page_title: Martyrdom in Judaism
section_title: Russian Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Martyrdom in Judaism / Pogroms / Russian Empire
context_page_description: Martyrdom in Judaism is one of the main examples of Jews doing a kiddush Hashem, a Hebrew term which means "sanctification of [the] name". An example of this is public self-sacrifice in accordance with Jewish practice and identity, with the possibility of being killed for no other reason than being Jewish. There are specific conditions in Jewish law that deal with the details of self-sacrifice, be it willing or unwilling.
  The opposite or converse of kiddush Hashem is chillul Hashem and Jews are obligated to avoid it according to Halakha. There are instances, such as when they are faced with forced conversion to another religion, when Jews should choose martyrdom and sacrifice their lives rather than commit a chillul Hashem which desecrates the honor of God. Martyrdom in Judaism is thus driven by both the desire to Sanctify God's Name concurrently and the wish to avoid the Desecration of God's Name.
  In Hebrew a martyr is known as a kaddosh which means "[a] holy [one]", and martyrs are known as kedoshim meaning "holy [ones]". Thus the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust are known as the Kedoshim.
context_section_description: The modern notion of Pogroms began mostly in the Russian Empire during the early 19th century, beginning with the Odessa pogroms. Over more than a hundred years, tens of thousands of innocent Jewish civilians, men women and children were massacred by rampaging mobs. Those who were murdered in this barbaric fashion are regarded as Jewish martyrs.
  The Pogroms overlap with the beginnings of the Holocaust as well as happening during and after the Holocaust.
  The 1991 Crown Heights riot in Brooklyn, New York is regarded as a latter day Pogrom that resulted in the killing of Yankel Rosenbaum and another man who looked like a Hasidic Jew.
caption: Photo believed to show the victims, mostly Jewish children, of a 1905 pogrom in Yekaterinoslav (today's Dnipro)
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