Dubno in the Wake of Khmel'nyts'kyi

Abstract

This article utilizes a newly discovered source, the protocol book of the municipal council of the Ukrainian town of Dubno, to supplement Hebrew sources that describe the fate of the town and its Jewish community during the Kheml'nyts'kyi Uprising and accompanying Gezeirot in 1648. It shows that the Cossack forces attacked the town twice and while many were killed, a significant number of its Jewish inhabitants survived. Shortly after the withdrawal of the Cossack forces a process of recovery and rebuilding began. Institutionally, both Christian and Jewish leaders quickly resurrected the forms — courts, legislative and administrative bodies, and enforcement officials — which regulated life and kept order. Individuals had to contend with their losses of family, property and belongings and this led to a resumption of business activity, second marriages and many disputes over debts and stolen property. This pattern of people trying to re-create the institutional, familial and material infrastructure of their lives seems to be typical of the communities that endured the Cossack attacks.