Vinkivtsi Jewish Cemetery

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. It appears on Russian maps of 1907 and, later, on Polish map of 1939. The cemetery’s existence evidence was also mentioned in the Russian Jewish encyclopedia in 1889, so it can be assumed that the cemetery already existed in the late 19th century.

Jews settled in Vin’kivtsi in the 16th century. The Jewish community suffered from raids of the Crimean Tatars in the 16th century, Cossacks of M. Krivonos in 1648, and Cossacks during the Koliyivshchyna rebellion in the 18th century. According to the Jewish enumeration of Rabbi Itzik Yoselevich, 280 Jewish resided in the town. In the 19th century, Jews were engaged in trades and crafts such as tailoring, shoemaking, carpentering, stone-cutting. In 1851, 25 Jewish families were transferred to the Karachintsy farm settlement. In 1889, three synagogues and a Jewish cemetery operated. The Jewish population reached 1,768 Jews (56,1% of the total) in 1897. In 1904, a Rosenblit’s manufactory was established. In 1907, a Talmud-Torah and Jewish library was opened. In the 1910s, the Zionist and the Bund was active. During WWI, the Jews of Vin’kivtsi suffered from hunger and epidemics. In 1923, during the Soviets, 1,634 Jews resided in the town. In the interwar period, a clandestine Ge-Halutz group and Zionist youth organizations operated. A Jewish labour school was established in 1925. A Jewish rural council was founded in 1927. In 1939, 2,251 Jews resided (52% of the total) in the town. On July 11, 1941, the Wehrmacht occupied Vin’kivtsi. 1,875 Jews of Vin’kivtsi were executed on April 14, 1942. On May 9, 1942, 450 Jewish residents were murdered. Memorials were erected on mass graves.