Berdychiv Jewish Tour

The route from Kyiv to Berdychiv by car, 180 km:

In 1789 in Berdychiv lived 1951 Jews among 2640 of the population of the town (about 75%). In the town were 80 synagogues and beit midrash.
From the end of 18th century Berdychiv became an important center of Chasidism. Soon the conflict between Chassidim and Misnagdim (‫מתנגדים‬‬; also Mitnagdim; singular misnaged/mitnaged; is a Hebrew word meaning "opponents") started. 
In 1820th had formed a big group of followers of the Haskalah ideas (often termed Jewish Enlightenment; Hebrew: ‫השכלה‬‬; literally, "wisdom", "erudition"; was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with certain influence on those in Western Europe and the Muslim world).
In 1861 the community of Berdychiv Jews was the second in Russian empire - about 51.000 (or 93% of the city population).
The situation on early 20th century in the Eastern Europe became a reason of very big emigration wave from here. The part of the Jewish population began to decrease. Soviet government closed practically all Synagogues (the atheism was an official doctrine of soviet power). In spite of all this, Yiddish was an official language of the city even in 1920th.
But from 1930th the religion and culture activity were limited.
At the times of WW2 the Jewish community of Berdychiv was practically exterminated by Nazi.  

The dynamic of Jewish population of Berdychiv town:
* 1789 — 1 951 (73,9 %)
* 1860 - 50 399 (92,6%)
*  1867 - 52 563 (79,2 %)
* 1897 - 41 125 (77,1 %)
* 1926 - 30 812 (55,5 %)
* 1939 - 23 266 (37,5 %)
* 1959 — 6 300 (11,8 %)
* 1970 — 5 700 (8,0 %)
* 1979 — 4 600 (5,6 %)
* 1989 — ≈ 3 000 (3,3 %)
* 2001 — ≈ 800 (1,0 %)

Ohel (grave) Mausoleum of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak ben Meir of Berditchev (Levi Yitzchok Derbarmdiger, 1740–1809; also known as the Berdichever, and the Kedushas Levi, a Hasidic master and Jewish leader) is in the old Jewish cemetery.
http://berdychiv.in.ua/леви-ицхак-бен-меир-бердичевский/

The restored grave of Rabbi Lieber Eliezer the Great (1667-1771)
http://berdychiv.in.ua/святой-либер-элиэзер1/

Memorial sign on the site of the former Jewish ghetto and mass graves of WW2
http://berdychiv.in.ua/массовые-захоронения/

Choral Synagogue (1850)
https://uk.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Велика_хоральна_синагога_(Бердичів)

Jewish Museum of the city of Berdichev
https://uk.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Музей_єврейства_міста_Бердичева
http://berdychiv.in.ua/бердичів-музей-єврейства-міста-берди/?lang=ru
https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/History-Museum/Музей-єврейства-міста-Бердичева-1499961803643964/

Jewish cemetery
http://berdychiv.in.ua/еврейские-кладбища/

More about Jewish Berdychiv on:
http://berdychiv.in.ua/краткая-история-бердичевского-еврей/
http://jewua.org/berdichev/
http://berdychiv.in.ua/category/istoriya/evreyskie_sviatyni/

More about general tours to Berdychiv see here...

Berdychiv - Ukraine Jewish Tour Private Guides