The Soldier Synagogue, the only active synagogue in Rostov-on-Don.

The history of the Jews in Rostov-on-Don dates to at least 1811. Rostov-on-Don was part of the Pale of Settlement until 1888, after which it was included in the military area of the Don Cossacks.^[1]

History

The Rostov fortress and settlement were founded in 1761, and the town gained official status in 1796. The Jewish community remained small until the Poliakov brothers (Samuel, Lazar, and Yakov) built several railroads and transformed Rostov-on-Don into a major transportation center. By 1880, the Jewish population had increased to 5,000. The Jewish community continued to grow, reaching a height of 27,039 people in 1939. During the Holocaust, the Nazi Germans murdered 13,000 Jews at Zmievskaya Balka on 11 August 1942. Several days later, 2,000–5,000 Jews were shot to death in the local Jewish cemetery. During the Soviet era, the Jewish population steadily decreased between the 1950s and the 1990s, and by 2002 less than 5,000 remained in Roston-on-Don.^[2]

Notable Jews from Rostov-on-Don

• Lev Anninsky, a Soviet and Russian literary critic, historian, publicist, essayist and author.
• Yuri Bashmet, a Russian conductor, violinist, and violist.
• Yakov Frenkel, a Soviet physicist renowned for his works in the field of condensed matter physics.
• Elena Gnesina, a Soviet and Russian composer and music educator.
• Mikhail Gnessin, a Russian Jewish composer and teacher.
• Josefa Gurfinkel, a Jewish Russian-born Soviet chess player.
• Alexander Kaidanovsky, a Soviet and Russian actor and film director.
• Tsaezar Kunikov, an officer in the Soviet Naval Infantry.
• Ray Lev, a Russian-born American classical pianist.
• Sophie Liebknecht, a Russian-born German socialist and feminist.
• Raïssa Maritain, a Russian-Jewish poet and philosopher who later converted to Catholicism.
• Alexander Schapiro, a Russian-born anarcho-syndicalist activist active in London and New York City.
• Leonid Shamkovich, a chess Grandmaster and chess writer.
• Elena Shirman, a Russian Jewish poet killed in the Second World War by the Nazis.
• Sabina Spielrein, a Russian physician and one of the first female psychoanalysts.
• Maxim Staviski, a Russian-born naturalized Bulgarian ice dancer.
• Mark Stolberg, a Russian chess master.
• Savielly Tartakower, a Polish and French chess player.
• Vera Weizmann, a medical doctor, Zionist activist, and first wife of Chaim Weizmann.
• Emmanuil Yevzerikhin, a Soviet photographer.

See also

• History of the Jews in Russia
• History of the Jews in the Soviet Union
• Main Choral Synagogue (Rostov-on-Don)
• Soldier Synagogue, Rostov-on-Don
• Zmievskaya Balka

References

External links

• Jewish Community of Rostov