ZHITOMIR, city in Zhitomir oblast, Ukraine. Under Polish rule (until 1792) Jews were not authorized to live in Zhitomir, but some had settled there under the protection of government officials. In 1753 a blood libel case was brought to court there; two Jews from the surrounding villages were executed and others were compelled to convert. In 1789 the Jewish community numbered 882, about a third of the total population. They comprised innkeepers, merchants, and craftsmen. When the city was annexed by Russia (1792), there were 1,300 Jews, and by 1847 their number had risen to 9,500. During this period, Hasidism spread to Zhitomir and Ze'ev Wolf of Zhitomir was one of the disciples of the Maggid of Mezhirech. With the establishment of the government-authorized rabbinical seminary there (1847), teachers and pupils of maskilim circles gathered in the city; they included H. S. Slonimski, A. B. Gottlober, and E. Zweifel. In 1873 the rabbinical seminary was converted into a seminary for training teachers for the Jewish government schools. This seminary was closed in 1885. The first Jewish vocational school in Zhitomir was established in 1862 and enjoyed a good reputation, but it was closed in 1884 because the authorities believed that its instruction gave the Jews economic superiority over the Christians. Mendele Mokher Seforim, A. Paperna, and A. Goldfaden also lived and studied in Zhitomir, and H. N. Bialik (who was born in the village of Radi, near Zhitomir) spent his childhood there.

From the 1870s, the community shared in the general decline of the city following dispossession of the region's Polish landowners and the construction of the railroads, which initially bypassed Zhitomir. In 1897 there were 30,748 Jews who formed 46.6% of Zhitomir's total population; their number rose in 1910 to 38,427. Ninety per cent of those engaged in commerce were Jews, as were 60% of the city's craftsmen.

In April 1905 pogroms broke out in the city at the government's instigation. The Jewish youth, Zionists and socialists, organized a self-defense unit and fought with the rioters. About 15 Jews were killed, including the Russian student N. Blinov, who joined the Jewish self-defense action. Ten Jewish youths from the townlet of Chudnov who were called in to assist the Jews of Zhitomir were murdered on their way there.

As soon as the Soviets gained control of the city, the organized community was liquidated and Jewish life disintegrated. In 1926 there were 30,000 Jews in the city (38% of the total population).