while Chufut-Kale, also known as the Rock of the Jews (Sela'
ha-Yehudim), from the fortress supposed to have been built there by the
Jews, would prove Jewish settlements to have been made there during the
Babylonian or Persian captivity.[3]

Though the same antiquity cannot be established for other Jewish
settlements, we know that Kiev, "the mother of Russian cities," had many
Jews long before the eighth century, who thus antedated the Russians as
citizens. According to Joseph Hakohen they came there from Persia in
690, according to Malishevsky in 776. It is certain that their influence
was felt as early as the latter part of the tenth century. The Russian
Chronicles ascribed to Nestor relate that they endeavored, in 986, to
induce Grand Duke Vladimir to accept their religion. They did not
succeed as they had succeeded two centuries before with the khan of the
Khazars.[4] Yet the grand duke, who had the greatest influence in
introducing and spreading Greek Catholicism, and who is now worshipped
as a saint, was always favorably disposed toward them.

There were other places that were inhabited early by Jews. There are
traditions to the effect that Jews lived in Poland as early as the ninth
century, and under the Boreslavs (992-1278) they are said to have
enjoyed considerable privileges, carried on a lively trade, and spread
as far as Kiev. Chernigov in Little Russia (the Ukraine), Baku in South
Russia (Transcaucasia), Kalisz and Warsaw, Brest and Grodno, in West
Russia (Russian Poland), all possess Jewish communities of considerable
antiquity. In the townlet Eishishki, near Vilna, a tombstone set in 1171
was still in existence at the end of the last century, and Khelm,
Government Kovno, has a synagogue to which tradition ascribes an age of
eight hundred years.[5]