Belarus—historically known as White Russia—is an Eastern European country with a long and rich Jewish history. It’s famous for its Torah scholarship and as the birthplace of the Chabad movement, and many Ashkenazi readers may recognize it as the homeland of their own ancestors. Read on for 12 facts about the important Jewish community of this landlocked country.
1. They Were Culturally Like Litvaks
For much of its history, Belarus was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. So it’s no surprise that the Jews of Belarus were culturally “Litvaks,” much like their Lithuanian Jewish neighbors to the west. They dressed similarly, cooked similar foods, and even spoke the same dialect of Yiddish and pronounced Hebrew in the same way.
2. Belarus Is “Raysn” in Yiddish
In Yiddish, Belarus is often called Raysn, a name that comes from Rus (Ruthenia), the historic term for the broader region. As an aside, Rus is also the source of the name “Russia”—although the histories of these two countries only partially overlap. (Belarus was part of Russia for less than 200 years, from 1795 to 1990.) But context is key: Raysn can also refer to Red Ruthenia, a historical region in Western Ukraine.
Watch: Russian Jews Under the Czar
3. There Were Many Thriving Communities
Jews lived in White Russia for centuries, but their numbers peaked in the decades before the Holocaust: about one million Jews lived in a territory roughly the size of Kansas. They made up nearly 15% of the population, settling everywhere from major cities to small towns and hamlets (the famous shtetls). At the time, Minsk, today the capital of Belarus, was over 50% Jewish.
4. Sons-in-Law Brought Torah
In the early 1600s, Belarus lagged behind its neighbors in Torah scholarship. Its Jews were honest and G‑d-fearing, but were not necessarily known for being scholars. Within a few decades, though, things changed dramatically. Wealthy locals invited gifted yeshivah students from the districts of Vilna, Zamut, and Kiev to marry their daughters—and these young scholars brought Torah learning with them. They opened yeshivahs across the region, transforming Belarus into a bastion of Torah study.1
5. It Was the Birthplace of Chabad
In 1777, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, one of the leaders of the Chassidic movement at the time, left his native Belarus for the Holy Land. Before his departure, he appointed Rabbi Shneur Zalman (known as the Alter Rebbe) to remain and lead the Chassidic community in Belarus and its environs. Rabbi Shneur Zalman lived first in Liozna and then in Liadi, both Belarusian villages. It was there that he developed the distinctive Chabad approach—combining love, awe, and faith in G‑d with deep intellectual understanding.
After his passing, his son and successor, Rabbi Dovber Shneuri, settled in Lubavitch, also in Belarus, which became the seat of Chabad for the next hundred years. (Note: Due to shifting borders, Lubavitch is now just over the Russian border to the east.)
6. It Was Part of the Pale of Settlement
Between 1772 and 1795, the three partitions of Poland brought the Jews of Belarus (along with those of Lithuania and eastern Poland) under the rule of Tsarist Russia. Faced with this large new Jewish population, Catherine the Great restricted Jews to a designated area known as the Pale of Settlement. This region included 25 districts along the old Russian-Polish border—among them the three Belarusian districts of Minsk, Mogilev, and Vitebsk. Jews were also barred from many professions, reducing many Belarusian Jews to utter poverty.
7. Napoleon’s Retreat Ravaged the Region
Belarus lay directly along the path of Napoleon’s disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812. As the French army—cold, starving, and desperate—made its way back through the region, they left a trail of devastation. Many Jewish communities suffered terribly: homes were burned, crops were seized, and entire towns were uprooted by the chaos of war. Rabbi Schneur Zalman, who had predicted this turn of events the previous Rosh Hashanah, chillingly noted that this devastation compensated for the Chmielnicki massacres, from which the Jews of Belarus were mostly spared.2
8. The G-H Exchange
People in Belarus speak Belarusian, a Slavic language closely related to Russian. A key difference is the letter Г, pronounced like a hard G in Russian but as an H in Belarusian (and Ukrainian). This small shift explains the dual forms of several Belarusian city names familiar to Ashkenazi Jews, such as Gomel/Homel, Mogilev/Mohilov, and Grodna/Hrodna. Even surnames were affected: what was Horowitz in Belarus became Gurevitch in Russia.
9. Yeshivahs Flourished There
Belarus was home to many distinguished yeshivahs—centers of advanced Torah study. These included early yeshivas in Minsk, Pinsk, Kletsk, and Slutsk (yes, those are all real names!), followed by later “Lithuanian style” institutions in places like Volozhin, Mir, Brisk, and Novardok. Particularly notable was Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch, founded in 1897 by Rabbi Shalom DovBer, the fifth Chabad Rebbe, known as the Rebbe Rashab. It was the only yeshivah that blended traditional Talmudic studies with the study of Chassidism.
10. Lubavitch Towns Abound
Anyone familiar with Chabad history will recognize many Belarusian towns on the map. Liozna, Liadi, and Lubavitch were all central to the development of the Chabad movement. Many great chassidim of earlier generations are remembered by their Belarusian hometowns—Rabbi Hillel of Paritch, Rabbi Yekusiel of Liepli, Rabbi Aizik of Homel, and Rabbi Nechemia of Dubrovna, to name just a few. And if you have Chabad roots, there’s a good chance your family traces back to a town in Belarus (such as Smilyan, one of the ancestral hometowns of this article’s author).
11. It Bore the Brunt of the Chernobyl Disaster
When the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in 1986, dangerous radioactive particles drifted across hundreds of miles. About 70% of the fallout fell on neighboring Belarus, creating hazardous living conditions and causing serious long-term illness. In the decades that followed, Chabad’s “Children of Chernobyl” program airlifted more than 3,000 children from Belarus and nearby regions, giving them lifesaving medical care and helping them rebuild their lives in safety and health.
Read: How 3,000 Children Were Airlifted Out of Nuclear Disaster
12. Judaism Is Blossoming Once More
The Holocaust and years of Soviet rule nearly wiped out Jewish life in Belarus. Yet in recent decades, a quiet but steady revival has taken root. Today, the country is home to Chabad centers in Babruysk, Brest (Brisk), Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev, and Orsha, ensuring that Belarus has not only a proud Jewish past but also a vibrant Jewish future.
Read: Site of Nazi Persecution in Belarus Now a Hub of Jewish Revival
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