Sharhorod (, ) is a small city located upon the Murashka river in the historical region of Podolia in Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine.[ It served as the administrative center of the former Sharhorod Raion until its dissolution in 2020. Population:
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Sharhorod also has a number of foreign names, such as , , and .
History
Early history
Sharhorod was founded in 1585 by Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth chancellor and hetman, Jan Zamoyski as a fortress. It emerged on the site of the village of Korchmarove, which existed on the location in the 15th century.
Sharhorod received city rights under Magdeburg rights in 1588.
Because of its location along wine and cattle trading routes, during the 16th and 17th centuries Sharhorod was fought over by Cossacks, Poles and Ottoman Empire.[ It emerged as one of the largest towns in Podolia. The Turks occupied Sharhorod between 1672 and 1699, when the town was called "Little Istanbul".][ During that time, the synagogue was converted into a mosque. In the nineteenth century, the town became a center of Jewish Hasidism.][ Veidlinger, Jeffrey, "In the Shadow of the Shtetl: Small Town Jewish Life in Soviet Ukraine", Indiana University Press, 2013 p.28]
A Basilian monks monastery was established in Sharhorod in 1717; in 1795 it was transferred to the Orthodox Church and functioned until its dissolution during the 1920s.[
]
Rabbi Jacob Joseph of Polonne fled to Raşcov as a result of being exiled from Sharhorod. Having been the rabbi of Sharhorod for several years, Rabbi Jacob Joseph was expelled from his position on a Friday afternoon in 1748. In several of his responsa, which he wrote in Raşcov, he reveals the suffering which he had undergone.[Dresner Zaddik; p. 57] He would later leave Raşcov after being appointed rabbi in Nemirov, a center of Hasidic Judaism, where he practiced daily fasting for five years, until the Besht came upon him.
From 1776 to 1792, the 7th Polish National Cavalry Brigade was garrisoned in Szarogród.
Sharhorod was briefly described in a book titled: "Geographic Dictionary of Polish Kingdom and other Slavic places," published in Warsaw in Poland.
World War II
In 1939, 1,660 Jews lived in Sharhorod, making up three quarters of the population. On July 22, 1941, German troops occupied Sharhorod. The soldiers harassed Jews and looted their property. Jews were forced to pay taxes and wear an armband with a Jewish star. In the fall of 1941, Sharhorod became part of the newly established Romanian "Transnistria Governorate" Five thousand Jews were deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina to Sharhorod. Compared to many other ghettos in Transnistria, especially smaller ones, living conditions were tolerable despite Forced labour: there was a bakery, a soup kitchen for the poor, and a functioning administration; even the large synagogue was reopened. Many of the Jews in the Shargorod ghetto died of disease, 1,449 from a typhus epidemic in early 1942, or were deported to , leaving only about 2,971 deported Jews (2,731 from Bukovina and 240 from Bessarabia) alive on September 1, 1943, though about 500 Jews originally from Dorohoi were relocated to the village of Capushterna in 1943, as a part of the relocation of 1,000 Jews to ten nearby villages.[Yitzak Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), p. 302-303.] Four Jews in Shargorod died because of typhus between October 1942 and February 1943.[Radu Ioanid, The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of the Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000), p. 206.][Jean Ancel, Transnistria (Bucuresti: Atlas, 1998), vol. 3 (in Romanian), p. 36.] Six Jews were executed on March 20, 1942, for leaving the ghetto without permission.[Julius S. Fisher, Transnistria, The Forgotten Cemetery (South Brunswick: Thomas Yoseloff, 1969), p. 35.] The number of local Transnistrian Jews in Shargorod was originally 1,800 in round numbers in late 1941.[Jean Ancel, Transnistria (Bucuresti: Atlas, 1998), vol. 3 (in Romanian), p. 35.] The number was almost equally large on January 31, 1943, 1,800 in round numbers.[Radu Ioanid, The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of the Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000), p. 221.][See Jean Ancel, Transnistria (Bucuresti: Atlas, 1998), vol. 3 (in Romanian), p. 35.] About 400 Jews fled to Shargorod from elsewhere, including the German-occupied area east of the Bug River, and were provided by the local Jewish committee with the necessary documents.[Yitzak Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), p. 303.] The leader of the Jewish community in Shargorod in 1941-1944 was Meier Teich, the former leader of the Jewish community in Suceava.
According to the
/ref> Shargorod was one of the minority of the localities localities in Transnistria where most Bessarabian Jewish deportees survived the Holocaust. Most of the Bessarabian Jews who died in Shargorod whose names are known came from the city of Khotyn and
/ref> For more information on the Holocaust in Transnistria, including on the fate of the Jewish deportees from Romania, including Bukovina and Bessarabia, see History of the Jews in Transnistria.
Postwar era
In 1984 the city's population reached 4,800 inhabitants. During that time Sharhorod was a centre of food industry.[
]
Religious buildings
Orthodox
St. Nicolas Orthodox Monastery - founded in 1719, initially constructed in 1782 and rebuilt in 1806–1818.
Catholic
St. Florian Catholic Cathedral - opened on November 3, 1525.
Jewish
Synagogue - built in 1589.
Culture
The international modern arts festival "Art-City: Sharhorod" is conducted in Sharhorod.
Professional painters, amateur painters, art collectors and tourists from various countries like to attend the international modern arts festival "Art-City: Sharhorod".
Transportation
Railway transportation
The nearest railway connection is the Yaroshenka railway station, located 28 km from the city.
Automobile transportation
There is a bus station in downtown Sharhorod. The road distance to Zmerynka is 37 km. The distance to Bar, Ukraine is around 60 km. The distance to Vinnytsia is 80.8 km. The distance to Kyiv is 330 km.
Notable people
Jacob Joseph of Polonne, a Ukrainian rabbi and one of the first and most dedicated of the disciples of the founder of Chassidut, the Holy Baal Shem Tov.
==Gallery==
of Sharhorod during the 1930s]]
See also
Further reading
External links
