- August 19, 2025
- 7:53 pm
- Israel
On August 19, 2025, a Russian missile hit an old Jewish cemetery in the city of Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv region. The strike hit right in the middle of the cemetery, many graves were damaged…
This was reported by the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Asman:
“I spoke with the rabbi of the city of Pervomaisk Levi Perelshtein, now rescue services and specialists are working there. In the near future it will be possible to assess the full scale of this crime.
Russian missiles not only kill innocent people, but also do not give peace to the dead! Unfortunately, this is not the first case: strikes have already hit Jewish cemeteries in Kyiv, Hlukhiv, Bila Tserkva and other places. Even Babyn Yar suffered…
The dead cannot answer for themselves and stand up for themselves, but it is the duty of the living!”
The strike on August 19 caused significant damage to many graves in the cemetery.
Rescue services and specialists are working at the scene, after which the full extent of the destruction will be assessed.
It should be noted that in Pervomaisk there are three Jewish cemeteries: the “old”, the “new”, into which the enemy missile fell, and another one that belonged to the town of Holta.
Pervomaisk: history of the city
Pervomaisk was founded in 1919, when three different settlements were united into one:
- Olviopol — Cossack settlement of the 17th century, later a military center of the Russian Empire.
- Bogopol — trade and customs point of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, founded in the 18th century.
- Holta — a settlement on the left bank of the Southern Bug, formerly part of the Ottoman Empire.
On May 1, 1919, the new city was named Pervomaisk — in honor of International Workers’ Day.
In Soviet times it developed as an industrial and cultural center of the Mykolaiv region. During the Second World War it experienced occupation and heavy destruction, and after liberation in 1944 it was restored. Today Pervomaisk is a city with a population of about 60 thousand people, which has preserved its historical heritage.
Jewish community of Pervomaisk
Turn of the 19th–20th centuries
Jewish life in Pervomaisk began in Bogopol and Holta in the 18th century. By the end of the 19th century Jews made up a significant part of the population, engaged in trade and crafts. In 1908 a large synagogue was built in Holta.
At the beginning of the 20th century about 9,000 Jews lived in the city. Cheder schools, synagogues, charitable societies operated.
In December 1919 White Guard units organized a series of pogroms in which dozens of Jews were killed.
Between the wars
By the 1930s the Jewish population had decreased to about 6,000 people. The Soviet authorities closed synagogues, but the community remained active.
The Holocaust
From 1941, during the German–Romanian occupation, a ghetto was created in Pervomaisk.
- September 17, 1941 — hundreds of Jews were shot.
- October 1941 — 120 people were killed at a local factory.
- December 15, 1941 and January 9, 1942 — all remaining ghetto prisoners were destroyed.
- February–March 1942 — about 1,600 Jews deported from the Romanian zone were shot near the city.
In the suburb of Holta, annexed to Transnistria, a separate ghetto with barbed wire was created. Jews from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Bucharest were brought there. People were used for forced labor, and those deemed unfit were killed.
The last rabbi of Pervomaisk before the war was Yaakov Shimshon Khodorov.
After the war and modern times
After the liberation of the city Jewish life was partially revived. In the 1970s and 1990s many emigrated.
In 2004 emissaries of Chabad — Rabbi Levi Yitzhak and his wife Hani Perelshtein — arrived in Pervomaisk. They founded a Jewish center, around which today there is a small but active community.
The symbolism of the strike on the cemetery
The destruction of the Jewish cemetery in Pervomaisk is not just another act of Russian aggression. It is a blow to the memory of generations, to the place where victims of pogroms, the Holocaust and Soviet persecutions rested.
This shelling fits into a chain of barbaric attacks: cemeteries in Kyiv, Bila Tserkva, Hlukhiv, even the Babyn Yar memorial suffered.
The history of the Jewish community of Pervomaisk is a history of life and tragedies, survival and revival. Today, when missiles again destroy its traces, this memory becomes part of the struggle to preserve the truth.
We at NAnews – News of Israel are convinced: the strike on the Jewish cemetery in Pervomaisk is not just another episode of Russian aggression. It is an attempt to erase memory, insult the dignity of the dead and strike at the historical heritage of the Jewish people in Ukraine.
Pervomaisk is a city where Jewish life was formed for centuries, experienced flourishing, pogroms, the Holocaust and emigration. The cemeteries of this city are silent witnesses of all this history. Today they again came under fire.
We consider it our duty to talk about these crimes so that the memory of the dead and the destroyed holy places does not disappear. Because, as the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Asman said, “the dead cannot stand up for themselves — it is the duty of the living.”
NAnews – News of Israel will continue to monitor the fate of Jewish shrines in Ukraine so that no act of vandalism and destruction remains without attention.
