Jewish Odessa

The appearance of Odessa, a special «language» spoken by its inhabitants, the mentality and humour so characteristic only of them is the result of interwining of different cultures, traditions, tenors of life. And in this bright kaleidoscope which composes the «Odessa ethnos», the Jewish play a significant role. It may be the city with its athmosphere that since its birth became appealing to thousands of the Jewish and formed a special type of Odessa jewishness, or they may be the Jewish themselves — the citizens left their indelible mark on the image of «native Odessa man».
At the beginning of the 20th century Odessa placed third among world cities with the largest number of the Jewish — after Warsaw and Prague. The Jewish tradition in the city is still very strong, there is a number of large Jewish communities, synagogues, restaurants, cultural societies… Many Jewish writers and poets lived and actively worked in Odessa: Mendele Moikher-Sforim, H. Bialik, Sh. Chernikhovskiy, Sholom-Aleihem, Leon Pinsker, Isaak Babel.