History
Early History
The Shepetovka area was inhabited in the Neolithic era (10,000 - 5,000 BC), as stone tools have been uncovered from this time. A nearby burial mound, bronze axes that are about 2,500 years old.
The town may have been named after an early settler, as there are seven settlements in Ukraine with names that are derivative of the word "shepet."
The earliest report of Jewish settlement in the general area was in 1288, but settlement may have started in the previous century. It was under czarist rule until annexed into Lithuania in the 15th century. In 1495, the grand duke of Lithuania expelled all Jews from the country, but then authorized their return. The area fell under Polish rule in 1569, and the Jewish community in the area grew as a result of positive conditions. In the mid to late 1500s, Shepetovka was part of an area granted to Prince Konstantyn Ostrogski, a military leader, in recognition of his service. He invited Jews, as well as Tatars and Poles to settle in the area. Under Polish rule, Jews received legal status, and the area became a hub of Jewish culture. Jews were engaged in commerce and a variety of crafts. Craftsmen were organized into guilds, including shoemakers, barrel-makers, and furriers. By the late 16th century, the Jewish population increasingly engaged in inn-keeping, property leasing, and tax collection, which resulted in friction with the local population.
Conditions changed in 1648. At that time, the Cossacks, wanting to free Ukraine from Polish domination, began a rebellion led by Chmielnicki, which resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Jews. The military success of the Cossacks culminated in the fall of the fortress of Polonnye, a town just a few miles from Shepetovka. Shepetovka itself suffered from a great fire, the town fell into decay, and most of the remnant Jewish population fled the area.
The population began to recover in the late 17th century; in the late 1670s there were about 20,000 Jews in the province, while 52,000 were counted in 1765. Shepetovka itslef, according the the Evreiskaia Entsiklopedia (in Russian) had 360 Jews in 1765, 1,042 in 1847, and 3,880 in 1897.
The 18th century was marked by a series of rebellions and invasions of Cossacks, Poles, Swedes, and Russians, along with an outbreak of plague and a series of fires, and frequent blood libels. In the region, raising of horse and sheep became bigger industries, as well as dress-making and sugar refining.
In the mid-1800s, the estate passed into the hands of Prince Alfred Potocki, a Polish nobleman. Potocki modernized agriculture in the area, and established textile and sugar factories.
In 1854, a sugar-house was built, and a railroad station was completed in 1872. In the latter half of the 19th century, railroad tracks for five lines were built, connecting Shepetovka to other major cities and manufacturing centers. This brought rapid economic growth and the establishment of new industries, including construction materials. There was a weekly open market and town fairs four times a year. Shepetovka also became a postal and telegraph center.
During the 1905-07 revolution, there was a strike of railway workers. Soviet power began in 1918.
Photo of Shepetovka Torah Ark - S. An'Sky, 1912-14
Gravestones of Rav Pinchas Shapira (Pinchas of Koretz) and his sons, located in the Shepetovka cemetery
Hasidism
Hasidism caught fire in eastern Europe in the late 18th century, and Shepetovka had a front row seat. Hasidism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and mysticism. It was founded by Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1698-1760), who became known as the Baal Shem Tov ("Besht"). He was from the Podolia region, an area about 100 miles southeast of Shepetovka. His fame as a healer spread among Jews and non-Jews in the area. The Besht settled in Medzbybizh Ukraine, about 50 miles from Shepetovka. He traveled extensively throughout the region and had numerous followers and disciples. Three of them are particularly relevant to Shepetovka.
Rabbi Dov-Baer ben Avraham, who was widely known as the Maggid (preacher) was born around 1710 in Mezhyrichi, about 30 miles northwest of Shepetovka. Dov-Baer was an independent thinker and had a powerful personality. He became influential in the Volhynia region. He became the successor to the Baal Shem Tov after the leader's death in 1760. Dov-Baer had many followers who came to study with him. By the 1730s, the majority of Jews in the Ukraine, Galicia, and central Poland were Hasidic. Physical limitations prevented Dov-Baer from traveling around the region, so his home became the center of pilgrimage for those seeking his counsel. He had numerous disciples, which he assigned to territories to spread the movement. Dov- Baer died in 1772 and is buried in Mezeritch.
Another leading rabbi was R. Pinchas of Korets. Korets is about 30 miles northeast of Shepetovka. Rabbi Pinchas was a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. He lived in terrible poverty. People visited him regularly, seeking his guidance, requesting his support, asking for his prayers, and beseeching his blessing. The flow of visitors to this door became a daily flood of personal stories and requests for help. He determined to emigrate to Palestine, but died in Shepetovka in 1790 at the beginning of his trip. For more information on Rabbi Pinchas of Korets, visit this site.
Finally, there was Rabbi Shimshon of Shepetovka, a student of both Rabbi Dov Baer of Mezeritch and Rabbi Pinchas of Korets. He was a celebrated talmudist and served as rabbi of Shepetovka and other towns. His reputation for scholarship advanced the cause of Hasidism among rabbis and scholars. He moved to Israel in 1799 and settled in Tiberias, where he was buried after his death in 1801.
Other key leaders of the movement lived in Polonnoye, a few miles from Shepetovka and Sudilkov, the next town over which is now contiguous with Shepetovka.
The Shepetovka synagogue (depicted on the home page) was built during the Hasidic period, likely in the late 17th or early 18th century.
Sources for this brief historical synopsis are the Encyclopedia Judaica and Wikipedia. Additions and corrections are welcome by this web page developer.
Emigration
By 1880, a large-scale Zionist movement had developed in Volhynia with the organization of the Bund and Zionist (Hovevei Zion) parties. This was at least partly in response to a series of pogroms that broke out across the Pale of Settlement in these years. The pogroms were brutal and violent campaigns that featured the burning of synagogues, businesses, and homes, as well as assaults and murders. There is no record of pogroms in the immediate area of Shepetovka, but they did occur in towns as close as Zhitomer and other nearby communities.
Jews also became subject to compulsory military duty, with conscription periods of up to 25 years. Jews were more likely to be conscripted than others, and were treated harshly in the Russian army. World War I, the pogroms of 1915, the Russian revolution, and the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 brought more violence to the Jewish population.
Population growth, forced relocations, and government restriction on Jewish occupations caused very difficult living conditions for Jews in the Pale. All these factors led to an increasing desire to emigrate. Most emigrants came to the United States, initially because of help provided by American relief agencies, and later to reunite with relatives and friends. Each wave of pogroms prompted a new flight from the Pale to the US, Israel, and western Europe. Annual emigration numbers from Eastern Europe looked like this:
Period Number of Emigrants Per Year
1830 - 1870 1,000 - 4,000
1871 - 1880 8,000 - 10,000
1881 - 1890 50,000 - 60,000
1901 - 1914 150,000 - 160,000
In all, about 2.5 million Jews left Eastern Europe, of which 2 million went to the United States. Sizable numbers also went to Canada, Israel, England, France, and Argentina. Controversy existed between the Hovevei Zion(Lovers of Zion), who believed that independent existence of the people was only possible in their ancient homeland, and the Am Olam (Love the World) group, who felt that emigrating to the US and other free countries was the best way to go.
The Interwar Years
In 1917, the Russian tsar was overthrown by socialist revolutionaries, and the region faced four years of civil war involving numerous governmental and political forces. Ethnic Ukrainians were searching for greater autonomy from Russia, German forces were aligning with Russia, Polish forces were trying to assert greater autonomy within Polish-dominated parts of Ukraine, and western forces were involved in Europe in the latter part of the First World War. Ukrainian and Polish forces formed an alliance to overturn Bolshevik control, but ultimately the Bolsheviks prevailed. During this time of turmoil, Jews were attacked in pogroms in towns across the region. One such pogrom in Shepetovka in 1919 resulted in loss of life and property, further stoking desires to emigrate. According to a JDC report, six Jews were killed, 20 wounded, and ten women violated in 1919. All Jewish homes were robbed. The report notes the loss of jobs in the afterwar period as various mills and shops had closed. The JDC offered relief to the citizens of Shepetovka during this time, including establishment a kitchen to feed 250 children and a school for the same.
Raising the Red Flag over Shepetovka
Source: The Miriam Weiner archives
Shepetivka was officially incorporated as a city in 1923.
Emigration from Shepetovka and other parts of the Pale of Settlement continued in the early interwar years, but slowed significantly by 1925 due to restrictions on both emigration and immigration. In 1924, the United States enacted the Immigration Quota Law which severely restricted the number of immigrants. It also established a "National Origins" system, dictating that the distribution of immigrants be distributed to people of nationalities in proportion to the number of their landsmen residing in the US in 1890. The result was to slow immigration from eastern Europe into the United States to a trickle.
Communication between immigrants and their relatives in eastern Europe indicates a time of difficult conditions and significant hardships. If you have letters from Shepetovka during this time period that you would like to share, please contact this web page developer. Anecdotally, it seems that emigrants from Shepetovka often went initially to Poland to get their documents in order and assemble adequate financing for their journeys. At that time, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society had a strong presence in Warsaw. HIAS helped secure ship tickets and also facilitated communication with relatives in the US to obtain proper financing. They also helped with food and lodging during the wait.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (the JDC or "the Joint") provided assistance to numerous Jewish communities in the Soviet bloc during the interwar years and beyond. Often they worked with Landsmanschaft, or emigrant communities in the United States who wished to help their brethren in the old country. The JDC archives include a 1923 letter acknowledging the receipt of food aid and a 1923 report on Shepetivka. During this time, landsmen from Shepetovka living in the United States, particularly in the Boston area, worked through the JDC to raise funds for poverty relief and for various projects in Shepetovka.
According to Shepetovka emigree Louis Greenberg (as provided by his step-grandson Aaron Glassman), a Jewish elementary school was established in 1927, with the consent of the Soviet government. Enrollment was 300 students by 1933. Mr. Greenberg's memories of the town and his history of the town can be viewed on the Stories and Memorabilia page.
World War II and the Holocaust
Germany invaded Russia on June 22, 1941 in Operation Barbarossa. The invasion was swift and forceful, leaving many residents trapped and overcome. Shepetovka was occupied in early July 1941. The situation quickly became very grim. Hundreds of people were shot to death over the summer of 1941. The Germans murdered people, destroyed many homes and businesses, and set the synagogue of nearby Sudilkov on fire. The remaining Jews from Shepetovka and Sudilkov were then confined to an overcrowded ghetto in the central part of Shepetovka. These grim and often fatal conditions persisted until June or July of 1942. At that time, the Germans formed Einsatzgruppen, or killing squads, to carry out German orders to execute communist officials, Jews, politicians, and other categories of people. Einsatzgrup C was deployed to Volhynia, where they conducted mass murders, including the slaughter of 33,000 Jews at the ravine of Babi Yar in Kiev. In Shepetovka, there were three mass shootings in the surrounding forests, killing nearly the entire Jewish population of those towns. This devastation was echoed in hundreds of other communities in the Soviet Union. By the spring of 1943, when Germans began their retreat from Soviet areas, the Einsatzgrupen had murdered an estimated 1.25 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of others in western Russia.
In the early chaotic days of the German invasion, the Soviet Union conducted a massive relocation effort, moving millions of people (along with critical resources and manufacturing facilities) to relative safety. More than a million Jews from western Russia were evacuated or escaped on their own to central Asia, especially to Uzbekistan. Tashkent was one of the most sought-after refuges. The total number of people who migrated to safer harbors (the Urals, Siberia, Middle Volga, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan) within the Soviet Union was 16 million, making this the largest organized movement of a civilian population in history. In addition, whole industries were moved to these regions. To review a partial list of Jews from Shepetovka who were evacuated to Tashkent, go here.
Shepetovka was an important rail junction considered of strategic interest in the war. As the Soviet and Ukrainian armies pushed the German army westward in the winter of 1944, Shepetovka proved to be a stubborn target. Its capture by the Soviet army was attained on February 11, 1944. According to the Manchester Guardian (February 12, 1944 "Blow on New Sector of the Ukrainian Front"), Stalin's Order of the Day described Shepetovka as "a large railway junction and an important German Defence Position" and said that it was captured by an outflanking movement and frontal attack. The Los Angeles Times (February 12, 1944 "Ukrainian Rail Center Captured by Red Army") described Shepetovka as a distributing point for German reserves. It described Shepetovka's strategic importance as being "the last main line from Berdichev to Warsaw " connecting to "two other lines that lead into Rumania and Hungary. It's less than 60 miles north of the last main German supply railroad to the Dnieper bend - the Odessa Lwow line." The article cited a Russian war correspondent's account that Shepetovka was a large German supply base. The Baltimore Sun (February 12, 1944 "Reds Occupy Rail Hub of Shepetovka") reported that Shepetovka was bitterly defended by the Germans for many months, and that the capture provided a new base to threaten Rumania, which had been defended by concentrated German counterattacks. The article states that "many prisoners were taken as the exhausted and hungry Germans gave up. Large quantities of war material were taken by the Russians, including 150 guns, 1,070 trucks, and 6 stores of supplies." The article quotes Red Star, a Russian army newspaper, as saying that the Germans, refusing to surrender, were being "slaughtered like sheep on the open steppes." Russian army successes during this time included re-capturing numerous towns, squeezing the German army into an ever-smaller corridor, capturing equipment, and killing or capturing tens of thousands of Nazi troops.
To review the ever-growing database of Jews from Shepetovka killed and persecuted in the war, visit the Yad Vashem website here.
Memorial to the victims in Shepetovka, as photographed in 1998. Both photos, above and right, are courtesy of the Miriam Weiner Archives.
Eternal remembrance, Mount Zion, Jerusalem.
In memory of those who died in the Holocaust. The holy ones in the city of Shepetovka (and surroundings), Volin, Ukraine, who were wiped out by the Nazis (may their names be obliterated) between 1940-1943.
May God avenge their blood. May their souls be bound up in the bond of eternal life.
The organization of survivors of Shepetovka in the U.S. and Israel.
After the War
Following the war, some Jews returned to Shepetovka, while others remained in Uzbekistan or settled in other Soviet cities. A modest Jewish community occupied Shepetivka in the post-war years. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a new wave of emigration as the Iron Curtain began to lift. Many of these emigrants went to Israel.
Landsmen in the United States continued to organize fundraisers, although more often the projects being funded were now in Israel. Organizations such as the "United Shepetovka Organization of America and Israel," " the Independent Sons of Shepetovka", and "the Shepetovka Ladies Relief Society" all raised funds for clinics in Israel. In August 1991, Ukraine became an independent state, and Shepetovka became part of that state (taking on the town name variant of Shepetivka).
The 1974 Great Soviet Encyclopedia describes Shepetovka as the admisitrative center of the Shepetovka Raion within the Khmel'nitskii Oblast with a population of 42,000. Industries include sugar, meat products, wood products, packaging materials, butter, soft drinks, tractor bushings, metal articles, alcohol refinery, agriculture (wheat, rye, corn, peas, sugar beets, flax) and asphalt.
The great synagogue is remodeled and re-purposed as a sports center. Part of the building is returned to the Jewish community in the 1990s.
Compiled by Miriam Kirshner
Copyright © 2018 Miriam Kirshner
Photos on this website are not to be reproduced in any form without express written permission of the owners