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Chepa
was part of the Kingdom of Hungary (11th century - 1920 and 1938-1944) with the name of Csepe
in Ugocsa megye (county), next part of Czechoslovakia (1920-1938) with the name of Čepa
in Podkarpatská Rus (Sub-Carpathia), then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1945-1991) with the name of Chepa and, since 1991, known as Chepa, in the Vynohradivskiy rayon (district) of Zakarpats'ka oblast (county) of Ukraine.
Other spellings/names for Chepa are Tschepa and Chyepa.
Chepa is located about six miles south of Vynohradiv (Nagyszőllős), near borders with Romania and Hungary.
Jews probably settled in Chepa in the late 18th century and there were four Jewish families living here in 1768.
In 1880, the Jewish population was 80. A few Jews were engaged in agriculture/farming and Jews owned two flour mills. .
By 1921, during the Czechoslovakian period, the Jewish population rose to 179 (of a total population of 975).
Chepa was the birthplace of Rabbi Yisrael Yehuda BERKOVITS, one of the leaders of the Mizrachi in Czechoslovakia.
With the Hungarian occupation of Chepa in November, 1938, Jews were persecuted and pushed out of their occupations. In 1940-41, dozens of Jews from Chepa were drafted into forced labor battalions and others were drafted for service on the Eastern front, where most died.
By 1941, the Jewish population had dropped to 158 and it was at this time, a few Jewish families without Hungarian citizenship were expelled to Nazi occupied Ukrainian territory, to Kamenets-Podolski, and murdered there.
The remaining Jews of Chepa were deported to Auschwitz late May, 1944.
A great many of the Jews from Chepa were murdered in Auschwitz and any survivors settled elsewhere.
In 2001, Chepa had about 176 inhabitants and no Jews live there today.
Sources (portions): The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, (2001) pp. 245-246
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