Destiny of Jewish Communities and Their Synagogues of the USSR, 1976-1987

Sketches and illustrations

The main motive of the numerous journeys I undertook in the years 1976-1987 was my natural desire to get to know the condition of Jewish traditional and religious life in different regions of the former Soviet Union: Russia, Ukraine, Baltic Republics, Siberia, Transcarpathian region, Crimea, Caucasus, Central Asia, and Moldavia. I knew that Soviet Jewry has outlived two Holocausts: one of them was destroying Jewish religious life by a retributive sword of the Soviet authorities; the other one was genocide of Jewish people by Nazis.

Since the data I have collected may present a historical interest as a cut of Jewish traditional and religious life in the former Soviet Union during one decade of the years of Stagnation period, we hereby offer you this book containing two types of materials:
1)   Full versions of essays about my journeys to different regions of Soviet
Union;
2) More than 800 illustrations including pictures of a) former synagogues built up before the October Revolution of 1917 and seized furthermore to be used mainly as premises for state institutions; b) functioning synagogues; c) unofficial synagogues, i.e. places where minyans gathered; d) abandoned and functioning Jewish cemeteries.

Besides, here you will find materials about Moscow organizations and about individual figures who have contributed to revival of Jewish religious life during the years before the Perestroika.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Brief reference about the author 11
The one giving hope (informal foreword by the publishers) 13
INTRODUCTION 15

Part One. ESSAYS ABOUT VOYAGES 19
Chapter 1. MOSCOW COMMUNITY
Synagogue in Maryina Roscha. Chabad in Moscow, Rise to the
Gorka. Seminar of Ilya Essas. In memory of Holocaust 19
Chapter 2. AMONG BUKHARIAN JEWS
Samarkand, Bukhara, Dushanbe, Tashkent, Frunze, Osh, Fergana,
Margelan, Andizhan, Alma-Ata, Ashkhabad 43
Chapter 3. IN THE CAUCASUS
Tat Jews: Baku, Kube, Makhachkala, Buinaksk, Derbent
Georgia: Tbilisi, Gori, Tskhinvali, Oni, Vani, Kulashi, Kutaisi,
Sukhumi 69
Chapter 4. BELORUSSIA
Minsk, Borisov, Bobruisk, Gomel, Mozyr, Kalinkovichi, Mogilev,
Orsha, Vitebsk, Polotsk 107
Chapter 5. BALTIC REPUBLICS
Riga, Vilnius, Kaunas, Daugavpils, Tallin 131
Chapter 6. FROM MOSCOW TO THE EAST
Kazan, Penza, Sverdlovsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Chita,
Birobijan, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok 141
Chapter 7. AROUND UKRAINE
Kharkov, Poltava, Gadyach, Kiev, Korosten, Zhitomir,
Berdichev, Shepetovka, Novograd-Volynskiy, Slavuta,
Khmelnitskiy, Medzhibozh, Vinnitsa, Kalinovka, Bershad,
Mogilev-Podolskiy, Odessa 175
Chapter 8. AROUND MOLDAVIA, TRANSCARPATHIAAND
CRIMEA
Moldavia: Kishinev, Teleneshti, Beltsy, Ungeny, Tiraspol
Transcarpathia: Khust, Kolomyia, Rakhov, Yasinya, Vinogradovo,
Uzhgorod, Mukachevo, Beregovo
Crimea: Simferopol, Sevastopol, Yalta, Feodosia, Kerch, Evpatoria 221
Chapter 9. FROM NORTH TO SOUTH
Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Kirov, Perm, Ufa, Kuibyshev, Saratov,
Volgograd, Astrakhan, Voronezh, Boguchary 243
Chapter 10. ALONG THE WEST BORDER
Grodno, Brest, Kovel, Lutsk, Volozhin, Rovno, Dubno, Brody, Lvov,
Drogobych, Ivano-Frankovsk, Yablonov, Chernovtsy, Ternopol 265
Chapter 11. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS
OF D. KONTORER, F.-A. KOCHUBIEVSKY AND E. ESSAS 283
Chapter 12. IN THE MEMORY OF GRISHA ROSENSTEIN 299

Part Two. PHOTOILLUSTRATIONS OF SYNAGOGUES
IN USSR (1976-1987) 311
1. Russia 312
2. Ukraine and former Jewish Settlements 343
3. Belorussia 412
4. Central Asia 426
5. Caucasus 439
6. Baltic Republics, Moldavia, Transcarpathia 459

Part Three. PHOTOILLUSTRATIONS OF RELIGIOUS AND PUBLIC FIGURES IN MOSCOW (1976-1987) 480
1. Moscow and Mass Meeting in Vostryakov Cemetery 481
2. Cultural and Religious Center "Machanaim" 503
3. Collections of A. Rozenberg andN. Brusovani 526
4. Exhibitions About Synagogues (Moscow 1987 and Jerusalem
1989) 565

APPENDIX 573
List of Jewish terms used in the book, and brief explanation to them 573 List of settlements including the page where they are mentioned
in the book 579
List of people (last names) including the page where they are
mentioned in the book 583
List of former synagogues requisitioned by the authorities 587