VASILKOV

VASILKOV, city in Kiev district, Ukraine. In 1648 Vasilkov was conquered by chmielnicki 's Cossacks who massacred its inhabitants, Jews and Poles alike. Since Vasilkov was annexed to Russia in 1686, no Jewish community existed there until the second partition of Poland in 1792. There were 1,478 Jews in Vasilkov in 1799, 2,407 in 1847, and 5,156 (39.2% of the total population) in 1897. Vasilkov was a ḥasidic community and for some time David b. Nahum twersky of Chernobyl lived there. The Jews in Vasilkov engaged in crafts, small-scale business, and worked in local tanneries. In February 1919, S. Petlyura 's armies conducted pogroms in Vasilkov, massacring 50 Jews and 60 Russians suspected of being Communists; the Jewish community was forced to pay a special contribution. When the Soviet regime was established, Jewish communal life was discontinued. In 1926 the Jews in Vasilkov numbered 3,061 (14.4% of the total population). In 1941 the Jews of Vasilkov were exterminated by the Nazis. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A.D. Rosenthal, Megillat ha-Tevaḥ, 2 (1929), 81–82. (Yehuda Slutsky)