Brovary

Jews started to settle in Brovary in the 17th century. The local Jewish community was totally destroyed during the uprising of Bogdan Chmielnitsky (1648-1649). The Jews did not return to Brovary until the mid-19th century. A ban on the settlement of Jews in Kiev forced many Jews to settle instead in nearby Brovary. In 1897 888 Jews lived in the town, where they comprised 23.3 percent of the total population. Most Brovary Jews were small-scale merchants or artisans. The prominent Zionist leader Leo Motzkin was born in Brovary in 1867. In April 1881 a pogrom was perpetrated during which Jewish houses were destroyed and Jewish property plundered. Brovary Jews suffered greatly from the violence of the revolutionary years and civil war in Russia. In 1918-1920 pogroms were carried out by various warring parties and Jewish property was looted or severely damaged. At this time many Jews left Brovary for Kiev in search of security. Jewish migration from Brovary continued during the early Soviet period, when many young Jews left the town for Kiev and other larger towns and cities in search of educational and vocational opportunities. In 1939 the town's 485 Jews comprised 5.5 percent of the total population. German troops occupied Brovary on September 19, 1941. Later in the fall of that year all the Jews still living in Brovary were deported to Kiev and murdered at Babi Yar, together with the Jews of Kiev. Also in the fall of 1941 several thousand Jewish inmates from the camp for Soviet POWs in Brovary were shot to death on the outskirts of the town. The Red Army liberated Brovary on September 25, 1943.