History of Jewish Yekaterinoslav-Dnipro

By Sarah Millspaugh, Fall 2024

The unique and dramatic history of the Jewish community of Dnipro, Ukraine begins with the Empress’s invitation to settle and work in the city, and culminates in a late 20th- and early 21st-century resurgence of Jewish life. For the latter half of the 19th century into the early 20th century, Yekaterinoslav was a relatively beneficial city for the Jews of Russia: a place of community, economic opportunity, and explicit welcome. Jews continued living there through revolutions and the rise of the USSR. Even after the Nazi occupation and the Holocaust, surviving Jews returned (or migrated) to the city and rebuilt their lives. 

Since Ukraine’s independence, the Jewish community has thrived once again in Dnipro, now the fourth-largest city in Ukraine. This brief history focuses on points of interest for genealogists, with links to resources for deeper exploration.

Ekaterinoslav: The Empress’s New City

During the reign of Russia’s empress Catherine the Great (Catherine II), Russia colonized newly-conquered lands in what it called “New Russia” (Novorussia.) Along the Dnipro River, the Crown established a new city in 1787 and named it in her honor: “The Glory of Catherine,” or in Russian, “Ekaterinoslav.”  

The city’s first Jews came from Western Ukraine, and the Jewish population grew rapidly along with the city. The authors of the Dnipro Yizkor Book, translated on JewishGen, share a chart of the city’s growth from 376 Jewish residents in 1802 to 40,971 in 1897. By the 19th century, 37% of Yekaterinoslav’s population was Jewish.

Jewish people migrated to Ekaterinoslav in waves: first from other locations in what is now Ukraine (such as Galicia), then from Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and other governorates (gubernias) of the Russian Pale of Settlement. Their settlement in Ekaterinoslav was encouraged by Russian authorities, along with that of ethnic Russians and Germans. Notably, Jews who settled there were Litvaks and Galitzianers alike. The new migrants joined the native Ukrainians in the multiethnic and multilingual city, with Russian as its official language. 

Mr. I. Goldbrot’s section in the Dnipro Yizkor Book describes the 19th-century city this way: 

The area where the Ekaterinoslav Jews lived was a place of new settlements, mostly free of prejudice, a place that encouraged private initiative and provided a good chance to attain material success. The Jews that arrived there were energetic, adapted quickly to the new conditions, and their economic situation improved constantly. They created a new type of a proud and self-conscious Jew, who kept his connection with Judaism and at the same time adapted to world-manners and the Russian culture.

Industry and Trades

Ekaterinoslav was truly an Industrial Revolution city, with factories locating there from the start. Catherine the Great envisioned establishing twelve factories in her new city; however, she started off with just two. In 1792 she decreed that a cloth factory from Dubrovny and a silk hosiery factory from Kupavna would be transferred to Ekaterinoslav. The serfs who worked in those factories moved to the city as well. (Jewish people were not classified as serfs in the Russian Empire.) 

The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia declared that Yekaterinoslav’s Jews “are actively identified with the trades and industries of the city, about one-third of the entire Jewish population (2,388 families; in all 11,157 persons) deriving its income from commercial pursuits, and another third (2,712 master artisans and 480 apprentices) being engaged in industrial occupations.” 

The encyclopedia, enumerates the success of many Jewish craftspeople and entrepreneurs:

The city has more than thirty shops and factories, mainly grist-mills, lumber-mills, foundries, machine-shops, and tobacco-factories. Almost all of these establishments are owned by Jews, but the number of Jewish factory employees is comparatively low, although in one cigarette-paper factory and in one tobacco-factory the workmen are all Jews. [Out of about approximately 36,000 Jews] there are 847 Jewish day-laborers, mainly drivers, porters, etc.

The YIVO Encyclopedia adds that the Jews of the city were also involved in “the free professions [as well as] services, especially tailoring, shoemaking, jewelry, and furniture production.” Metalworking is also named in several sources as a notable area of employment for Jewish craftsmen in the city. 

Yekaterinoslav’s economy grew with the new railroad in 1884, which connected the iron mines of Krivoy-Rog with the anthracite mines of Donbas. More Jews moved to the city from places like Moscow and Rostov-on-Don that disallowed Jewish residents. 

It should be noted that men weren’t the only ones working outside the home. The 1897 Census showed Jewish women working for pay as merchants, domestics, and shopkeepers. 

Yekaterinoslav Jewish Agricultural Colonies

Jewish people also moved to the city of Yekaterinoslav in the second half of the 19th century because life in the nearby Jewish agricultural towns had become unsustainable. Beginning around 1850, many Jewish families migrated south from economically-struggling areas in Belarus and Latvia to settle farming communities with the Russian government’s encouragement and blessing. These Jewish Agricultural Colonies were part of Russia’s efforts to colonize Ukraine. Several of those small towns were located in Yekaterinoslav Gubernia. 

Even if you think your Jewish family was from the city of Yekaterinoslav, it’s quite possible they lived in the agricultural colonies at some point. It may be why they came to the area. 

The Growth of Jewish Institutions

Jewish residents of Yekaterinoslav began building Jewish institutions as the community enlarged. According to the YIVO Encyclopedia, they built the city’s first synagogue around 1800. From there, as the Jewish population increased exponentially, they founded schools, charitable organizations, and social and cultural groups. 

I. Goldbrat writes in the city’s Yizkor Book, 

In the [eighteen] sixties and seventies, several of the important community institutions were established: The ‘Great Synagogue’ on the ‘Jewish Street’ which later turned into the ‘Choral Temple’ with a permanent cantor and chorus; the Jewish Hospital, at first with 20 beds, which expanded fast; [and] a Home for the Aged (in 1880).... In 1871 the Association Maskil-El-Dal was founded, its function being to give support to the poor, in particular those who came from other places, so that they would not wander in the streets of the town.

Civic Participation in the Czarist Era

Before the Communist Revolution, Jewish participation and representation in local government was limited by laws concerning Jews and their particular roles and rights—or lack thereof—in the Pale of Settlement. 

Beginning in 1827, Jewish men were drafted to serve in the Russian military. Some were brought in as young as age 12 to begin 25 years of military service. Jews served in the Russian army at a slightly higher rate than did the general Russian population. Avoidance or abandonment of military service plays a role in the emigration stories of many Jewish men and their families. 

In the 19th Century, the Jews of Yekaterinoslav participated in the city’s civic life as fully as Russian empire law would allow. The city was viewed as a relatively good Russian Pale city for Jewish people’s level of acceptance and quality of life. As the Yizkor Book’s history reports, Yekaterinoslav Jews were fairly integrated with non-Jews in the city. 

[Jews had] contact with the non-Jewish population… mainly in the area of economics, and part of the Jewish intelligentsia, merchants and industrialists would meet with their Christian colleagues at the various common societies, institutions, charity events and other public gatherings. The Jewish influence in the local press merits mentioning as well; many of the reporters, editors and writers were Jewish and readers even more. The press discussed the Jewish problem in general and showed interest in the affairs of the Community and its institutions.

As the Zionist movement spread to Jewish Ukraine, a significant number of Yekaterinoslav’s Jews got involved. Israel Klausner writes in the Dnipro Yizkor Book that the pogroms of the early 1880s inspired the 1884 formation of the Yekaterinoslav Association of Hovevei Zion, a group that would support emigration to Palestine. The Association held its own events and fundraising activities, even supporting a trip to Eretz Israel. Alexander Bystryakov writes in detail about the Zionist movement in Yekaterinoslav in "Notes on Jewish History." 

As revolutionary ideals began to take hold in the 20th century, Jewish socialists organized in the Bund: the General Union of Jewish Workers as well as Poale Zion: the Jewish Social Democratic Workers Party. In a large and diverse city like Yekaterinoslav, Jewish citizens held a wide range of views about how to live as Jews with freedom, rights, dignity, and equality. While Zionists advocated for emigration to the Middle East, members of the Bund advocated for democracy and socialism in Europe. Poale Zion members advocated for both socialism and Jewish nationalism. The three groups disagreed about how to resolve the predicaments of Jewish life in the Pale, but when it came to protecting the Jewish community from violence in 1905, they were united.