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JewishHistoryעברית

Warsaw pogrom of 1881

Date
25 December 1881 – 27 December 1881Hebrew date: 3rd of Tevet, 5642 – 5th of Tevet, 5642
Location
WarsawPoland
Then part of
Russian Empire
Perpetrators
  • Local rioters (Mob)
Killed (estimate)
12[2]Jews killed, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia entry on Alexander III; property losses of two million rubles are also recorded there.
Locality

0.0094% – 0.012% of the Jewish population of Warsaw[4]

Country

0.00025% – 0.00031% of the Jewish population of Russian Empire (c. 1881)[20]

Worldwide

0.00015% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1880)[5]

Category
Pogrom
Confidence
Medium

Summary

A pogrom broke out in Warsaw on Catholic Christmas Day 1881 and lasted three days. The Jewish Encyclopedia records 12 Jews killed, many women assaulted, and two million rubles' worth of property destroyed. YIVO places the riot in the 1881–1882 wave that had begun in Ukraine in the spring. YIVO's Warsaw article notes that the event shook the faith of assimilationist Jews in Polish society's progress toward toleration. Count Todleben in the neighbouring Lithuanian provinces kept disorders there slight.

Sources

  1. John Klier, Pogroms. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
  2. Herman Rosenthal, Alexander III., Alexandrovich, Emperor of Russia. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  3. Warsaw. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
  4. Herman Rosenthal, J. G. Lipman, Judah David Eisenstein, Warsaw. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 7,800,000[5]c. 1880
  • Russian Empire: 3,932,000 – 4,748,640[20]c. 1881Bartal and Moss (Posen Library) give about 2,912,000 Jews in the Pale of Settlement and 1,020,000 in Congress Poland in 1881 (sum 3,932,000), excluding Jews outside those zones. Boustan cites about 4.1 million for the empire in 1881. A contemporary German compilation of Russian Jewish statistics (Freimann Sammlung) reconstructs 4,748,640 for 1879/1884 (Pale 2,920,639 + Poland ~1,078,000 + outside the Pale ~750,000) and says the total had by then passed five million. Figures cover the Russian Empire including Congress Poland.
  • Warsaw: 98,698 – 127,917[4]Jews in Warsaw in 1876 (98,698) and in 1882 (127,917), the counts in the Jewish Encyclopedia table that bracket the December 1881 pogrom. That table gives 231,678 for 1897; YIVO gives 210,500 for 1897 and 72,800 for 1864.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  16. Israel Bartal and Kenneth B. Moss, The Jews of the Russian Empire in the Late 19th Century. The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
  17. Russia (Census Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906)
  18. Yannay Spitzer, A New Map of Jewish Communities in the Russian Empire (2012)
  19. Игорь Виленский, Оценка сокращения численности еврейского населения Российской Империи и СССР (1897–1926). Еврейская Старина (2024)
  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
  22. Population of Israel/Palestine by Religion (1553–Present). Jewish Virtual Library (citing CBS, British Mandate publications, Bachi and others)
  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
  24. H. S. Linfield, The Jews of the United States: Preliminary Figures for 1937 (Linfield) / Statistics of Jews. American Jewish Year Book 1939–40, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1939)
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  26. American Jewry, 1970 (NJPS 1971 article). American Jewish Year Book, via Berman Jewish DataBank
  27. Germany: Jewish Population in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  29. Robin R. Mundill, The Jews under Edward I (PhD thesis). University of St Andrews
  30. Stéphane Mechoulan, The Expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306: a modern fiscal analysis. University of Toronto Department of Economics working paper (2004)
  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
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  37. Davis Trietsch, Die Juden der Türkei. Länder und Völker der Türkei, Heft 8 (Leipzig) (1915)
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  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  49. Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  52. German Jews during the Holocaust, 1939–1945. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
  65. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the Uzbek SSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)