ZALESHCHIKI

ZALESHCHIKI (Pol. Zaleszczyki), town in Tarnopol district, Ukraine. In 1765 there were 344 Jews who paid the poll tax. The local Jews engaged in small trade and crafts, and later they participated in the resort business. The Jewish population numbered 4,424 (71% of the total) in 1880, and 3,382 (62%) in 1910. There was a strong ḥasidic influence in the community. (Shimshon Leib Kirsheboim) -Holocaust Period During the period of Soviet rule (1939–41) all communal activity was prohibited. In the first days after the outbreak of war between Germany and the U.S.S.R. (June 22, 1941), Jews were attacked by the local German population. On Nov. 14, 1941, the first Aktion took place and about 800 Jews were killed. Jewish youth were sent to a forced-labor camp in Kamionka. On Sept. 20, 1942, the order was given for all the Jews to move to the Tluste (Tolstoye) ghetto within 24 hours. From there part of the Jews were sent to the belzec death camp; others were sent to work camps in the area, while a few tried to find refuge in the surrounding forests. The community was not reconstituted in Zaleshchiki after the war. (Aharon Weiss) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 121; I. Schiper, Dzieje handlu żydowskiego na ziemiach polskich (1937), index.