May 25, 1648, 375 years ago today, was the beginning of the Cossack rebellion led by Bogdan Chmielnicki (May his name be erased from memory).
May 25, 1648, 375 years ago today, was the beginning of the Cossack rebellion led by Bogdan Chmielnicki (May his name be erased from memory). The Cossacks sought to end Polish rule in Ukraine but their wrath was directed at the Jews. 100,000 Jews, one-fifth of Polish Jewry, were murdered and 300 communities destroyed. The maniacal violence of Chmielnicki's army was extraordinary even in light of the privations that had befallen Jews in the region for centuries. The Rabbi and historian Nathan ben Moses Hannover wrote in his authoritative account Yeven Metzulah ("The Abyss of Despair”) about the depths of the depravity. Infants were torn apart in front of their mothers. Women had their bellies sliced open and live cats sewn inside, their arms hacked off so that they could not remove the cats. Men were skinned alive and their flesh tossed to dogs. The soil of Ukraine is steeped with Jewish blood including the 33,771 massacred at the Babi Yar ravine in Ky...