KHOROL

KHOROL, city in Poltava district, Ukraine. Jews first settled in Khorol in the early 19th century; from only 78 in 1847 their number grew to 2,056 (25% of the total population) in 1897. The Jews of Khorol constituted a typical community of chabad Ḥasidim, described by B. Dinur , a native of Khorol, in his memoirs Be-Olam she-Shaka (1958). Dinur's grandfather, Abraham Madeyevski, was rabbi of Khorol in the second half of the 19th century. There were schools for boys and girls as well as ḥadarim. In October 1905 a pogrom occurred, and in 1919 another pogrom was organized by soldiers of General Denikin. In 1926 the Jewish population numbered 2,089 (19.7%), but dropped to 701 (6.4% of the total population) in 1939. The Germans occupied Khorol on September 13, 1941, and in October they murdered the 460 remaining Jews. (Yehuda Slutsky)