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Local merchants from the adjacent small village of Staromishchyna established businesses to serve the workers during the decade or so the construction of the railroad took. In 1872, with the completion of the work on the railway, Pidvolochysk was declared a city, with the intention of it serving as a center for the transfer of merchandise between Europe and Russia. Large warehouses for the storage of merchandise, enclosures for livestock awaiting veterinary inspection prior to import, and factories and warehouses for the marketing of eggs were erected, alongside workshops and repair shops for the upkeep of the engines and cars of the trains, and various factories for the optimal utilization of merchandise that was unfitted for import or export in its existing form. The railway track that travelled through the city brought merchandise from all over the Austro-Hungarian Empire and from many other countries, such as Switzerland, England, France and the German Empire, and these countries founded commerce agencies and brokerage centers in the city. The city developed quickly, and its population grew exponentially until the beginning of the twentieth century, when the founding of additional commercial centers along the Zbruch river led to a deceleration in the pace of growth. With the outbreak of the First World War, the city was captured by the Russian forces, who exiled its inhabitants, and remained in Russian hands until its re-capture by the Austrians in 1917. Many of the city’s former inhabitants did not, however, return. The city’s economic standing between the two World Wars did not improve, primarily due to a sharp decline in the quantity of agricultural exports between Europe and Russia.

 

The Jews of Podwolocyska

The central place occupied by the Jews of Pidvolochysk (who formed 60-70% of the population of the city) is evidenced in census information. This central role was derived, among other things, from the role they played in the foundation and operation of the city. Some of the local Jewish merchants, who started out as merchants serving the railroad workers in the 1860s, founded and ran large warehouses once the city became a trading checkpoint. Until the early 1890s, the Jews of Pidvolochysk worked primarily in wholesale commerce, with a smaller number engaged in peddling and small-scale craftsmanship. To these were added the owners of clothing and shoe stores, which served the Russian medicinal tourists on their way to Europe. Toward the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the Jewish population of the city grew, a growth which led to a growth in these professions, which were very popular amongst Galician Jews, as well as in free professions. During these years the economic condition of Pidvolochysk’s Jews was good, to the point where there was no need for any official charitable institutions to exist. The few beggars who were residents of the city were supported by private citizens.

With the foundation of the city, the Jewish community of Podwolocyska was also officially instituted, and with it various communal institutions. Rabbi Joshua Heschel Babad was appointed the city rabbi, and served in this position until his death in 1895. He was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Judah Aryeh Leibusch Babad, who served as the city’s rabbi until he was murdered in 1942. Rabbi Babad was universally accepted by the members of the Jewish community of Pidvolochysk, despite his personal affiliation with the Belz Hassidic sect. Beyond the role he fulfilled as the rabbi of the Pidvolochysk Jewish community, Rabbi Babad was active in the local and national political scene. He attended the many gatherings convened during this time, and was even asked to serve as an independent Ultra-Orthodox representative to the Polish Sejm between the two World Wars, an honor that he declined.

Traditional educations institutions, such as ‘heder’s and batei midrash, were established in the city, and a great synagogue was built. Many smaller synagogues operated alongside the great synagogue, serving the many different groups that comprised the Jewish community of the city during this time. Special synagogues existed for the Hasidim of the Chortkov and Husiatyn courts, for different artisanal associations and, with the growth of Zionism in the region, also for ‘Mizrahi’ activists. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a movement of ‘progressive Judaism,’ which included several academics and major merchants, developed in Pidvolochysk, and its members founded a magnificent temple. Rabbi Babad attended the laying of the corner-stone for this house of prayer, which opened its doors only at the beginning of 1914. The Jewish children of Pidvolochysk were educated, in their early years, in a ‘heder,’ and when they were six split their days between learning at the ‘public’ school during the mornings and in the ‘heder’ during the afternoons. From age ten to eighteen the boys would travel to the gymnasium in Ternopil by train every day, and it was only in 1911 that a small local gymnasium was established in Pidvolochysk.

With the rise of nationalism and Zionim, as early as 1895, a variety of Zionist movements began operating in the city, and at the beginning of the twentieth century different Zionist organizations started to proliferate: ‘Degel Yehuda’ (the Flag of Judah) was instituted in 1900, ‘Achva’ (Unity) in 1905, ‘Po’alei Zion’ (the Workers of Zion) in 1906, ‘Benot Zion’ (the Daughters of Zion) in 1907, ‘Tikvah’ (Hope), ‘ha-Mizrahi,’ etc. In addition, at the beginning of the twentieth century the ‘Safah Berurah’ Hebrew school was opened in the city, and a variety of drama, theater and choir clubs, as well as additional cultural activities, were active.

With the outbreak of the First World War, the Jews of Podwolcyska were exiled to Skalat, where they were housed within the poor local Jewish community under difficult conditions. Many of the exiled Jews died of different diseases. After the end of the war, many of the Jewish citizens of Pidvolochysk did not return, and those who did did not return to their former economic status. The economic condition of the city declined steadily due to the decrease in trade, and in 1926 about 60% of the city’s citizens were defined as unemployed. A charity association named ‘Beit Lehem’ was formed, and provided challot for Shabbat for the poor, and an orphanage, supported by larger communities, such as the community of Ternopil, was established. The city rabbi, with the aid of the Joint Distribution Committee, played a central role in caring for the needy of the Pidvolochysk community, and for Ukrainian refugees in general.

From the end of the war, the Jewish community committee was headed by a commissar appointed by the Polish government, and following the free elections of 1927 there was a Jewish majority in the city council (26 out of 40 council members were Jewish). In the 1933 elections, however, the regulations were changed, and the number of representatives was limited to 12, out of which only 6 Jews could be elected.

The Second World War

With the outbreak of the Second World War the city was captured by the Soviets, who made substantial changes to the economic structure of the city in accordance with the Soviet model. Factories and businesses were nationalized, and central political activists were exiled to the depths of the Soviet Union. We have very limited information about this period. With the capture of the city by Nazi Germany on 7.7.1941, the Ukrainian inhabitants of the city began a pogrom against their neighboring Jews, with four Jews being beaten to death with sticks and stones in the city streets. These events were accompanied by acts of theft and plunder, and acts of arson directed at synagogues and religious institutions. The Nazis captured the city’s rabbi, Rabbi Judah Aryeh Babad, together with two religious officials, and molested them, shaving their beards off and forcing them to dance naked in the street. A Jewish ghetto was created as soon as the Nazis entered the town, and a Judenrat was appointed and charged with the role of supplying man power for forced labor. In September 1942, the ghetto was destroyed and the Jews of Podwolcyska were sent to the Zbarazh ghetto, where they were shot and buried in a mass grave in the Spring of 1943. Only about 200 of the city’s Jews survived the war, whether by escaping from forced labor camps, hiding in the woods or hiding with Ukrainian and Polish neighbors, who saved them at the risk of their own lives.

(Roee Golshmidt)

Sources:

ספר פודווליצ'יסקה והסביבה, הוצאת ארגון יוצאי פודווליצ'יסקה בישראל, חיפה 1988.

פנקס הקהילות, ב, פודבוליצ'יסקה,  עמ' 410-408.