VISHNEVETS

VISHNEVETS (Pol. Wisniowiec; in Jewish sources, Vishniets), village in N. Ternopol oblast, Ukraine. Jews first settled in Vishnevets in the early 17th century, and Tatars from Crimea who invaded the locality in 1653 massacred them. In the 18th century the community of Vishnevets was under the jurisdiction of the kahal of Kremenets (Volhynia). The village was annexed to Russia in 1795. There were 501 Jews in Vishnevets in 1765, 3,178 in 1847, 2,980 (70% of the total population) in 1897, and 2,825 (70%) in 1921. In the 19th century, Ḥasidism gained a following in the community. Between the two world wars, in independent Poland, there were branches of Agudat Israel and He-Ḥalutz. The community was annihilated in the Holocaust. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Halpern, Pinkas, index; B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 85. (Shimshon Leib Kirshenboim)