions of Ukraine took refuge in the fortified city of Kamenets-Podolski, where in ordinary times Jewish residence was forbidden.
Under Ottoman rule in Podolia (1672–99) the Jews enjoyed the same rights and protection as the rest of the Jews in the empire. With the return of Polish rule in Podolia, their situation again deteriorated, and it was only in 1713 that they regained the right to bring lawsuits before the provincial governor. In 1765 the Jews of Podolia numbered 38,365. Some communities of northern and eastern Podolia suffered severely at the hands of the *Haidamacks.
With the first partition of Poland in 1772, the region of "Red Russia," where about one-third of Podolian Jewry lived, was annexed by Austria and became an integral part of *Galicia. In 1787 there were 25,438 Jews in the rest of Podolia living in about 60 towns and 853 villages. The Jews there at the time earned their livelihood by trading as innkeepers, and especially by *arenda, which was almost entirely in Jewish hands. The proximity of Podolia to the territories dominated by Turkey, and the commercial relations between the Jews and their coreligionists in the Balkans and Turkey, resulted in the spread of kabbalistic teachings in Podolia during the 16th century, and subsequently in the success of the movement of *Shabbetai Ẓevi and its aftermath. The *Frankist movement originated in Podolia. The disputation with the Frankists forced on the rabbis of Podolia by the Frankist leaders in 1757 resulted in the burning of the books of the Talmud (see *Talmud, Burning of), seized from the communities throughout Podolia, in Kamenets-Podolski. Podolia was also the cradle of Ḥasidism. *Israel Ba'al Shem Tov lived and died in Medzibozh. Many ḥasidic leaders, including *Naḥman of Bratslav, set up their "courts" in its towns.
When Podolia passed to Russia in 1793 the administrative province of Podolia was established, which at first had a Jewish population of 16,687. The Jews formed the majority of merchants and townsmen in the province throughout the 19th century. There were 165,000 Jews in Podolia in 1847 and an estimated 418,458 in 1881. During Passover of 1882, *pogroms broke out in *Balta and the surrounding villages, accompanied by murder and rape. Subsequently the number of Jews in Podolia declined, mainly due to the *May Laws 1882 which restricted Jewish economic activity in the villages, and to the retardation of industry and commerce in Podolia. Thousands of Jews emigrated to the provinces of New Russia and Bessarabia, as well as overseas. In 1897 Podolia was the only province whose Jewish population had decreased in comparison with the figures for 1881. The Jews then numbered 370,612 (12.3% of the total population), with a proportion of 100 men to 106 women (compared with 101 women in the neighboring province of *Kherson and 102.8 in Bessarabia). There were 88 communities with over 1,000 Jews in Podolia, including Kamenets-Podolski, Balta, *Mogilev, *Vinnitsa, *Proskurov, Tulchin, *Bershad, Medzibozh, *Chmielnik, Bar, Bogopol, *Krivoye Ozero, and Nemirov. About 55,000 Jews lived in villages. Approximately 47% of Podolia Jewry was engaged in commerce (compared with 38.6% of the Jews in the whole of Russia) and 30% in crafts and industry (35.4% in the whole of Russia). About 7,000 Jews (2%) were engaged in agriculture in Podolia, almost half of them in 16 Jewish settlements.
During the civil war in Russia (1918–21) Podolia was among the regions which suffered most severely. Pogroms began with the retreat of the Ukrainian army through Podolia before the advancing Red Army, fomented by Ukrainian army units, bands of peasants who rebelled against the Soviet regime, and units of the White Army commanded by A.I. *Denikin. Massacres took place in Proskurov and Felshtin (Gvardeyskoye) in February 1919. Up to the end of 1921, 162 pogroms occurred in 52 localities of Podolia, 125 by the Ukrainians, 28 by the White Army, and nine by the Poles. The total number of victims has been estimated at about 3,700. The most sinister pogroms (after Proskurov and Felshtin) took place in Trostyanets (with 342 dead), *Bratslav (where pogroms occurred 11 times), and *Litin. The small Jewish settlements in the villages
Under Communist rule Jewish communal life ceased and the position of the Jews of Podolia was the same as that of the rest of Russian Jewry. In the 1920s Jews in Podolia organized cells of *He-Ḥalutz and other secret Zionist youth movements. In 1925 a petition for the right to study Hebrew, signed by thousands of Jewish children in Podolian towns and townlets, was presented to the authorities. The Jewish population in 1926 numbered 347,481 in the seven regions which comprised the former province of Podolia (and some smaller areas outside it).
Holocaust and Contemporary Periods
During World War II, after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, they ceded the greater part of Podolia to the Romanians. The whole of the area between the Dniester and Bug rivers extending to the Black Sea (including Odessa) became known as *Transnistria. The northwestern part of Podolia (including Kamenets-Podolski) was included in the General-Kommissariat Volhynien-Podolien. The Germans systematically murdered the Jews who did not succeed in escaping eastward, in a series of massacres which continued until the end of 1942. The region of Transnistria became a center for the concentration of the 120,000 Jews expelled from *Bessarabia, *Bukovina, and other parts of Romania, who were segregated in the ghettos set up in Mogilev, *Shargorod, Bershad, Tulchin, Balta, and other towns.
At the time of the liberation of Transnistria by the Red Army in the spring of 1944, there were some 60,000 Jews in the region, of whom 15,000 had lived there before the German occupation, while the remainder were from Romania. In 1970 there were still many thousands of Jews living in Podolia but their exact number is unknown. There was apparently no Jewish communal life except for small groups of worshipers connected with local synagogues. In the 1990s many Jews immigrated to Israel and the West.
M.N. Litinski, Sefer Korot Podolya ve-Kadmoniyyot ha-Yehudim (1895); Ettinger, in: Zion, 21 (1956), 107–42; Pogrom Korbones in Podolia 1918–1921, Bleter far yiddishe Demographie, Statistik un Ekonomik, 4 (1929), 290; A.D. Rosenthal, Megillat ha-Tevaḥ, 3 vols. (1927–31); Reshumot, 3 (1923), 60–131, 157–214; 264–310, 356–446; A. Gumener, A Kapitl Ukraine (1921); M. Carp, Transnistria (Yid., 1950); M. Carp, Cartea Neagră, 3 (1947) [Transnistria (Rom.)]; M. Osherovitch, Geshikhtes fun Mayn Lebn (1945); R. Feigenberg, Nava-Nad (1942); A. Friman, 1919 (Heb., 1968).
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.