Hebrew manuscript. Single sheet, honoring the names of 67 Jews from the town of Buki (Ukraine) slain in pogroms.

(UKRAINE).

Buki (Buky), Ukraine

1922

Single manuscript sheet written in Hebrew. Heading reads: “A memorial to the day of passing of the holy martyrs from the city of Buky who were improperly buried, may they rest in peace.” Below, in red ink: “The names of those slain to sanctify God’s name in Ukraine, the city of Buky, in the region of Kiev, district of Uman.” Beneath this are two lists of names composed in a calligraphic hand. Several names contain additional information, such as the date they were killed. The first reads: ‘Reb Eliyahu Kaledener, slain in the field by the sword, summer of 1919.’ Three are for a husband, wife, and son: ‘R. David Melamed, his wife Miriam Chaya, son Shmuel Abba’ along with the date of their murder, 1st Kislev 1920. Below is a line of text reading: ‘Thus completes all the Karbanot known to us…’ and closes with a Hebrew chronogram from Isaiah 63:4: ‘For the day of vengeance that was in My heart, and My year of redemption are come.’

This important and sorrowful historical artifact, represents communal reaction to the wave of pogroms wrought upon the Jewish population of Ukraine by the White Volunteer Army and by the Cossacks during the summer of 1919. In all untold tens of thousands of Jews were massacred in hundreds of individual pogroms. Only those killed (‘by the sword and in horrible atrocities’ as stated here) are listed here. The many raped and injured, property destroyed and stolen, frightened hearts and broken spirits can hardly be adequately conveyed. At its height, Buky’s Jewish population consisted of 2