TAGANROG

TAGANROG, city in S.W. Rostov district, Russia. Jews first settled in Taganrog at the beginning of the 19th century, when "New Russia" was settled by Jewish immigrants from the northwest area of the pale of settlement . In the 1860s a synagogue with a choir was built. In 1887 Taganrog was incorporated in the administrative region of the Don army, which was beyond the Pale of Settlement; consequently, Jews were henceforth forbidden to live in Taganrog, excepting those who had been living there previously. In 1897 there were 2,960 Jews in Taganrog (6% of its total population); in 1926 they numbered 2,673 (about 3%). In 1939 there were 3,124. Under the Soviet regime the Jewish community and institutions were abolished. When the Germans occupied the city in World War II, all the Jews who did not manage to escape were killed. By 2005 the new Jewish community of Taganrog had established a community center, a youth club, a women's club, a veterans' club, a Sunday school, and a burial society, as well as a Holocaust Scientific Educational Center. (Yehuda Slutsky / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)