MONASTYRISKA

MONASTYRISKA (Pol. Monasterzyska ), city in Tarnopol district, Ukraine. Until 1772 the city was part of the Red Russia province in the kingdom of Poland, and from 1772 until 1918 in eastern Galicia under Austrian rule. First Jews are recorded in 1625. The Jewish community numbered 2,450 (56 percent of the total population) in 1890 and 2,041 (49 percent) in 1910. They comprised the majority of artisans, and some of them worked in a home-based toy industry organized by relief organizations from Vienna in 1902. Until World War i the community had four synagogues and an elementary school administered by the *Baron de Hirsch Fund. Owing to pogroms by Russian soldiers, Ukrainians, and Petlyura gangs during wwi, the number of Jews decreased to 1,168 (39 percent of the total) in 1921, and 1,488 in 1931). A Jew served as town mayor.

Holocaust Period

By 1939 the number of Jews had grown again and was close to 3,000. During the period of Soviet rule (1939–41), the activities of the Jewish community were stopped. The Jewish social services were also liquidated. The Jews tried to adjust to the new conditions and some of the youth moved to the large cities. With the outbreak of war between Germany and the U.S.S.R. (June 22, 1941), the Ukrainian nationalists began to attack the Jews. These attacks intensified after the Soviets withdrew from the city on July 4. On July 13 hundreds of Jews deported from Hungary were brought to the city. In March 1942 the Jews of Kopyczynce and Koropiec were brought to the city. At the beginning of October 1942 an Aktion was carried out and 800 were sent to the *Belzec death camp. At the end of October, the Jews of Monastyriska were transported to Buczacz, where they perished together with the Jews of this city. Jewish life in the town was not revived after the war.

bibliography:

B. Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Polsce w wiekach xix i xx (1930), 120, 130.

[Aharon Weiss]