Krymchaks

Origins

Jews had lived in Crimea since antiquity, but the Krymchaks coalesced as a distinct Rabbanite community across the medieval and early-modern peninsula, centered on Genoese-then-Ottoman Kaffa (Feodosia) and later on Karasu-Bazar, the largest Krymchak town.¹ Their core stock was Byzantine (Romaniote) Jews — the settlement was 'founded by Byzantine Jews fleeing the crusades' — later reinforced by Mediterranean Sephardim and Ashkenazim.² Encyclopaedia Judaica records that they 'absorbed Jews coming from other communities: the Byzantine Empire, Babylonia and the Khazar kingdom, Italy, and the Caucasus, as well as Ashkenazi Jews.'¹ The name 'Krymchak' was a 19th-century Russian coinage 'to distinguish the Rabbanite Jews in the Crimea from the Karaites who lived in the same region.'¹

Religious life

The Krymchaks were strictly Rabbanite (Talmudic) Jews; their very name was coined 'to distinguish the Rabbanite Jews in the Crimea from the Karaites who lived in the same region.'¹ Around 1515 Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ha-Goleh ('the Exile'; 1448–1520), a former chief rabbi of Kiev, 'elaborated the single rite compiling the prayer book Maḥzor Minhag Kaffa,'¹ fusing local usages into 'a distinctive Krymchak prayer book, which represented the Romaniote rite.'¹ This Kaffa rite remained the community's hallmark. From 1866 to 1899 the Jerusalem-born Sephardi scholar Ḥayyim Hezekiah Medini (1832–1904) served as chief rabbi of Karasu-Bazar, before returning to Jerusalem to complete his halakhic encyclopedia Sedei Ḥemed.¹

Language & culture

The Krymchaks spoke Krymchak, a 'Kipchak Turkic language' also called Judeo-Crimean Tatar, written in the Hebrew alphabet — the vernacular they took from their Tatar neighbours.³ Khazanov dates 'their transition to the Crimean Tatar language, which apparently took place between the ends of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.'³ Hebrew supplied the religious vocabulary, with 'as much as 5% of vocabulary [being] Hebrew.'³ Their self-designation was 'Срель балалары (Srel balalary) – literally "Children of Israel"'.³ Though 'before the Soviet era, it was written using Hebrew characters,' Soviet policy later imposed the Cyrillic script, accelerating the language's decline.³

Relations with neighbours

The Krymchaks lived among Crimean Tatars, whose language, dress and customs they largely adopted, and beside the Karaites, from whom they were pointedly distinguished: Tatars called the Rabbanites 'zuluflı çufutlar ("Jews with pe'ot")' and the Karaites 'zulufsız çufutlar ("Jews without pe'ot")'.⁴ After 'the Russian Empire annexed Crimea in 1783', 'the Krymchaks were thereafter subjected to the same religious persecution imposed on other Jews in Russia,'³ and Ashkenazi Jews poured into the peninsula. By 1900 the old community was a small minority: 'there were 60,000 Ashkenazim and only 6,000 Krymchaks in Crimea.'⁴

Decline & dispersal

Russian rule, Ashkenazi in-migration and emigration steadily eroded the community; 'on the eve of World War II their number was estimated as 8,000.'³ After Germany occupied Crimea, the SS shot the Krymchaks alongside other Jews in 1941–1942: 'Six thousand Krymchaks, almost 75% of their population, were killed during the Holocaust,'¹ and Khazanov likewise records that 'about 70 percent perished during the Holocaust.'³ Survivors assimilated, and Soviet authorities propagandized 'an ethnic myth...that the Krymchaks were descended from those groups of the ancient Crimean peoples...who converted to Judaism.'³ Only 1,559 remained by the 1989 Soviet census;³ a few hundred to a thousand each now live in Israel, Russia and Ukraine.⁴

Notable figures

• Moses ben Jacob ha-Goleh ('the Exile') (1448–1520) — Rabbi & codifier of the Kaffa rite. Former chief rabbi of Kiev who settled in Crimea and 'elaborated the single rite compiling the prayer book Maḥzor Minhag Kaffa,' shaping Krymchak liturgy.¹
• David ben Eliezer Lekhno (?–1735) — Rabbi, grammarian & chronicler. Community head and 'author of the introduction to the "Kaffa" rite prayer book and Mishkan David', a Hebrew grammar; he also chronicled the Crimean Khanate.⁴
• Ḥayyim Hezekiah Medini (1832–1904) — Chief rabbi of Karasu-Bazar; halakhist. Jerusalem-born Sephardi scholar who led the Krymchaks from 1866 to 1899 and authored the vast halakhic encyclopedia Sedei Ḥemed.¹

Key events

• 1515 Codification of the Kaffa rite. Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ha-Goleh unified Crimea's varied Jewish traditions into 'a distinctive Krymchak prayer book, which represented the Romaniote rite' — the Maḥzor Minhag Kaffa.¹
• 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea. Russia annexed the Crimean Khanate; the Krymchaks 'were thereafter subjected to the same religious persecution imposed on other Jews in Russia,' and Ashkenazi in-migration soon overtook them.³
• 1866 Medini becomes chief rabbi of Karasu-Bazar. From 1866 to 1899 the halakhist Ḥayyim Hezekiah Medini led the Krymchaks, raising their religious and educational standards before returning to Jerusalem.¹
• 1941 Holocaust of the Krymchaks. After Germany occupied Crimea, SS killing units shot the Krymchaks with other Jews in 1941–1942: 'Six thousand Krymchaks, almost 75% of their population, were killed during the Holocaust.'¹
• 1989 Post-war assimilation and identity revision. Soviet authorities propagandized 'an ethnic myth...that the Krymchaks were descended from...ancient Crimean peoples...who converted to Judaism'; only 1,559 remained in the 1989 census.³³

Where they lived

• Crimea (Karaite & Krymchak centers) · 900