Bella (Bilhah) Shrira, Slavita, Vahlin, Ukraine, c. 1921. Wife of Shmuel Shrira was born in the town of Slavuta in the Volhynia region, to a Hasidic family. (March 3, 1883, Slavuta - May 1944, Tel Aviv, Israel) Studied at the Slavuta Yyeshiva and was ordained to the Rabbinate. In about 1900, he left his grandfather's home for Odessa, where he successfully passed the external matriculation exams, and studied at the large and modern Yeshiva of R. Chaim Tesharnovitz ("young rabbi"), Rabbi of the Jewish community in Odessa. The studies at the Yeshiva combined Torah with Zionism, and were taught by teachers like Bialik and Kluizner. In those days, Shrira published articles in Shiloh, the journal of Ahad Ha'am. He was active in the "Tseiri Zion" movement until the establishment of the "Hahiteahdut", which consisted of "Tseiri Zion" and the Hapoel Ha'Tsair in 1920 (Zionist Socialists). In 1912, the ethnographic expedition led by the writer and playwright An-Ski (Shlomo-Zanville Rapoport). Shmuel Shrira's acquaintance with En-Sky began in 1910, probably as part of the graduates of Baron Ginzburg's "Academy" in St. Petersburg. En-Ski started out with Shrira as his personal assistant in 1912. In the second season he participated as a field researcher. According to Gor Aryeh's testimony, he conducted the first questionnaire distributed in the towns with him. The writing of the full questionnaires was completed at the end of the expedition. The expedition operated for three seasons in the years 1912-1914, the highlight of the joint activity of An-Ski and Shrira in an experimental expedition, was the discovery of the Tzaddik Dybbuk, tales, legends, stories and a Hasidic way of life, which formed the basis of the play The Dybbuk by An-Ski. Later, after being translated into Hebrew by Bialik, it was the second play presented by the Habhima Theater.
The Oster Visual Documentation Center, ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, Courtesy of Elat Algor Gurfinkel
Volhynia
(Place)Volhynia
In Polish: Wołyń; Ukrainian: Волинь; Yiddish: וואָהלין
A historic region in Central and Eastern Europe in the northwest corner of Ukraine located north of Podilia (Podolia), south of Polisia (Polesia) east of the Buh (Bug) River, situated between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. While the borders of the region are not clearly defined, the territory that still carries the name is Volyn Oblast, located in western Ukraine. Its area is approximately 70,000 sq km, and its population exceeds 4 million. Volhynia's borders have changed considerably over the centuries, shifting consistently from west to east. Until WW I it was part of the Jewish Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire.
Slavuta
(Place)Slavuta
Славута
A town in northern Kamenets-Podolski Oblast, Ukraine. Slavuta was annexed by Russia after the second partition of Poland (1793) and was in the province of Volhynia until the 1917 revolution.
21st Century
In the mid 2010s there was a cultural center in Slavuta.
History
In 1765 the poll tax was paid by 246 Jews registered in Slavuta. During the late 18th and first half of the 19th century, the community became known for its printing press, founded in 1791 by Rabbi Moses Shapira, son of the Tzaddik Rabbi Phinehas B. Abraham of Korets. Later Moses' two sons, Samuel Abba and Phinehas, took over the administration of the press. Three editions of the Babylonian Talmud, an edition of the Bible (with commentaries), the Zohar, and many other religious works, especially Chasidic literature, were all produced handsomely and with great care by the press. In 1835 the press was closed down when the owners were arrested for the alleged murder of a worker who had supposedly denounced them for printing books without permission from the censor.
There were 1,658 Jews registered in the community in 1847 and 4,891 in 1897 (57% of the total population). Under Soviet rule the community's institutions were destroyed.
The Jewish population numbered 4,701 in 1926 (44.9%).
The Holocaust Period
During the German occupation of the city during World War II, those Jews who did not manage to escape were murdered.
Postwar
A mass grave marks the place where Jews were massacred by the Nazis in the vicinity of the town, with a monument set to the memory of those dead and with inscriptions in both Russian and Yiddish. In the late 1960s the Jewish population was estimated at about 3,000. There was one synagogue administered by a rabbi.