Sadagora

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SADAGORA

SADAGORA (Rom. Sadagura ; Ger. Sadagora ), town in Chernovtsy district, Ukraine. From 1775 until World War i Sadagora passed to Austria and between the two world wars was within Romania. The first Jews settled there during the 17^th century. In 1775, 45 Jewish families (186 persons) were enumerated among 180 families in the town. There were 100 Jewish families in 1808, and 3,888 Jews (80.3% of the total population) according to the census of 1880. Once the community developed, 16 smaller Jewish communities were affiliated to it. Communal institutions developed from the 18^th century. The central synagogue was apparently built about 1770, but there were also numerous additional synagogues and prayer houses. The community had a yeshivah and a Jewish school, established under Austrian rule. The Jews of Sadagora mainly engaged in commerce and crafts, while among the Jews of the vicinity, who in practice belonged to the community of Sadagora, there were also lessees and wealthy landowners. A special occupation of the local Jewish poor was the haulage of water in barrels from distant wells to houses in the town. Between 1883 and 1914, a Jew was town mayor.

In 1914, before the outbreak of World War i, there were 5,060 Jews living in Sadagora and a further 3,000 in the 16 communities affiliated to it. During World War i the town and its surroundings suffered extensively from the fighting there, and many of its Jewish inhabitants left, and the number of Jews had declined to 900 in 1919. After the war a number returned and continued to live there under Romanian rule. There were 1,459 in 1930, declining to 654 in 1941. Zionist organizations were early established in Sadagora and were particularly active in the interwar period under the Romanian rule. Jews also took part in the municipal life, and their parties were well represented in the municipal administration. In June 1940 the town was annexed to the U.S.S.R., and the Soviets exiled many Jewish merchants and artisans to Siberia.

Sadagora was an important center of Hasidism, from the period of Austrian rule over Bukovina until the liquidation of the community. Most of the Jewish inhabitants of the town belonged to the *Ruzhin Ḥasidim. R. Israel Friedmann of Ruzhin arrived in Sadagora after he was released from prison in Russia and established a magnificent "court" there. His royal style of living aroused opposition from the Ḥasidim of Zanz (see *Halberstam). After World War ii the center of the Sadagora dynasty was transferred to Ereẓ Israel.

Holocaust and Contemporary Periods

In 1941 the town was restored to Romanian administration, which collaborated with the Germans. During this period 186 Jews lost their lives in attacks made against the Jews. In 1941 almost all of the 1,488 Jews remaining in Sadagora were deported by the Romanian and German authorities to death camps in *Transnistria. A few Jews returned to Sadagora in 1944, but community life was not reorganized after the war.