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erezhany
carried out an Aktion to liquidate ghetto “A” In defiance, the
Jews set the ghetto ablaze. That day some of the members of
the *Judenrat committed suicide at their last meeting. Many
of the inmates were murdered in the ghetto itself, while about
1,800 were taken and killed outside the town. The community
was not reconstituted after World War II.
[Aharon Weiss]
Bibliography: Słownik geograficzny krolestwa polskiego, 1
(1880), 140–1; Regesty i nadpisy, 1 (1899), no. 781; NLYL, 1 (1956), 18–19;
Pinkes fun Finf Fartilikte Kehiles (1958), 687–91, 327–464. Add. Bibliography:
PK Polin: Volhin ve-Polesie.
BEREZHANY (Pol. Brzeźany), town in Ukrainian S.S.R. and
Republic (formerly in E. Galicia). Jews had settled there by
the 18th century. Jewish representatives from different communities
met at the fairs held in Berezhany, e.g., in September
1740. There were 90 Jews living in Berezhany in 1765, in
1900, 4,305 (over 40% of the total population), and 3,580 in
1921. Of the 825 pupils attending the German high school in
Berezhany in 1908, 186 were Jews. Before World War I the
flour trade was mainly in Jewish hands. The community had
a hospital and old-age home. Among the rabbis of Berezhany
was Shalom Shvadron.
During the Holocaust, on Oct. 1, 1941, 500–700 Jews were
executed by the Germans in the nearby quarries. On Dec. 18,
another 1,200, listed as poor by the Judenrat, were shot in the
forest. On Yom Kippur 1942 (Sept. 21), 1,000–1,500 were deported
to Belzec and hundreds murdered in the streets and
in their homes. On Hanukkah (Dec. 4–5) hundreds more
were sent to Belzec and on June 12, 1943, the last 1,700 Jews
of the ghetto and labor camp were liquidated. Few survived
the war.
Bibliography: J. Kermisz, “Akcje” i “Wysiedlenie” (1946), index;
Bleter far Geshikhte, 4 no. 3 (1953), 104; Bauer, in: Midstream, 4
(1968), 51–56. Add. Bibliography: M. Katz (ed.), Brzeźany Narayov
ve-ha-Sevivah (1978); S. Redlich, Together and Apart in Brzezany:
Poles, Jews and Ukrainians, 1919–1945 (2002); PK.
BEREZINO, small town in Mogilev disrtrict, Belorussian
S.S.R., today Belarus. The Jews there suffered during the
*Chmielnicki uprising in 1649. In 1702, during the Swedish
campaign, the Jews were fined for failing to pay their post
duties which had been imposed by the Polish Sejm (diet) in
1673. The community numbered 208 in 1766; 1,289 in 1847; and
3,377 in 1897 (69.3% of the total population). It suffered in 1920
when Berezino was on the front line between the Polish and
Soviet armies. In 1926 there were only 1,565 (53%) Jews. They
worked in cooperatives, with 20 families in a multinational
kolkhoz (farm). The Jews numbered 1,536 in 1939. Berezino
was occupied by the Germans on July 3, 1941. In August they
murdered 150 Jews and on December 25–27 another 1,000
Jews, with most infants thrown alive into mass graves.
Bibliography: Yevrei v SSSR, 4 (19294). Add. Bibliography:
Jewish Life, S.V.
[Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]
BEREZOVKA, town in Odessa district, Ukraine. A Jewish
community was established there by the first half of the 19th
century. On April 26–27, 1881, the Jews were attacked in a pogrom
and out of the 161 buildings owned by Jews only the
synagogue and pharmacy were undamaged. The local population
prevented another pogrom from occurring in October
1905. The Jewish population numbered 3,458 (56.2%) in 1897
and 3,223 (42.6%) in 1926, dropping to 1,424 in 1939. During
the Soviet period Jews were employed in artisan cooperatives
and Jewish kolkhozes. A Yiddish elementary school, a Yiddish
evening school, a club, and a library were in operation.
Berezovka was taken by the Germans on August 10, 1941. On
August 14 they murdered 41 Jews and on August 25 another
100. By September, 211 were dead. Subsequently the town was
included in Romanian Transnistria, and Jews from Bessarabia
and Odessa were deported to the Berezovka area, with nearly
7,000 perishing.
Bibliography: Yevrei v SSSR (19294), 50; Eynikeyt (May 4,
1945). Add. Bibliography: PK Romaniyah, PK Ukrainah, S.V.
[Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]
BEREZOVSKY, BORIS ABRAMOVICH (1946– ), Russian
tycoon and political figure. Born in Moscow, Berezovsky
graduated from the Moscow Timber Institute (Department
of Electronics and Computer Engineering) and subsequently
from Moscow State University (Department of Mechanics and
Mathematics), pursuing postgraduate studies in the theory of
decision making and receiving a doctorate at the age of 37. He
published over 100 scientific papers and a number of monographs,
some of them in the U.S., U.K., Japan, Germany, and
France. From 1991 he was a corresponding member of the Russian
Academy of Sciences and a member of the International
Scientific Society for the Theory of Decision Making.
Berezovsky worked as an engineer at a research institute
connected to the Ministry of Instrument Making, Automation
and Control Systems (1968–69). In 1969 he was an
engineer at the Hydrometeorological Research Center and
in 1969–87 worked at the Institute of Control Science of the
Academy of Sciences.
Political and economic changes in Russia made it possible
for Berezovsky to go into private business. He was active
in the automobile industry and in 1989 organized LogoVaz,
which became a holding company in 1994. Subsequently he
gained control of ORT (Obshchestvennoe Rossiyskoe Televidenie,
Russian State Television) and the Siberian Oil Company
(Sibneft), ultimately being called the richest man in
Russia by Forbes. He also became influential in the political
life of the new Russia. He became close to President Yeltsin
and rose to the position of deputy secretary in Yeltsin’s National
Security Council in 1996 and executive secretary of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (Sodruzhestvo Nezavisimykh
Gosudarstv) in 1998, contributing to the settlement
of the Chechnya crisis and the cessation of hostilities. Called
the “grey eminence” by his enemies and represented as a typical
“oligarch,” a tycoon who made his fortune by illegal means
414 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3