Berdychiv, a mid-size city located 45 minutes from Zhytomyr, has been through many changes since it was first settled in 1430. Over the years, the city was an important trading and financial center, and an important part of Jewish history.
At the end of the 1700's, Jews accounted for 75% of Berdychiv's population of 2,640, working as liquor dealers, merchants, artisans, and clerks; seven Jewish families were granted a monopoly on the cloth trade in the town. At the same time, Berdychiv was becoming an important center for the Hasidim and for the conflict between Hasidim and Mitnagdim. As the city grew over the next century, so did the Jewish population, reaching 46,683 in 1861, making it home to the largest percent of Jewish population in Ukraine and the Russian Empire (exceeding 80%). Although the city fell on hard times when the banking industry moved to the port city of Odessa in 1850, many Jews remained. At the turn of the 20th century there were 80 synagogues in town.
During World War I, the Jews of Berdychiv were spared some of the terrible pogroms that took place in other cities; thanks to the town’s mayor and leader of the Jewish community, thousands of lives were saved. The city changed hands between the Poles and Russians several times in the early 1900s, but many people were killed in the battles. In 1920, while under Russian control, Yiddish language was recognized as an official language in the city, and it was used by the local Ukrainian court. But in the 1930s, just before World War II, the Russians closed all the synagogues and Jewish educational and cultural institutions in Berdychiv. And the city was devastated by the Holodomor famine of 1932-33, that claimed the lives of 2,500 people.
Berdychiv was occupied by the German Army for 2 ½ years, from 1941-1944. A Jewish ghetto was established before all of the residents were killed (estimated to be 30,000). The Soviet novelist, Vasily Grossman, who was from Berdychiv and whose mother was killed by the Nazis, wrote about the horrific events; a copy of his work is at the Yad Vashem museum in Israel.
Gradually over time the Jewish community was rebuilt in Berdychiv. And then on March 22, 2022, in the early days of the ongoing conflict, tragedy struck again when the city was hit by air strikes damaging several buildings and imperiling lives. Over the past 3 years we have worked hard to support the Jewish community there, providing food and other essentials, ensuring medical and social services needs are met, and caring for the elderly. Together we save lives and restore hope.
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