Bobrynets Jewish Cemetery

Bobrynets was founded as a village in the late 18th century, it was granted town rights in 1828 and until 1865, it was a regional (uyezd) capital in the Kherson Governorate (Khersonskaya gubernia).

In 1847, the Jewish community of Bobrynets numbered 1289 people, by 1864, it had grown to around 1500. By 1890, the population including the suburbs numbered 10 thousand people, of which 20% were Jewish. In 1897, of the 14,281 residents, 3481 were Jewish, which was around a quarter. In 1896 it had 2 Jewish prayer houses and a talmud-torah for 62 students. By 1911 -1912 Bobrynets had 4 synagogues, 74 students in the talmud-torah, 132 students in 11 chadarim, a society for the benefit of poor Jews, a loan society as well as a Jewish cemetery.

The Jewish population of Bobrynets suffered greatly during World War I and the civil war in Russia, during which 160 Jews were killed in pogroms. After 1922, Bobrynets became a part of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR. The Jewish population dropped to 2265 in 1926, and 654 in 1939. In the late 1920s, the synagogues were closed.

The Germans captured the city on the 6th of August 1941. A ghetto was established, and in December 1941, 388 Jews were murdered, including around 120 children. The remaining Jews were murdered in the following months. In total, 530 people were killed in the Nazi period, most of whom were Jews.

In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Bobrynets became a part of the independent Ukraine.

The Jewish cemetery of Bobrynets, which was established in the mid 19th century, is totally lost, with not a single headstone remaining.