SHEPETOVKA

SHEPETOVKA, city in Khmelnitsky district, Ukraine. Its Jewish settlement was founded in the late 17th or early 18th century. In 1765 there were 317 Jewish poll-tax payers in the city. In the late 16th century it was a ḥasidic center, especially in the time of R. Pinhas of Koretz (1726–1791). In 1847, the Jewish population numbered 1,042, increasing to 3,880 (48.5% of the total population) in 1897. In 1926 the Jews numbered 3,916 (26.7%), and in 1939, 4,844 (20% of the total population). A Yiddish school with 300 pupils existed there. The Germans entered Shepetovka on July 5, 1941, and in July–August murdered 4,000 Jews from the town and its environs. In early 1942 a ghetto was established, and in fall 1942 it was liquidated and thousands of it inhabitants were murdered. In the late 1960s there was a Jewish population of about 2,500. Their last synagogue was closed down by the authorities in the early 1960s; most Jews left in the 1990s. (Yehuda Slutsky / Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)