The Krymchaks are an ancient Jewish community centered in the Crimean Peninsula. They adopted the language, lifestyle, and mode of dress of their Tatar neighbors, while remaining steadfast in their Jewish beliefs and practices. Read on for 14 fascinating facts about this unique community, along with the other Jews of Crimea.
1. Jews First Settled There in Greek Times
The ancient Greeks established settlements on the northern coast of the Black Sea, including the Crimean Peninsula. These trading ports attracted Jewish settlers, who established communities there as early as the 1st century CE—as evidenced by inscriptions discovered on marble tablets and Jewish motifs on ancient gravestones. In the centuries that followed, many more Jews joined them. Some found refuge there from persecution in their home countries, while others were drawn by the area’s shipping and trade opportunities.
2. They Came From All Over
Jews came to Crimea from all sorts of places: from Persia and Babylonia, from the Byzantine Empire, from Italy, and later from Germany and Poland. By the 13th century, Crimean Jews had formed a distinct identity, shaped by their diverse origins and a strong Tatar cultural influence on their speech and dress.
3. They Were Known by Several Names
These unique Jews originally called themselves Srel Balalary, “Children of Israel.” In time, they came to be known as Krymchaks, meaning “Crimeans” in Russian. The Crimean Tatars had yet a third name for them: Zülüflü Chufutlar, “Jews with sidelocks”—in contrast to the Karaites (see below), whom they called Zülüfsüz Chufutlar, “Jews without sidelocks.”
4. They Have Their Own Language
Over time, the Krymchak Jews developed their own dialect of Crimean Tatar, the language spoken by those around them. Known among themselves as Chagatai, it was written using the Hebrew alphabet and incorporated many Hebrew loanwords. Tragically, the decimation of the Krymchaks during the Holocaust, combined with the Russification policies of Soviet rule, has rendered the language nearly extinct.
5. They Lived Alongside the Karaites
The Karaites were a group of Jews who broke from mainstream Judaism in early medieval times, accepting the Written Torah but rejecting the Oral Torah. A large neo-Karaite community lived in Crimea alongside the Krymchaks. The Krymchaks did not consider the Karaites fully Jewish due to their divergent beliefs, and refused to intermarry with them or pray in their synagogues. Yet the two groups managed to live peacefully side by side and even cooperated in certain communal activities.
In later centuries, the Karaites actively sought to be excluded from the category of “Jew” in the eyes of the authorities, hoping to avoid Russian (and later Nazi) anti-Jewish policies. This drove the final wedge between them and the traditional Krymchaks.
6. You Can Tell Them by Their “Tzadi”
You can tell a Krymchak by how he pronounces the Hebrew alphabet! The letter tzadi, which most Jews pronounce as “tz,” is pronounced by Krymchaks as “ch,” as in “chalk.” So a righteous man is a chaddik, charity is chedakah, and on Passover they eat machah.
All other letters were pronounced in the Sephardic tradition, except that Krymchaks also distinguished between the letters tav and sav—a feature more common among Ashkenazi Jews.
Read: The Difference Between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Pronunciation
7. An Exiled Rabbi Brought Harmony
In the early 16th century, discord broke out in Kaffa (modern-day Theodosia), one of the main Krymchak centers. The disagreement was over prayer liturgy, with different segments of the community championing the Babylonian rite (the community’s historical practice), the Romaniote rite (brought by arrivals from Byzantium after its fall to the Turks), and the Ashkenazi rite (introduced by more recent Ashkenazi settlers).
Into this situation stepped an illustrious scholar, Rabbi Moshe of Kiev, who had been captured by the Tatars and brought to Crimea in 1506. He established communal policies and crafted a unified liturgy for the community known as “the Kaffa rite,” which became the standard Krymchak prayer tradition for centuries to come.
8. They Would Bring Live Chickens to Weddings
The Krymchak Jews developed many customs over the centuries. Here’s one of them: Under the wedding canopy, a live hen and rooster would be circled seven times above the heads of the bride and groom as a symbol of fertility. The birds would then be slaughtered, koshered, and enjoyed.1
Read: 11 Unique Jewish Wedding Traditions From Around the World
9. A Turkish Rabbi Rejuvenated Jewish Life
Though the Krymchak Jews were deeply committed to traditional Jewish life, they did not always have local rabbis to guide them. In 1867, a Krymchak merchant traveling in Constantinople approached a prominent local rabbi, Rabbi Chaim Chizkiah Medini, and asked him to relocate to his hometown of Karasubazaar to serve as their spiritual leader. The rabbi agreed. For the next 33 years, Rabbi Medini—celebrated for his monumental halachic encyclopedia, Sdei Chemed—elevated Jewish life in Crimea, establishing schools and teaching Torah. He remained a beloved and venerated figure among Krymchak Jews for generations.
Fun fact: In 1949, the Lubavitcher Rebbe reprinted the Sdei Chemed at the behest of his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. As part of the project, the Rebbe—who had grown up in Nikolayev (Mykolaiv), not far from Karasubazaar—compiled a brief biography of Rabbi Medini, portraying him in glowing terms.
10. Ashkenazi Arrivals Created New Communities
In 1783, Catherine the Great captured Crimea from the Tatars and annexed it to the Russian Empire. In the decades that followed, many Ashkenazi Jews from Russia settled in the region, eventually far surpassing the native Krymchaks in number. These newcomers established their own communities in cities like Theodosia, Kerch, Simferopol, and Sevastopol.
Fun fact: In 1865, a group of Cantonist soldiers—Jews who had been conscripted into the Tsar’s army as children—who had completed their service founded a cheder (religious school) for their children in Simferopol, alongside the cheder serving the other local Jewish children.
Read: Who Were the Cantonists?
11. Yalta Was a Resort Destination
In addition to permanent settlers, many Jewish visitors came to Crimea for health reasons. The coastal city of Yalta was a celebrated resort town, making it an ideal destination for those who needed fresh air and a change of climate. Among them was the Fifth Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn of Lubavitch, who spent an extended stay there in 1886 with his family—including his young son Yosef Yitzchak, the future Sixth Rebbe, who later devoted a significant portion of his memoirs to describing the formative impressions of that visit.
12. The Soviets Encouraged Jewish Settlement
In the 1920s, the Soviet government established Jewish farming settlements in Crimea, funded in part by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Many Jews moved to the region and took up agricultural work. To tend to their religious and spiritual needs, the Sixth Rebbe sent Rabbi Peretz Mockin to the area in 1927.
13. The Holocaust Dealt a Tragic Blow
When the Nazis occupied Crimea in late 1941, approximately 6,500 Krymchak Jews lived in the region (alongside many more Ashkenazi Jews). While the Germans were initially uncertain how to classify them ethnically, they ultimately concluded that the Krymchaks were Jews and subject to their racial policies. Well over three-quarters of the Krymchak population was annihilated.
Read: Some Facts About the Holocaust for Those Just Learning
14. Krymchak Jews Today
Today, small Krymchak communities can be found in Crimea, Israel, and the United States. In Israel, the community established a synagogue in Tel Aviv that operated for many years. And today, there are Chabad centers in Sevastopol and Simferopol, ensuring that Jewish life on the Crimean Peninsula continues to flourish.
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Much of the information in this article was culled from Yahadut Krim M’kadmutah V’ad Hashoah (Heb., Jerusalem, 1981).
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