KAZATIN

KAZATIN, city in Vinnitsa district, Ukraine, an important railroad junction. A Jewish community developed in the late 19th century, numbering 1,731 (20% of the total population) in 1897. During the civil war (1917–20) the Jews suffered greatly at the hands of the various armies passing through the town. In 1926 the Jewish population reached 3,012 (20%). During the Soviet period many Jews worked in a sugar refinery, on the railroad, and in two Jewish kolkhozes. Most of the children studied in a Yiddish school. In 1939 there were 2,648 Jews (15.8% of the total). The Germans entered Kazatin on July 14, 1941. They set up a ghetto. On June 4, 1942, they killed 508 Jews and another 250 in early July. In August they murdered 183, and the last 30 in December 1942. Jews returned after the war but their last synagogue was closed by the authorities in 1960. In 1970 the Jewish population was estimated at about 300 families. Most left in the emigration of the 1990s (Yehuda Slutsky / Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)