Pervomaisk, a city of 62,000 people, is located in the Mykolaiv Region in the Southern part of Ukraine, along the Bug River. It started out as three separate settlements in the 18th century: Olviopol, Holta and Pervomaisk: the Olviopol settlement belonged to the Russian Empire, Holta belonged to Turkey, and Bogopol belonged to Poland. Jews have lived in the city since the late 1700s.
By the early 1900s, there was a well-established Jewish community with seven synagogues, a cemetery, schools, a library, and more. Jews owned the town’s only hotel, a barbershop, all three groceries and two butchers. Pogroms in 1905 substantially damaged the community, with people injured and killed, and extensive property damage and looting. But the Jews remained and rebuilt.
On May 1, 1919, at a general meeting of Olviopol, Bogopol, and Holta residents, in honor of International Workers’ Day, the decision was made to create the combined city of Pervomaisk. In 1924, the city was home to 10,000 Jews. By the time the Nazi’s invaded in 1941, the number had dropped to 6,000, just under 20% of the population. The large majority of Jewish men, women and children were killed before the city was liberated on March 22, 1944.
After the war, 2,000 Jews returned to Pervomaisk. In the 1990s, Jews began emigrating in large numbers to Israel, the United States, and Germany. In 1997, when Rabbi Shalom Gotleib arrived to rebuild and rejuvenate the Pervomaisk Jewish community, approximately 1,000 Jews remained.
Today, the community has a synagogue, a soup kitchen, organizations for kids and teens, and many services for the elderly. For the past several years, we have been providing food, clothing, medicine, and more to many people in need. Families like those of 3-year-old Eva, her baby sister, and her mother. The father is away serving his country, so they live with Eva’s grandmother and her uncle, who is sick and suffers from cerebral palsy. We are preparing to distribute food parcels and gift boxes to them and tens of thousands of others for the holidays, as well as backpacks filled with school supplies. It is an honor and a privilege to support the Jews in Pervomaisk and throughout Ukraine.
Together we save lives and restore hope.
