Khmelnytsky Massacres

In 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the Zaporozhian Cossacks, allied with the Crimean Tatars, in a revolt against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Ukraine. Jews, many of whom managed estates, mills and taverns as leaseholders for Polish nobles, were attacked as agents of the lords. At Nemyriv in June 1648, at Tulchyn, Polonne and dozens of other towns, whole communities were massacred, and many Jews were sold as captives to the Tatars. Chroniclers spoke of more than 100,000 dead; modern historians estimate a much lower but still devastating toll, perhaps in the tens of thousands.

Nathan Nata Hannover's chronicle Yeven Metzulah ("The Deep Mire", 1653) told the story to the Jewish world. Jews remember the period as Gezeirot Tach VeTat, the decrees of the years 5408–5409. The Council of Four Lands made the 20th of Sivan a fast day, and Rabbi Shabbetai HaKohen (the Shach) composed selichot for it. The despair of these years helped prepare the ground for the messianic movement of Shabbetai Tzvi in 1665–1666.