Promoting Jewish education in the Russian Empire, 1850-1919

Obshchestvo prosveshchennii︠a︡ evreev (The Society for the Proliferation of Education among Jews) was the leading organization dedicated to the education and enlightenment of the Jewish population in the early 1900s. The Ukrainian chapter of this society first formed in Kyiv in 1903. Thanks to membership dues and donations, the OPE distributed financial subsides to Jewish educational programs and supplied Jewish schools and Talmud Torahs with literature in the provinces of Kyiv, Volynia, Podol and Chernigov. During the First World War, the society helped set up schools and preschool centers for the children of Jewish refugees. Documents covering the activity of the OPE as well as other Jewish cultural societies are held in the Kyiv State Oblast Archive (Fondy F-348, F-1208, FR-5004, FR-5004) and are being preserved on microfilm by East View Information Services. In total, the 167 files (more than 17,600 pages of rare documents) include materials on the following topics: ₅ OPE papers and minutes of meetings ₅ a pogrom in the town of Rechitsa ₅ the 7th All-Russia Zionist Congress (1917) ₅ the Belaia Tserkov Jewish women₂s classical school ₅ the Tarbut Jewish cultural and educational society ₅ the Gamore Jewish Teachers Union.