Stara Syniava


Stara Syniava is an urban-type settlement in Khmelnytskyi Oblast in western Ukraine. Stara Syniava also serves as the administrative center of the Stara Syniava Raion, housing the raion's local administration buildings. The town's population was 5,961 as of the 2001 Ukrainian Census and 5,581 in 2011.
The settlement, previously named Syniava, received the Magdeburg rights in 1543. In 1956, the town received the status of an urban-type 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, many Jewish residents were able to flee temporarily to Siberia and Uzbekistan, escaping extermination by the advancing German Army 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, largely to the U.S, Canada, and Israel. Today there are almost no Jews in the town.