But if Elizabeth Petrovana thought she had succeeded in cleansing her kingdom of every last trace of Jewish blood until the end of time, she was mistaken. Just a few decades later, Russia would be home not to thousands of Jews but to millions.
Partition and Beyond
By the early 1770s, the once powerful Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was on the decline. Neighboring countries took advantage of the situation and during the years 1772-1775 the Commonwealth was divided between the Hapsburg Monarchy, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Russian Empire, which received the eastern lands that today comprise the states of Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Poland. Along with the land, the Russian Empire acquired the millions of Jews living on them.
Native Russians greeted the influx of so many skilled artisans and merchants with alarm. Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, therefore issued an edict not of expulsion but of exclusion. In December 1791, she authorized the creation of the Pale of Settlement, an area in the western part of the empire. All Jews were required to live within the boundaries of the Pale. Only those who had received an exemption – master artisans, soldiers, some academics, for example – were allowed to live and work outside its boundaries.
Other restrictions were placed upon the Jews, and during the nineteenth century the Pale became known for its extreme poverty. Bloody pogroms were also an all-too-common occurrence. Yet if the people lacked for material things, the Pale was spiritually rich. Within the borders of the Pale, Chassidut and the Mussar movements flourished, as did the Litvishe yeshiva world. Chesed and tzedakah organizations raised funds to buy clothing for the poor and marry off destitute young women. Money was also raised to provide the poor with their holiday needs, support the local shuls and yeshivas, and maintain the chevrei kadisha.
The Pale was abolished in the spring of 1917, after the Russian Revolution. But even though it no longer exists as a geographical entity, the Pale still has an enduring place in the Jewish psyche.
Beyond the 20th Century
During World War II, Ukrainians were notorious for collaborating with the Nazis – some 900,000 Jews were murdered during the war – and anti-Jewish sentiment continued during the post-war years.
After Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, a revival of Jewish life began. But the new hostilities between Russia and Ukraine that began in 2014 have made at least some of Ukraine’s 100,000 Jews seriously consider leaving – although since this is a kehillah that has defied expulsions and pogroms for more than a thousand years, it’s unlikely that they will all be leaving any time soon.
