Sources on Jewish Communities in this section:

Одесса  Odesa [Ukr], Odessa [Rus], Odess [Yid], Odes  

JewishGen Locality Page

Brockhaus-Efron Jewish Encyclopedia  Odessa  is a large trading city on the Black Sea coast, forming a city government with the surrounding

areas; For a long time O. served as the administrative center of the Novorossiysk General Government. The Odessa Jewish community played

a major role in the cultural life of Russian Jews. There is an opinion that when in 1789 the Russians took possession of the Turkish fortress

Hadji Bey, renamed Odessa in 1794, Jews were already living there. Completely reliable news dates back only to 1793, when the so-called

“old” cemetery was founded, as evidenced by the oldest tombstone. According to official data, after the capture of Odessa by the Russians,

only five Jews settled here, but in1795 the Jewish population already consisted of 246 persons of both sexes (a total population of 2,350 souls).

The first settlers came from Volyn, Podolia and Lithuania. Charitable unions soon formed; the preserved pinkos, begun in 1795, contains

the charter of the society of “true charity,” that is, care of the sick and dead. Probably in the same year the Talmud Torah arose. In 1798, the

Kahal was formed; Following this, a synagogue arose (on Jewish Street), which later received the name “Main Synagogue” (rebuilt in 1855),

and a couple of years later a Jewish hospital with six beds was founded.