Krymchaks - Russian and Soviet Rule

Russian and Soviet Rule

Russian Empire annexed Crimea in 1783. The Krymchaks were thereafter subjected to the same religious persecution imposed on other Jews in Russia. Unlike their Karaite neighbors, the Krymchaks suffered the full brunt of anti-Jewish restrictions.

During the 19th century many Ashkenazim from Ukraine and Lithuania began to settle in Crimea. Compared with these Ashkenazim the Krymchaks seemed somewhat backward; their illiteracy rates, for example, were quite high, and they held fast to many superstitions. Intermarriage with the Ashkenazim reduced the numbers of the distinct Krymchak community dramatically. By 1900 there were 60,000 Ashkenazim and only 6,000 Krymchaks in Crimea.

In the mid-19th century the Krymchaks became followers of Rabbi Chaim Hezekiah Medini, a Sephardi rabbi born in Jerusalem who had come to Crimea from Constantinople. His followers accorded him the title of gaon. Settling in Karasu Bazaar, the largest Krymchak community in Crimea, Rabbi Medini spent his life raising educational standards among the Jews of Crimea.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, civil war tore apart Crimea. Many Krymchaks were killed in the fighting between the Red Army and the White Movement. More still died in the famines of the early 1920s and the early 1930s. Many emigrated to the Holy Land, the United States, and Turkey.

Under Joseph Stalin, the Krymchaks were forbidden to write in Hebrew and were ordered to employ a Cyrillic alphabet to write their own language. Synagogues and yeshivas were closed by government decree. Krymchaks were compelled to work in factories and collective farms.