In addition to the Ukrainian Зіньків (Zinkiv), in other languages the name of the city is Russian: Зиньков, romanized: Zinkov and Yiddish: זינקיוו.

[[Файл:Зіньків.png|link=https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:%D0%97%D1%96%D0%BD%D1%8C%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%B2.png%7Cleft%7Cthumb%7CZinkiv Castle on Zygmund Gerstmann's 1863 map]] Jews had resettled in Zinkov by the early 18th century, but were murdered by the haidamaks, anti-Polish Ukrainian insurgents, in 1734.

The arrival of Polish rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshel and his son Yitzchak Meir in the second half of the 18th century reinvigorated the Jewish presence, and Zinkiv became a leading center of Hasidic Judaism in the Podolia area.

[1] On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies invaded the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa.

Able-bodied men were sent to forced labor camps at Proskurov and Leznyevo, leaving 150 Jewish workers in the ghetto.