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Aleksandriya, Ukraine

Aleksandriya is a small town in the Rovno district, Volhynia, Ukraine. The Jews settled there before the Chmielnicki uprising (1648–50) and suffered at the hands of the Cossacks. Few Jews lived there until 1700, when they were obliged to pay a 350-zloty head tax. The community grew rapidly in the 19th century. In 1847 it numbered 728 and in 1897, 2,154 (out of a total population of 3,189). Jews built a sugar refinery, textile factories, and a sawmill, and rented flour mills from Count Lubomirski. The community maintained a school, a club, and a Hebrew library. The Zionist movement was very popular there. The Hebrew Tarbut school founded in 1917 served as a model for most of the towns of Volhynia.

The Jewish population numbered 1,700 in 1939. During Soviet rule in 1939–41, all Jewish political parties, organizations, and cultural institutions were closed and the economy was nationalized.

The Germans occupied Aleksandriya on June 29, 1941, and in the following days pillaged Jewish property and burned down the synagogues with the help of local peasants. On July 31, 85 Jews were executed. On September 22, 1942, about 1,000 Jews, including women, children, and the aged, were taken to the forest at Swiaty and murdered. Fifty Jews returned to the town after the war but soon left for Palestine.


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Yalkut Volin, 1 (1945), 15; 4 (1947), 24; Eisenstein-Keshev, in: Fun Noentn Over, 4 (1959), 191–231.

[Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]


Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.