Dunaivtsi Old Jewish Cemetery

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. It was not marked on old maps. There are no visible traces of the cemetery and its boundaries today. In 1871–72, the Jewish community purchased a plot for a Jewish cemetery.

Jews are known from the 17th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Jews were engaged in trade, rent and crafts, such as weaving shoemaking, painting, etc. The Jewish community of Dunayivtsi was destroyed twice. First, in 1648-49, during the Khmelnytskyi massacre and, later, in the 1760s, during the Haidamak rebellions. In 1748, the Jews of Dunayivtsi suffered a blood libel accusation. In 1765, 1,129 Jews lived in Dunayivtsi. The Jewish community of Dunayivtsi consisted of 2,020 people and maintained two synagogues in 1847. In 1890, the number of synagogues increased to eleven. By the same time, a Jewish hospital, Talmud-Torah and heders were in function. A Jewish vocational school for girls (in 1903) and boys (in 1907) were opened. Two printing houses operated in 1906. The Jewish population reached a peak of 9,221 (70,7% of the total population) in 1910. In the 1920s, secret Zionist youth organizations and a Hehalutz group functioned. In 1926, the Jewish population reduced to 5,186 (60,5% of the total), presumably, due to the migration of over 200 Jewish families to an agricultural cooperative in Crimea. In 1933, 362 Jews were employed in the Jewish kolkhoz. In 1932–33, the Jewish population suffered from hunger. In 1939, 4,478 Jews (68,2% of the total population) were the residents of the town. During the Wehrmacht occupation in 1941, the Jews of Dunayivtsi and the neighbouring villages were imprisoned in a ghetto. Over 7,000 Jews were executed or buried alive in the area of ​​the Solonich forest. Approximately 12,000 Jews were murdered in the town during WWII. Few Jewish families returned after WWII. In 1948, a secret minyan was gathering. In the 1970s and 80s, Jews of Dunayivtsi left for Israel and the US.