This very old Jewish community that has been the home to the most famous names in Jewish scholarship (i.e. the founder of the great seventeenth century Edels Yeshivah in Ostrog, Samuel Edels the Maharsha) could rightfully be the subject of a long article. The synagogue structure is a seventeenth century masonry fortress that has been the subject of virtual architectural reconstruction, the books printed in its publishing houses fill several chapters of Jewish bibliography, the Jewish community was sizable and relatively well-off compared to much of Podolia.
This first posting though is of a hurried nature, because of the ruling that one should rush to do a good deed. The Ukraine SIG was sent a picture of a man whose grandson knows him only as a Jew who lived in Ostrog in the 1920s and 1930s. The grandson does not know his first name nor his last name. Families were torn apart in the Holocaust and some things were left uninvestigated during Soviet times. I invite the SIG membership to look through its picture albums for a matching photograph.
Resident of Ostrog c.1925-1939
This is the picture of the grandfather of Mykhailo
Nechyporyk. He lived in Ostrog and this picture was
made between 1925-1939. Please help us identify him
and find other members of his family. This picture
was supplied by the generosity of Mykhailo
Nechyporak
The Fortress Synagogue of Ostrog
Built in the days when Ostrog was a Polish town on the frontier with the nation of Moscovy, the town was built to withstand military onslaught, and the synagogue was seen as an integral part of the town's defensive resources. Jewish men were to man the parapets of the synagogue in the event of attack, and if Ostrog was typical of other Polish towns, then Jewish women were supposed to join other women of the town in assisting with fire bucket brigades when the town was under attack.
Swedish postcard maker Granberg in Stockholm made a series of Ukraine postcards and was said to include this example but neither their name nor the date appears on the card which was cut to remove the stamp or cancellation. It appears to be the same postcard sold by Tomek Wisniewski of the In Search of Poland Society When going to this site, click on the flag representing the language of choice.
Now this page is still largely unformed. Send us the pictures of your family members here. Send us the materials that researchers have found for you in archives in the Ukraine, dig out the stored-away documents that have been archived in your own family papers. Do you have your grandfather's discharge papers, your grandmother's passport, a picture of your uncle in an unidentified uniform, photographs with the markings of Ostrog photographers? Please help!
Email material for this page to Ukraine SIG Interactive Database Projects
Click here to go back to the Collection Points for Ukrainian TownsClick on Volhynia Gubernia to learn more about the Gubernia which was in existence from 1796 to the 1920s.
Page created by Deborah Glassman October 2005