The purpose of this project is to identify and connect all of the Jewish families of the small town of Chorostkow.

Chorostkow, now called Khorostkiv is located between Husiatyn and Kopyczynce, on the banks of the River Taina in the Ternopil Oblast of the Ukraine in what was once Galician Podolia. The village was granted the rights of a small town by local magnate named Siamianski who invited Jewish artisans and merchants from other Podolian towns to come and live there. Initially the Jewish community of Chorostkow was affiliated with the congregation in Strusow, 8 or 9 kilometres away. By 1765 there were 42 Jewish poll-tax payers and two children less than one year old in Chorostkow.

Despite large waves of emigration from Chorostkow beginning in the 1880s, by the 1930s there were approximately 5000 Jews in Chorostkow. At the outset of WWII the Soviets invaded and held Chorostkow until 1941. In 1941 the Soviets retreated the local population Ukrainian population enlisted by the thousands to form 2 voluntary Ukrainian army divisions to fight under German command while thousands more volunteered to serve with the Nazi “Einsatzgrupen." Jewish Chorostkow was completely obliterated. All that is left is the Monument, erected post war by the Halpern Brothers, Arie and Sam, themselves survivors from Chorostkow, in Memory of the remnant of a few hundred Jews slaughtered at the local forced labor camp in a final orgy of death before the Nazi retreat in 1944.

For a list of the more than 200 surnames including some of the profiled surnames see the Jewishgen Kehilalinks page for Chorostkow linked below.

External Links:

• Kehila Links Chorostkow
• Sefer Chorostkow
• JRI-Poland Chorostkow Surname List
• Shtetl Links- Chorostkow
• Images of Chorostkow Today on Foto-Polska

Tree Tops for Surnames Found in this Project:

• Bard-- Leib
• Blam--Leiwisch
• Demberg-- Meilich and Abraham Aron (brothers)
• Eichenkatz/Eikenkatz-- Michel (c. 1830)
• Freidmann-- Joachim
• Gellman-- Chaim
• Gilsohn-- Dawid
• Glazner-- Hirsch
• Goldberg-- Moses Abraham
• Gross-- Noach
• Gross-- Zallel
• Halpern-- Jacob
• Heitner-- Kelman His daughterChaja might atually be the first Khorostkiv Heitner.
• Heller-- Chaskel and Eisek and Moses appear to be either brothers or first cousins. There is also one record for a Moses Ber Heller from the same generation but it is unclear how he is related.
• Heller-- Uscher (Almost certainly a descendent of one of the above Hellers but connection is unclear.
• Hirschhorn-- Dawid Seinwel
• Hochman-- Kuna
• Katz-- Chaim Ber
• Krebs-- Moses Simche
• Landes-- Chajm
• Marcus/Markus-- Abraham Leib and Mendel and Simson
• Marmor-- Benzion
• Mazur-- Peretz
• Messite-- Joel
• Pfeffer-- Hersch
• Pollak-- Jakob Dawid
• Russ-- Mendel
• Schapire-- Salamon
• Sherlag-- Hersch
• Schmetterling-- See the Schmetterling Family Project
• Stein-- Dawid (c.1860)
• Tenenbaum-- Joseph-Ber
• Vogel-- Leibisch
• Wallach-- Moses
• Weber-- Elische
• Weissbrod-- Schmerl (Note: there are multiple familes of this name but they have not been connected yet.)
• Weisselberg-- Mathas
• Weisstein-- Leibish (c.1800)
• Wahl-- Nachman
• Wiederman-- Abraham (1865)
• Zeiden-- Abraham