The year 1768 was a disastrous year for the Jewish people. In that year, the Ukrainian city of Uman and its surrounding areas was the scene of a horrific massacre known as the "Evil Decree of Uman." It was reminiscent of the horrors of the Chmielnitski massacres in which hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered in the Ukraine one hundred and twenty years earlier.

Ominous were the urgings of Archimandrate Yavovsky to attack Jewish communities.



In April of that year, a rebellion of Haidamaks, paramilitary Ukrainian bands, broke out against the Polish nobility. An insurrection of this nature immediately meant danger for the allies of the Poles, the Jews. Even more ominous were the urgings of Archimandrate Yavovsky to attack Jewish communities. He promised absolution to those who slaughtered Jews.


Wherever the Haidemaks went, slaughter followed. The first attacks swept through the cities of Lisyanka, Golta, Tulchin, Paulovich, Fastov, Zhivotov, Granov, and then spread to Teityev. Jews and Poles fled to the local fortified city of Uman for protection. Uman belonged to the estate of a member of the famous Potocki family by the name of Mladanovich. He controlled guards who were under the command of Ivan Gonta, despite the fact that he was suspected of being a sympathizer with the Haidamaks.


Unlike other catastrophes that befell the Jews of the Ukraine, of which numerous and detailed accounts exist, information on this enormous tragedy is limited. The following is based upon one account by an anonymous author, entitled The Sword of Gonta.


After the Haidamaks attacked and destroyed the Jewish community of Teityev, they approached Uman. Ivan Gonta, hoping the Jews would not offer resistance, sent an amiable letter to a local rabbi. The rabbi replied that if Gonta stayed with the Jewish side, then he would have the loyalty and friendship of the Jewish community. Gonta, of course, really had no intention of making a pact with the Jews.


On Monday, the fifth of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, the Haidamaks arrived at the outskirts of Uman. They declared that they wanted access to the city that evening. As they approached, its inhabitants sealed the outer walls. With the walls closed shut, no one could enter. Those who resided outside the city because of a lack of space were killed that day.


The following day, the Haidamaks gathered around Uman. Their leader, Maxim Zhelyeznyak, contacted Gonta, who, along with his followers, had joined the Haidamaks. Zhelyeznyak told Gonta to write a letter to the commissioner of the city stating that any effort to fight them was futile. He also falsely stated that he had orders from Czarina Catherine II, who allegedly had offered some support to the Haidamaks, to kill all the Jews of southern Poland. The letter stated, "Either hand over the Jews or let us in to clean them out." The commissioner, out of fear, consented, but Polish priests and nobility, along with the Jews, armed themselves and prepared for battle.


On the fifth of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, the Haidamaks arrived at the outskirts of Uman.



Soon, the commissioner opened the city gates as per his agreement with the Haidamaks, despite calls from the local Polish clergy and nobility not to do so. A horrific slaughter of both Jews and Poles ensued. The city of Uman became the city of the slaughtered; the deaths they suffered were so ghastly they defied description. For the next six days, the slaughter continued.


Haidamaks seized the daughter of Rabbi Moshe. They brought her to a well, attempted to force her to accept baptism by threatening to drown her. Through it all, she remained steadfast, refusing to submit to their demands. When some wanted to throw her in the well, she cried out, "I am willing to die. I'll even offer you my neck."


In another incident, approximately eighty Jews were hiding in a barn cellar. As each Haidamak entered with sword in hand, he was killed. Soon, they set the barn aflame, suffocating all within.


During the carnage, many Jews fled to the main synagogue. There, they armed themselves and put up a stiff defense. Rabbi Leibish, with sword in hand, had managed to kill twenty of the enemy. Rabbi Moshe Menaker also killed several. Seeing that the Jews could not be defeated, the Haidamaks sealed off the synagogue perimeter, brought a canon and fired, blasting its walls as they threw themselves upon the many who had taken refuge there.


Haidamaks ran through the streets in a frenzy, killing and looting Poles and Jews.


Extortion was a common practice during Cossack pogroms in the Ukraine. However, paying the sums demanded by the Haidamaks did not guarantee that one would be spared. Some Haidamaks went to the city hall and informed the local Jewish merchants that, for a high price, they would be left alone. The Jews went to their homes and returned with funds for ransom, but were killed anyway.


The penalty for any Haidamak found helping a Jew was death. Following the massacre, as children who survived were roaming around in hunger searching for food, some Haidamaks took pity and aided children. They, too, were killed.


The estimates of the slaughter, as during the Chmielnitski pogroms and the 1919 Ukrainian uprising, vary. Figures range from twelve thousand to thirty thousand - the figure cited in the above account. The author of that account stated that the Jews and Polish priests lay in piles of dead that could not be contained by "the space of a Shabbat boundary" - 2,000 amot, or approximately two-thirds of one mile. Unlike the Nazis, the perpetrators of atrocities in the Ukraine did not keep records. Following the attacks, many also perished from disease and starvation as a result of the destruction.


Rabbi Leibish, with sword in hand, had managed to kill twenty of the enemy.



The author of the Sword of Gonta account stated, "We need to cry day and night over this hour," when Uman was attacked, "Let this day (the fifth of Tammuz) be a monument to their memory."


The sainted Chassidic giant Rabbi Nachman of Breslov spent the last several months of his life in Uman. Suffering from tuberculosis, he knew his passing was near. He felt a special kinship with the many martyrs of the massacre of Uman, and his fervent desire was to be buried near them.


The fifth of Tammuz was designated as a day of repentance and fasting for the victims of the massacre of Uman and its surrounding communities. May the memories of those with pure hearts and souls, who made the ultimate sacrifice, be for a blessing.