NEMIROV

NEMIROV (Pol. Niemirów), town in Vinnitsa district, Ukraine. It was annexed by Russia after the second partition of Poland (1793), and was incorporated in the district of Podolia until the Russian Revolution. Under Polish rule it was a fortified city of considerable importance. A Jewish settlement in Nemirov is first mentioned in 1603. In the 1630s, yom tov lipmann heller held rabbinical office there for a while. During the chmielnicki persecutions of 1648 thousands of Jews from other localities sought refuge in Nemirov; however, the city fell to the Cossacks, who massacred 6,000 Jews. The slaughter at Nemirov, one of the worst of that period, created a profound impression, becoming a symbol of all the terrible massacres the Jews suffered at the hands of cruel rioters. Reports and legends spread about the heroic acts of the Jews of Nemirov who chose martyrdom (see kiddush ha-shem ) and rabbis and paytanim composed special kinot and seliḥot on the destruction of the community. At a meeting of the council of the lands held in 1650, the anniversary of the massacre (20th of Sivan – 20 of June) was proclaimed a day of mourning and public fasting. Reports and legends spread about the heroic acts of the Jews of Nemirov who chose martyrdom (see kiddush ha-shem ).   Jews started to resettle there when the town was retaken by the Poles, and their situation was especially satisfactory under the Turkish rule over Podolia (1672–99). In the 18th and 19th centuries Jews owned a large distillery, dyeing factory, and hide-processing facilities. At the beginning of the 18th century the Great Synagogue was erected. Early in the 19th century, Nemirov became a center for the Ḥasidim of Naḥman of Bratslav . In 1765, 602 Jewish poll-tax payers were registered; the Jewish population increased from 4,386 in 1847 to 5,287 (59.3% of the total population) in 1897. In 1917 a democratic community headed by the Zionists was established, but with the consolidation of the Soviet régime it was liquidated. During the Russian Civil War, the Jews also suffered, but they created an armed self-defense unit with their Christian neighbors and succeeded in averting a pogrom on January 19, 1918. There were 4,176 Jews (57.2% of the population) living in Nemirov in 1926, dropping to 3,001 (36.7% of the total population) in 1939. Between the wars a Yiddish school and orphanage operated in the town. Most of the Jews worked in artisans' cooperatives and dozen of families in a Jewish kolkhoz. The Germans took Nemirov on July 21, 1941, and created a ghetto. In November 1941 2,000 Jews were murdered, and 1,500 were executed on June 26, 1942. About 1,000 Jews who had been expelled to Nemirov from Transnistria were also murdered. The last group of skilled laborers was executed in April–August 1943. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: N.N. Hannover, Yeven Meẓulah (1966), 37–40; H.J. Gurland, Le-Korot ha-Gezerot al Yisrael, 1–6 (1887–89); M.N. Litinsky, Sefer Korot Podolya ve-Kadmoniyyot ha-Yehudim Sham (1895), 43, 45–49; Y.P. Pograbinski, in: Reshumot, 3 (1923), 195–214; idem, in: Arim ve-Immahot be-Yisrael, 2 (1948), 270–83. (Yehuda Slutsky)