Tulchin, a town located in the Vinnitsa Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, was once a center of Hasidism. Founded by the Baal Shem Tov in the eighteenth century, Hasidism (piety) is a spiritual alternative, based on Jewish mysticism, to "legalistic" Judaism.

Though the rich Jewish culture of the region is long gone, decimated by one catastrophe after another – surprisingly – a "rump" Tulchin Jewish community survives to this day. It may be worthwhile listening to Conversations on Lenin Street after reading this introduction.

Tulchin street
(photo: Boris Elenikov & Yad Vashem)

It seems that, in the mid-sixteenth century, there were about three-quarters of a thousand Jews living in the region that was strategically wedged between the Ottomon Empire and Poland-Lithuania. Some number, probably much less than half, of these Jews lived in Tulchin. By the seventeenth century, Jews were deeply involved both in farming and in commerce throughout the region, which came to be called Podolia (later, Vinnytsya).

Not surprisingly, the settlement of Jews in Podolia aroused unease in other groups living in the area because the Jews were seen as "the other" and, therefore, untrustworthy, despite the lack of any evidence to justify this attitude. The location of Podolia in close vicinity to the Ottomans exacerbated this anxiety. Despite this resistence to Jewish settlement, by the end of the fourth decade of the seventeenth century, Podolia Jews, including Jews who lived in Tulchin, were given limited legal rights – the right to sue Christians.

The year 1648 saw the start of the decade-long Chmielnicki Uprising, which was a revolt of the Cossacks and peasants against their Polish overlords; Jews, only some of whom collected taxes and customs duties for the Polish nobility, were all seen as the "face" of the Polish oppressors and were attacked and murdered, whether or not they were agents of the Polish nobility. The revolt extended far beyond Podolia, and many thousands of Jews lost their lives. There is an excellent article in Jewish Encyclopedia on the Cossack uprising.

In 1672 an Ottoman army invaded and won a war against the Poles. The 1676 truce of Żurawno left control of Podolia with the Ottomans. However, this control was tenuous; another war occurred in 1683, the effect of which limited Ottoman rule to a few fortresses. By 1699 the region had reverted to Poland under the Treaty of Karlowitz. The period of Ottoman rule provided the Jews of Podolia with an interlude of greater rights that they had not experienced under the Poles. This period of expanded rights and better treatment came to an end in 1699 when the Poles regained control of the region. It took another fourteen years before the Jews had the same legal status that they had enjoyed immediately prior to the Ottoman period.

Many Podolia Jews earned their livings as innkeepers, traders, and as leaseholders of land, breweries, mills, and inns. They also collected customs duties and taxes for Polish nobility. There was extensive commercial relations with the Jews living in the Ottoman Empire. It was this connection that resulted in the sixteenth century spread of the Kabbalistic movement into Podolia following a revival of Kabbalism in Ottoman Palestine. The seventeenth century Shabbetai Zevi movement also had an influence on Podolian Jewish life. Shabbetai Zevi, a Sephardic Rabbi and Kabbalist (born in Smyrna) claimed to be the Messiah; the Ottomans forced him to convert to Islam. The Frankist movement, founded in the eighteenth century by Jacob Frank of Korolivka, Podolia, is a direct descendent of the Shabbetai Zevi movement. Jacob Frank claimed to be the reincarnated Shabbetai Zevi! Israel ben Eliezer, also known as the Baal Shem Tov, was the founder of Hasidism. He was born in

Podolia Province in the late seventeenth century and traveled throughout Podolia Province spreading his ideas. His Ohel is located in Medzhybizh, Podolia Province.

The third partition of Poland in 1793 resulted in Podolia being annexed to Russia.There was less than seven-thousand Jews in Podolia at this time. By the nineteenth century Jews had a significant role as merchants. The Jewish population increased throughout this time and attained about four-hundred-thousand in 1881. During the reign of Alexander II there was considerable advancement in human rights – such as the freeing of the serfs. The life of Jews improved. However, the year of 1881 saw the assassination of Alexander II. His murder resulted in heavy-handed suppression and a severe series of pogroms against Jews throughout Russia. Passover 1882 saw a pogrom in Balta (Odessa Oblast), which spread to other towns and villages. The May Laws of 1882 restricted Jewish economic activity; industrial and commercial activity declined in Podolia. Thousands of Jews left.

Throughout the Ukraine the pogroms of 1905 were the first in a series of pogroms of increasing viciousness. April 1919 saw the depredations by Denikin's minions. During the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), the suffering brought on by murder and mayhem was compounded by typhus outbreaks and by the forced famine imposed by the Soviets on the entire Ukrainian population. During the civil war, Podolia Province experienced some of the severest pogroms; the Ukrainian Army, retreating from the Red Army, together with bands of peasants and units of the White Army passing through Podolia were responsible for these riots. Some villages were completely destroyed and abandoned. The Jewish population was devastated. Jewish self-defense forces were formed but could not hold their own against regular army units. Some Jewish men joined the Red Army. Some such units consisted only of Jews and were used on punitive attacks against rebellious villages. Read more on pogroms here and in the USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia.

These were the harbingers of the approaching fury. The Germans marched into Tulchin in July 1941. Soon after the German blight fell upon the town, the Nazis established a ghetto together with the standard Judenrat. They were then moved to the Pechera labor camp where they were worked to death.

For more details, see Jewish Heritage of Ukraine (in Ukrainian);   English Translation by Google.