Bar is the administrative center of the eponymous district of Vinnitsa region of Ukraine.

In 1533, the Polish queen Bona Sforza ordered to build a castle here. In honor of her hometown of Bari, the castle was named Bar. By 1540, construction was completed. In the same year, King Sigismund issued a decree according to which Armenians, Rusyns (Ukrainians) and Jews who settled in the city were exempted from taxes for 12 years.

The first written mention of the existence of a Jewish community in Bar dates back to 1542. In 1556, the community and the city entered into an agreement, according to which the Jews received the same rights as the rest of the townspeople in exchange for taxes and refusal to provide housing to visiting Jews. The king of Poland Sigismund II approved the treaty. In 1566, he frees the residents from having to pay a number of taxes in exchange for supplying the castle with all the materials necessary for protection.

Because of the combination of the above-mentioned favorable circumstances, by the 1560s, Jews owned 15% of 107 city buildings, and Bar community was considered one of the richest in Ukraine.

In 1648, the city was occupied by the troops of Maxim Krivonos. According to sources, the Cossacks killed about 2 thousand Jews. Three years later, in 1651, the population experienced another pogrom.

In 1661, sources reported that about 20 houses in Bar were owned by Jews. At the beginning of the 18th century, the community received permission to build a synagogue.

In 1793, the city came under the rule of the Russian Empire. Half a century later, 4.4 thousand Jews lived in Bar. In 1897, Jews constituted 58% of the townspeople.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish presence in the city was significant. There were 12 synagogues, a Jewish cemetery and a women's school. Jews owned most of the trading establishments and a pharmacy, as well as a number of factories.

According to the data of 1939, 3.8 thousand Jews lived in the city. With the outbreak of World War II, the city, although formally became part of the Romanian-controlled Transnistria, in fact remained under the control of the German military authorities.

Jews were driven here not only from neighboring villages, but also from Romania. As a result, the occupants created three ghettos in the city. During the extermination aktions in August and October 1942, the Nazis killed about 5 thousand Jews.

In the post-war years, the authorities did not allow Jews to open a synagogue. In the 1970s, the city underwent a redevelopment that destroyed the historical part and architecture, reminiscent of the presence of Jews.

In the 1990s, no more than 200 Jews lived in the city. At the beginning of the XXI century, there are several dozen of them left. However, the city has a Jewish community.