While almost 60 percent of Ukraine’s Jews perished during the Holocaust, about 1.5 million souls, some historians point out that a survival rate of 40 percent is unusual. In comparison, about 90 percent of Poland’s Jews were murdered. In both Lithuania and Latvia, the survival rate was only about 15 percent. Despite the tensions that had existed between Ukrainians and Jews for centuries, there were many individuals who hid Jews during the war. Those who became part of this rescue network did so knowing they were putting their lives and the lives of their families at risk. Sometimes an entire village was burned down as punishment for hiding a Jew.
Under Soviet Rule and Independence
After the war, Ukrainian Jews who tried to return home and reclaim their lost property were often met with violence. The continued crackdown on the Jewish religion and Yiddish culture, along with the government’s anti-Zionist policy, contributed to the formation of the Refusenik movement. Thus, when the Soviet government lifted its ban on emigration during the 1970s, about 250,000 Soviet Jews immigrated to the West, with most of them going to either Israel or the United States.
The government closed its doors during the 1980s. But by the end of 1991, Ukraine had become an independent country.
Although most Jews chose to leave Ukraine, rather than become a part of the new state, about 100,000 Jews did remain. Under the leadership of Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, an American-born member of the Karlin-Stolin Chassidic dynasty who became chief rabbi of Ukraine in 1990, Kiev’s Jews rebuilt their community. While about half of Ukraine’s Jews live in Kiev, there are also large communities in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Odessa.
The 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, which pitted advocates of a closer integration into Europe with those who wanted closer relations with Russia, led to rioting within Ukraine and Russian military intervention in the east, including the Russian takeover of Crimea. The conflict has also had a devastating impact on the Ukrainian economy.
It has also created a new generation of refugees—Jews fleeing the war-torn east. While local Jews and worldwide Jewish organizations have banded together to help provide the refugees with food and temporary shelter, it’s now apparent that long-term solutions are needed. To that end, Kiev’s Jewish community has just embarked on a new initiative to build a shtetl-style residential community, complete with housing for 80 refugee families, a synagogue and a Jewish school. The name of the project: Anatevka, after the name the creators of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof gave to the fictional home of Shalom Aleichem’s most popular literary creation, Tevye the Milkman.
Meanwhile, the Jewish population of Ukraine continues to drop. Almost 6,000 Jews made aliyah in 2014. With no end in sight to Ukraine’s current round of economic and political unrest, it’s expected that 2015 will be another banner year for aliyah. After all, even Tevye left Anatevka in the end.
