Zhornyshche New Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
According to the Commission on the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, the cemetery was founded in the early 19th century. It can be found marked on a map of the region from the 1900s.
Zhornyshche was apparently established in the first half of the 15th century. From 1569 the region belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Jews began living in Zhornyshche in the late 17th century. In 1768 the Jews of Zhornyshche suffered from attacks by the Haidamaks and, as a result, the Jewish population of the town was severely reduced. The significant growth of the Jewish population in Zhornyshche started in the 19th century, when in 1793, after the Second partition of Poland, it came under the control of the Russian Empire, and became a part of the Kiev Governorate (Kievskaya Gubernia). In 1847, the Jewish communnity of Zhornyshche numbered 887 members, in 1897, the Jewish population comprised almost 30% of the town: 1040 of 3518. In 1865, there were 2 synagogues, a stone one and a wooden one. In 1909 a Jewish school operated.
The Jews of Zhornyshche suffered greatly during the revolutionary years and the civil war in Russia and in mid November 1917 there was a pogrom in town.
After 1922, Zhornyshche became a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR. The Soviet rules brought changes to the occupational structure of Jews. Many of them were integrated into food processing and food distribution networks. Many younger Jews left town in search of vocational and educational opportunities. In 1926 the 996 Jews living in Zhornyshche comprised 21.8% of its total population. From the mid-1920s to the late-1930s there was a 4-year Yiddish school in Zhornyshche.
Zhornyshche was occupied by the Germans in July 1941 and a ghetto was established there. Most inmates were shot to death or perished due to deprivation.
In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Zhornyshche became a part of the independent Ukraine. The new Jewish cemetery of Zhornyshche today contains a few dozen headstones, which date back to the first half of 20th century.
