Partial Translation by Alex Dunai of Document Regarding Ananiev

(found during research in the CentralArchives of the Jewish People in Jerusalem in 2004. The Archives has since moved to the Giv'at Ram Campus of the Hebrew University)


The handwriting is calligraphic Russian, typical of the early 20th century and prior.

The year may be 1911. I need to re-check my copy.


  1. 1. Regarding the relations between peasants and Jews, it’s hard to tell anything for sure. But it’s necessary to indicate that all those peasants who, during the agrarian movement participated in that movement, were friendly to Jews and expressed their willingness to protect Jews who were living on the lands of landlords. Some people state that most recently, peasants have changed their attitude to Jews to the better.

  2. 2. I need to add that Ananiev’s Jewish community is not active: it’s rather indifferent! and is not intellectual. It’s not brave at all and suffers from a lack of intellectual, educated individuals.

  3. 3. So far, one cannot see any pre-electional promotion. Society, in general, except a little part of the Jewish population, are very neutral to everything.

  4. 4. I have to inform you that 10 persons joined the Union. A few more are going to join....We started relations with the Jewish voters who live in the county. Here, is started a branch of the Constitutional Democratic Party.* The leaders of the party wish to involve Jews, also.

  5. 5. I didn’t get any reply from you to my two letters sent during the last month.I enclose 6 rubles collected by the following people:                                                                                                           

  6. Lihterman, M.M.             50 kopeks 

  7. Lovitski, M.M.                      ’’              [ditto symbols for each name continue down the list]

  8. Dolgin, L.I.                            “

  9. Lukatchen, Sh.

  10. Linetski, E.

  11. Bernstein, A.L.

  12. Dubovoy, D.

  13. Babad, D.S.

  14. Katsenelenson, A.

  15. Kopp

  16. Kolbasher, G.L.

  17. Grusheusk, I. L.


Note: We did not pursue further translating as there were no more names or details. I will attempt to scan and post the page as it appears in Cyrillic from my photocopy, at a later date.

The following is a report on Ananiev from the Joint Distribution Committee in 1922. It describes the dire conditions in Ananiev including the civil war in Ukraine following the Russian Revolution, followed by the devastating pogroms of 1920. During these pogroms,  nationalist Ukrainian warlords, detachments of the White Russian army and Cossacks ravaged Jewish communities.  The report contrasts the vitality and prosperity of the Ananiev Jewish community in the pre-war years with the despair, de-population and poverty at the time of the report, and issues a plea for aid to the dispirited remaining Jewish community of Ananiev. 

Avrum Geller

New York


                         
 
 

* Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadet): a Russian political party advocating a radical change in Russian government toward a constitutional monarchy like Great Britain's. It was founded in October 1905 by the Union of Liberation and other liberals associated with the zemstvos, local councils that often were centres of liberal opinion and agitation.

page 130

ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 2

ANANYEV (Ananiev), city in Odessa district, Ukraine.

Ananyev was founded in 1753. Jews began to settle there in

the beginning of the 19th century. In the 1820s the community

owned a synagogue and cemetery; it numbered 532 in 1856

and 992 in 1864. A talmud torah operated from 1880. Mob at-

tacks in a pogrom that took place on April 27, 1881, destroyed

175 Jewish homes and 14 shops; the poorer Jewish sector in

the outskirts suffered most. A second, less damaging pogrom

broke out on Oct. 17, 1905. Another pogrom, carried out by

Ukrainian soldiers, occurred in February 1919, with many

killed. On May 22, the marauding antisemitic Grigoryev gang

killed 44 Jews and pillaged much property. In early 1920, in a

battle with the Tutyunyuk gang, the Jewish *self-defense unit

lost 220 of its 300 fighters.

The Jewish population numbered 3,527 in 1897 (out of

a total population of 16,684), 4,810 in 1910 (out of 22,157),

and 3,516 in 1926 (out of 18,230). Between the world wars

Jews worked in a textile cooperative and in a Jewish kolk-

hoz. Their number dropped to 1,779 by 1939 (total population

5,918). Ananyev was occupied by the Germans on August 7,

1941. Three hundred Jews were murdered on August 28, and

later another 600. On September 1, Ananyev was made part

of Transnistria under Romanian rule and a ghetto was es-

tablished for the remaining 300 Jews. In early October they

were ordered to set off for *Dubossary but were murdered on

the way near the village of Mostovoye. In 1990 there were 30

Jews in Ananyev.

Bibliography: Judenpogrome in Russland, 2 (1909), 134–7;

Yevrei v SSSR, 4 (1929); pk Romanyah, 398, Ukrainah, s.v.

[Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]