Stara Syniava ( uk, Стара Синява; russian: Ста́рая Синя́ва) is a

rural settlement The definition of a rural settlement depends on the country, in some countries, a rural settlement is any settlement in the areas defined as rural by a governmental office, e.g., by the national census bureau. This may include even rural towns. ...

Khmelnytskyi Raion Khmelnytskyi Raion ( uk, Хмельницький район, ) is one of the 20 administrative raions (a ''district'') of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is located in the city of Khmelnytskyi. Its populati ...

Khmelnytskyi Oblast Khmelnytskyi Oblast ( uk, Хмельни́цька о́бласть, translit=Khmelnytska oblast; also referred to as Khmelnychchyna — uk, Хмельни́ччина) is an oblast (province) of western Ukraine covering portions of the histo ...

, western

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. It hosts the administration of Stara Syniava settlement hromada, one of the

hromada A hromada ( uk, територіальна громада, lit=territorial community, translit=terytorialna hromada) is a basic unit of administrative division in Ukraine, similar to a municipality. It was established by the Government of Ukra ...

s of Ukraine. The settlement's population was 5,961 as of the

2001 Ukrainian Census The Ukrainian Census of 2001 is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989.

. Current population: The settlement, previously named Syniava, received the

Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...

in 1543. In 1956, the town received the status of an urban-type settlement.

History

Until 18 July 2020, Stara Syniava was the administrative center of

Stara Syniava Raion Stara Syniava Raion ( uk, Старосинявський район, ) was one of the 20 administrative raions (a Raions of Ukraine, ''district'') of Khmelnytskyi Oblast in western Ukraine. Its Administrative centre, administrative center was loca ...

. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Khmelnytskyi Oblast to three. The area of Stara Syniava Raion was merged into Khmelnytskyi Raion. Until 26 January 2024, Stara Syniava was designated

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...

. On this day, a new law entered into force which abolished this status, and Stara Syniava became a rural settlement.

Jewish Population

Stara Syniava had a large Jewish population for nearly 300 years, having been given the status of shtetl. In 1897, the town had 2279 Jews. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, many Jewish residents were able to flee temporarily to Siberia and Uzbekistan, escaping extermination by the advancing

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

and Hitler's SS. Many who remained behind were rounded up by the invaders and killed evidenced by a mass grave of Jews found in Stara Sinyava. After the war some Jews returned to Stara Syniava and resumed living there. In the late 1970s Stara Syniava's Jewish population began emigrating from the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, largely to the U.S, Canada, and Israel. Today there are almost no Jews in the town.

References

{{Authority control Rural settlements in Khmelnytskyi Raion Populated places established in 1543 1543 establishments in Europe 16th-century establishments in Ukraine Podolia Voivodeship Litinsky Uyezd