Jews and the Khmelnytsky Uprising: Depictions by Christian Clergymen

The Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1648 against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the most massive, long-lasting, and successful revolts of the seventeenth century. Led by the Zaporozhian Cossacks, the rebels destroyed the Polish armies in 1648 and unleashed ferocious social revolts by the largely enserfed peasantry and urban plebians throughout the Ukrainian lands. Allying with the Tatars, Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky was able to set up a polity that became a major player in East European international relations in the 1650s. As with many early modern revolts, religion played an essential role in the Khmelnytsky Uprising as the rebels raised the banner of Orthodoxy against the predominantly Catholic state and ruling class, and the rebels attacked heterodox and infidels. One of the most exposed groups in Ukraine who suffered grievously during the revolt were the Jews. That suffering was dramatically portrayed in a number of contemporary Hebrew chronicles, the most influential of which was Nathan Hannover's Abyss of Depair. The Hannover account attained particular renown because, in addition to its account of martyrdom, it discussed social and political circumstances around the revolt. While the Hebrew Chronicle religious texts have been mined for material on the Jews' fate during the revolt, less attention has been paid to the works of Christian clergymen. This paper will discuss the works of the Dominican Paweł Ruszel, the Arab Orthodox deacon Paul of Aleppo, and the Venetian ambassador Alberto Vimina as depictions of Jews before and during the revolt. All three were eyewitnesses to the revolt, and two of the clergymen were received by the hetman. The paper will examine how religious thought and literary culture shaped the clergymen's accounts. In comparing and contrasting the views presented by Western and Eastern Christians and Commonwealth natives and foreigners, parallels will be drawn with the Hannover account.