Balta Collection Point

Balta in Podolia Gubernia

History

Balta has flown many flags since it was built on the Turkish side of the Turkish/Polish border in the 1500s. In the mid 18th century when Prince Lubomirski granted Magdeburg rights to the part of the town on the Polish side of the border that would later be incorporated with Turkish Balta into the new Russian town of Balta, the town's emblem carried his initials. In the nineteenth century this shield was the registered emblem of Russian Balta and I have seen sketches from a nineteenth century publication that suggests it flew over the great fair at Balta at which Jews were the largest single group represented.

Balta has existed since the 16th century when it was built as a military fortress to defend Turkey from its Polish neighbor to the north of the Kodyma River on which it sat. A Polish community and the Turkish fortress existed on either side of the Kodyma in accordance with the various peace treaties. The Polish town owned by the Lubomirski noble family had been named Yusefgrod for Prince Yusof Lubomirski. And Jews had actually lived in the two separate towns in the Turkish and Polish periods. This situation continued until Poland was partitioned by Russia and Russia became the neighbor to the north. In 1768-1774 Catherine the Great of Russia warred against the Ottoman Empire and her troops poured into Balta. The Haidamaks, one of her Cossack divisions, who had been leading attacks on Jewish communities throughout the area, took the war opportunity to assault the unarmed Jewish population of the city and the many Jewish refugees from acrosss the region who had sought protection there. The massacres of the Jews of Balta and of Uman are among the many Haidamak murders still commemorated from the first year of that war. Balta remained a Turkish community until 1791 when the Russians took it again via the Treaty of Jassy In 1797 it became part of Russia's newly formed Podolia gubernia, this time combining the two communities that had been formed on either side of the Kodyma River and Jews continued to live in both parts of the town. In 1865 the first railroad in Dnieper Ukraine was built; it connected Balta with the port city of Odessa. In 1880, 80 percent of its population was Jewish. Through the nineteenth century it was a wheat-growing and marketing area, grain shipments left there and went out of the country on Odessa-docked ships.

We need volunteers to work on Balta data. If you are interested in writing a clear survey of internet resources, doing manifest transcriptions, locating Balta records in different archives, etc, please contact the site moderator, Deborah Glassman

The Balta "Chevra Bikur Holim" [Society for Visiting the Sick], a Jewish communal organization has a surviving register in the Vernadsky Library in Kiev covering the central porion of the 19th century (1821-1869). If someone has gotten copies of any of these pages and the title page, we would like to publish it here.

There was a substantial fair at Balta every year in which Jewish merchants played a significant role. It was said to be key to the agricultural development of the new Besserabian communities in the early to mid nineteenth century. If you have or would like to do research on this subject and publish it here, please contact the site moderator.

April 10, 1882 A pogrom occurred here in Balta. Every Jewish home was invaded, 40 Jews were murdered, 170 were wounded, many women were raped and terrorized. Over 1200 Jewish homes and shops were completely destroyed. The 15,000 Jews who were here began a steady outpouring out of the Russian Empire but because of Balta's relative size to the rest of Podolian communities and closeness to Odessa, it continued to attract new settlement from the Podolian Jewish hinterland and the statistics appear to remain flat on population even when thousands emigrated. It was this particular pogrom that was said to have been the last straw for the modern Zionists like Leo Pinsker who cited the Balta pogrom as proof that there could be no way for Jews and Russians to coexist in the same land. If you have a story about your family's life here in Balta, please write us. We would also like to see travel documents, Business Directories, and private letters that illumine life here.

Family Photos

Kleiman Extended family in Balta
See the key below.Provided by the generosity of Nisha Chirnomas

This is a key or legend.
Nisha Chernomas writes " No. 2 Fanny, #4- Yankel KLEIMAN who was my great grandfather's brother; #5 Chaim KLEIMAN (Yankel's son); #6 Sarah, Chaim's wife; we think the others are Yankel's children and though we have names, we are not sure that we are putting the right names with the pictures.This is my connection: My grandmother, Rose Kleiman, her parents were Chaya Riva and Moishe Kleiman. Moishe was a brother of Yankel Kleiman in this picture. All from Balta.

Nisan and Rose (KLEIMAN) NISSENSON
They married in Balta in December 1899 and emigrated to Canada 1904. This picture was taken in Montreal in 1940s. Rose was born in Balta, Nisan in the nearby town of Olgopol. This picture was supplied by the generosity of Nisha Chirnomas

The Dec 1899 Ketuba of Nisen and Rose (KLEIMAN) NISSENSON
The marriage contract of her grndparents was graciously shared by Nisha Chirnomas

Internet Resources

Internet and in-library searches will yield a great deal of historical information that we have yet to uncover. A report from Max Lilienthal, an early leader of the Haskalah in Russia who left the country when he realized that the government had no good intent towards even an "enlightened" Jewish population, did a series of reports that were published in and American Jewish paper (The Oddicent) in 1848. Among numerous other observations covered in the multi-series report was an analysis of the appeal of training as skilled tradesman and as religious leaders among the Jews of Russia. He gives a specific report on teachers of children's religious classes there - "The three cities of Kaminiec, Balta, and Mohilev, in Podolia, alone give employment, according to strictly authentic records, to one hundred and twenty-six Melammedim, who teach over sixteen hundred children, at an annual expense of 10,392 silver rubles. Sketches of Jewish Life in Russia: A General Survey of the Condition of the Jews in Russia. By the Chief Rabbi Dr. Lilienthal, pub in American Occident Vol. V, No. 10 Tebeth 5608, January 1848; online at The American Occident and Jewish Advocate

7,000 from Balta who died defending Russia in WW II (1941-1944) This listing, so far going from A to P, including many Jews, appears on one of several linked sites for Balta at Balta town (has an English language site map). Another part of that same site lists in Russian Balta citizens in 1914. There is also a page on the cemeteries of several Balta religious communities Balta's old cemeteries which ncludes matseva [gravestone]pictures from 2 (of the 4) Jewish cemeteries with reportedly several thousand stones still standing. Please note that the link on the site map tht takes you to "Religious Communities - Jews" appears to not be working.

Nisha Chirnomas has given this page a great start and I have tried to help out by outlining some basic facts and resources. Now we need your pictures and your records and your interest in research. We need you to help locate material about this town, to volunteer to create resources, to tell the stories that your family has passed down. Did someone in your family live here? What did they do for a living? Did someone in your family grow up here? Where did they go to school? Help us learn about them by Emailing material for this page to Deborah Glassman

Click on Podolia Gubernia to learn more about the Gubernia which was in existence from 1796 to the 1920s.

Page created by Deborah Glassman,
copyright October 2005
updated November 2005