Les Juifs de Kharkiv

Kharkiv, a major industrial and university center in eastern Ukraine, attracted a large Jewish community from the nineteenth century onward, particularly after the easing of residence restrictions. Its members distinguished themselves in commerce, industry, medicine, teaching, and the liberal professions, and the city had a notable Jewish cultural life, both religious and—during the Soviet era—secularized. The Shoah, with the massacres perpetrated during the German occupation, and the Soviet anti-religious policy considerably reduced the community. A Jewish presence nonetheless persisted after the war and was renewed at the end of the twentieth century.

Sources & resources

• The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe ↗
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan