Starodub
STARODUB
STARODUB , city in Bryansk oblast, Russian sfsr. Jewish settlement in Starodub is first mentioned in connection with the *Chmielnicki massacres of 1648–49, when the Cossacks conquered the town and murdered its Jewish inhabitants. Later, Jews once more inhabited Starodub, but during the Northern War, when the town was occupied by the Swedish army (1708), soldiers again killed about 50 Jews. In 1847 the number of Jews registered in the community was 2,558, and in 1897 there were 5,109 Jews (42.5% of the total population). The community was largely influenced by *Ḥabad Ḥasidism, which during the middle of the 19th century established a large yeshivah. This was closed down by the authorities, however, in 1881 as a result of a denunciation by one of the town's maskilim who accused the Ḥasidim of evading military service and of being involved in forgery and fraud. In October 1905 pogroms took the lives of several Jews in Starodub. Under the Soviet regime the community and its institutions were dissolved. In 1926 there were 3,317 Jews (26.6% of the total population). Under the German occupation (1941) all Jews who did not manage to escape were killed.
bibliography:
Y.F. Schneersohn, in: He-Avar, 3 (1955), 125–30; 4 (1956), 104–11; Die Judenpogrome in Russland, 2 (1909), 324–8.
[Yehuda Slutsky]