14 Facts About Krymchaks

Krymchaks are Jewish ethno-religious communities of Crimea derived from Turkic-speaking adherents of Rabbinic Judaism.

Krymchaks speak a modified form of the Crimean Tatar language, called the Krymchak language.

The Krymchaks adhered to their Turkic patois up to World War II, but later began to lose their linguistic identity.

Krymchaks are likely a result of diverse origins whose ancestors probably included Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, and Jews from the Byzantine empire, Genoa, Georgia, and other places.

Krymchaks was the author of a monumental Hebrew historical chronicle, Devar sefataim, on the history of the Crimean Khanate.

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The Krymchaks were thereafter subjected to the same religious persecution imposed on other Jews in Russia.

Unlike their Karaite neighbors, the Krymchaks suffered the full brunt of anti-Jewish restrictions.

Many Krymchaks were killed in the fighting between the Red Army and the White Movement.

Under Joseph Stalin, the Krymchaks were forbidden to write in Hebrew and were ordered to employ the Cyrillic alphabet to write their own language.

Krymchaks were compelled to work in factories and collective farms.

Unlike the Crimean Karaites, the Krymchaks were targeted for annihilation by the Nazis following the Axis capture of Crimea in 1941.

Dress and customs of the Krymchaks resembled that of the nearby Karaites and Crimean Tatars.

Krymchaks considered themselves a distinct group and rarely intermarried with Karaites or the Crimean Tatars.

The Krymchaks used to practice polygamy but then adopted monogamy by the late 19th century.