His Work · Testimony and Documentation · National-Zionist

"The Scroll of Ukraine": AZR as a Witness to the Pogroms

An act of national documentation: to mourn the victims and preserve the truth

In the years 1918–1920 tens of thousands of Jews were murdered in pogroms in Ukraine. AZR, himself a refugee (the Jaffa expulsion) and a native of Poltava Governorate, took upon himself an act of national documentation: he wrote "The Scroll of Ukraine" ("Megilat Ukraina"), one of the most comprehensive surveys of the bloody events, published in the anthology "Ohel" (edited by Mordechai Kushnir, Tel Aviv 5680/1920). primary source (AZR) + scholarly assessment

1 "The Scroll of Ukraine": A Comprehensive Survey

AZR surveyed the political background, the civil war, the fighting forces, and the course of the pogroms, but focused his gaze on the suffering of the victims. The historian Gur Alroey assesses the survey:

"A. Z. Rabinovitz (AZR) published in the anthology 'Ohel' one of the most comprehensive surveys of the pogroms in Ukraine… It is entirely clear that Rabinovitz displayed a thorough knowledge of what was happening in Ukraine. His survey is accurate and faithful to the facts." Gur Alroey, "'This National Enterprise Cannot Be Founded on Compassion and Mercy,'" Iyunim Bitkumat Israel 23 (2013), p. 422, on AZR, "The Scroll of Ukraine," in the anthology "Ohel" (5680/1920).

2 A Faithful Witness: Truth and Numbers

Faithful to his ethos of truth (see "AZR the Historian"), AZR insisted on precision and on caution where witnesses were lacking:

"It is impossible to convey here all the details of the pogroms (all the details are not known at all: there are places of which not a single eyewitness remained alive), but we shall try to convey a general picture of them." AZR, "The Scroll of Ukraine" (Ohel, 5680/1920), as cited by Alroey.

The Toll He Reported

AZR estimated some 138,000 murdered, some 200,000 wounded and raped, and some 120,000 orphans ("and many billions were plundered"). He also faithfully documented the atrocities; here the matter is presented with gravity and without harrowing detail.

3 The Context: Compassion as a Stance

The title of the scholarly article, "This National Enterprise Cannot Be Founded on Compassion and Mercy," quotes a position that contrasted an overt narrative of compassion toward the refugees with a restrictive immigration policy. AZR, as was his way, stood on the side of compassion and testimony: to mourn the victims, to record their names and their suffering, and not to turn away. This accords with his article "Mercy" ("Rachmanut") and with his entire teaching of the sanctity of life (see "Ethics, the Sanctity of Life, and Social Justice").

Personal and archival context: AZR was himself a refugee in those very years (the Jaffa expulsion, 1917–18; see "The Jaffa Expulsion") and a native of Poltava Governorate in Ukraine, so the documentation was also a personal matter for him. "The Scroll of Ukraine" joins his historiographical work ("A History of the Jews in the Land of Israel") and his documentation of the fallen (editing "Yizkor"; see "AZR and Rav Kook"). secondary source: an academic article quoting AZR; the text itself is in "Ohel" (5680/1920).