Ukraine Jewish Migration Part 1

The Journeys of Brothers starts near the southwestern edge of the Pale of Settlement, the area of the Russian Empire taken from Poland and where Jews were restricted to live from the time of Katherine the Great  (ca. 1790). Understanding this rather short vertical history of the movement of Jews in and around the Ukraine provides a deeper setting for the substantial migration of Jews in the period 1880-1920, the period of the story.

There has been a Jewish presence in the Ukraine for over two millennia. The early presence was along the coast of the Black Sea and traceable to the Babylonian exile. Some posit that the Tribe of Dan, one of the "lost" tribes, found this area for peaceful settlement- but that's very speculative.

It is alleged that in 986 C.E. the pagan Prince of Kiev, Vladimir, needing to share the beliefs of  his subjects, entertained leaders of the various faiths in Kiev-Muslim, Judaism, Roman and Byzantine Catholicism. He rejected the first two because he would be  required to be circumcised, the third because it was closely tied to the states of the west producing a clash in power. He accepted the last because it was the least threatening either to him personally (i.e., his manhood) or his rule.

But it looks like that in order to end a feud and create an alliance, Vladimir's choice was  his desire to marry Anna, a Byzantine imperial princess and sister of Basil II. What it does show is that Jews were present in the principal city of Kiev at the beginning of the 11th century. Over the years, Jews were expelled, then limited access or provided licenses, but almost always there was an underlying current of anti-Semitism that blocked Jews at the Gates of Kiev and forced generations to go to areas to the west of the city in order to benefit from the trade route.

Kiev-Rus 980-1054