Welcome
to the Kehilalinks site for Zhabokrych (Zhabokrich in Russian), a town in
southwestern Ukraine. This site was created
to share information about Jewish Zhabokrych,
to commemorate its Jewish community that
existed before the great emigration of the
early twentieth century, and to remember its members
who were lost in the Holocaust.
News
For updates on newly uploaded information or for special projects, you should check the News page.
Background
Zhabokrych (then Zhabokrich), located in
Vinnytsia oblast, can be found between the
watersheds of the Southern Bug and the Dneister
rivers. Jews settled in Zhabokrych early in the eighteenth century.
By 1765, there were six Jewish families, consisting of forty Jews,
living in Zhabokrych. A century later, there was a synagogue
serving one-hundred-twenty parishioners.
The first railway to be built in
the Ukrainian part of the Russian Empire was a track
from Odessa to Balta. This railway connected the
agricultural regions in the north of Odessa Oblast
to Odessa, the seaport on the Black Sea. In 1870,
the railway was extended from Balta to Kyiv (Kiev),
and was known as the Odessa-Kyiv railway. The
extended railway included a stop at the small town
of Kryzhopil, five miles west of Zhabokrych.
Kryzhopil Train Station
Access to the railway brought work and greater
mobility for the people in Kryzhopil and the smaller
villages nearby. At the turn of the twentieth century,
many Jews from the nearby villages of Kniazhe (now
Radyanske), Zhabokrych and Shpikov
(Shpykiv) migrated to the new regional centre
of Kryzhopil. The pace of life was faster in
Kryzhopil than in the villages and the economic
opportunities for Jews were more numerous. Easy
access to the railway (known
in the Soviet era as the Vapniarka-Rudnitsa
line)
encouraged travel to cities such as Odessa,
and it would become a lifeline for Jews throughout
the years leading up to World War Two, as Jewish
families began to buy and sell goods that they then
transported by rail between Kryzhopil and Odessa. A
more extensive history of Kryzhopol, for now in
Russian, can be found on the Kryzhopil KehilalinkHistory page.
In 1897, Zhabokrych was home to 1,307 Jews, out
of a total population of 6,252 inhabitants.
Location:
Today, Zhabokrych is a hub for four roads extending along the four points of the compass: north to Sokolivka (9.9 kilometers);
west to Kryzhopil (10.6 km); east to Obodivka (19.2 km); and south to Pavlyka (9.2 km).
Most commonly used
town names: In the days before they
emigrated, most Jews called the town Zhabokritch,
due to their use of the Russian pronunciation and
spelling of the town name. Since 1991, the town has
been known by its Ukrainian name of Zhabokrych.
Nearest large cities: Moghyliv-Podilskyy (54 miles/87.1 km W) Vinnytsya (63.5 miles/102.2 km NNW) Uman (61.5 miles/98.95 km ENE)
Do you have roots in Zhabokrych?
Would you like to connect with others researching the same community?
Click here
to search for 'Zhabokrych' or 'Zhabokrich' in the JewishGen Family Finder
(JGFF) database.
Basic links
The JewishGen Ukraine Database
is a multiple database search facility which incorporates all
the databases listed below. These databases have
been contributed by the JewishGen Ukraine SIG
and individual donors. The combined databases
have over 1.2 million entries on individuals
living in the area that is now Ukraine.
You may search for information about
Zhabokrych in each of the following databases,
by adding the town name, either as Zhabokrych or
Zhabokrich in the JewishGen Ukraine Database:
The database is a work in progress and new entries are added regularly.
This site is hosted at no cost to the public by
JewishGen, Inc., a non-profit corporation. If it has
been useful to you, or if you are moved by the
effort to preserve the memory of our lost
communities, your
JewishGen-erosity
would be greatly appreciated.
