LUBNY

LUBNY, a town in Poltava district, Ukraine. Jews settled in Lubny in the first half of the 17th century, under the auspices of the important Vixhnievietski family. Jews defended the town during the Pavliuk uprising (1637–38), and 200 of them were killed during the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648–49. The Jews appeared again in Lubny at the end of the 18th century. From 361 in 1847, their numbers increased to 3,006 (30% of the total population) in 1897. The writer Shalom Aleichem served there as state rabbi in 1880–82. In the 1881 riots some Jewish homes and stores were robbed. In the beginning of the 20th century there was a talmud torah, a library, and a bank. There was Zionist activity, and after the October 1917 revolution all members of the community council were Zionists. In the 1920s about 100 Jews worked in the tobacco factory, others worked in the flour mills, and 1,200 were artisans. A Yiddish elementary school existed in Lubny. In 1939 the Jewish population numbered 2,833 (10.5% of the total). The Germans occupied Lubny on September 13, 1941. On October 16, 1941, they gathered 4,500 Jews from Lubny and its environs, and murdered them outside of town. The remaining skilled laborers were killed in April–May 1942. The Jewish population numbered about 600 (2%) in 1959 and was estimated at about 250 in 1970. Although there was no organized Jewish religious life, once a year the Jews assembled at the mass grave of the Holocaust martyrs. Most Jews emigrated in the 1990s. (Yehuda Slutsky / Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)