Jewish life in Belarus in the years after World War II was long an enigma. Officially it was held to be as being non-existent, and in the ideological atmosphere of the time research on the matter was impossible. Jewish community life had been wiped out by the Nazis, and information on its revival was suppressed by the communists. For more than half a century the truth about Jewish life during this period was sealed in inaccessible archives. The Jews of Belarus preferred to keep silent rather than expose themselves to the animosity of the authorities. Although the fate of Belarusian Jews before and during the war has now been amply studied, this book is one of the first attempts to study Jewish life in Belarus during the last decade of Stalin's rule.In addition to archival materials, the present research is based on a questionnaire submitted to former residents of Belarus in Israel, as well as information from periodicals, collections of documents, statistical reports and monographs.
- Cover
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Tables
- Preface
- Introduction: Belarusian Jewry Prior to the Revolution and Until World War II
- 1 The Demography of the Jews of Belarus
- The Resettlement of Jewish Survivors
- Profiles of Jewish Congregations
- 2 Soviet Policy Toward the Practice of Judaism in the Postwar Period
- Soviet Policy Toward Religion at the End of the War and the Creation of the CARC
- CARC Activity in Belarus
- 3 The Decline of the Synagogue
- Synagogues in the USSR in the Postwar Period
- The Destruction and the Re-allocation of Belarusian Synagogues
- The Registration Procedure for Synagogues
- The Financial Difficulties in Maintaining Jewish Communities
- 4 Religious Life
- The Sabbath, the Jewish Holidays, and the Problem of Matzot for Passover
- The Shtiebel, the Mikveh, and the Cemetery
- Kashrut, Circumcision, Jewish Weddings, and the Giving of Charity
- Religious Officiants
- 5 In the Aftermath of the Holocaust
- Commemoration
- Burial Sites and Monuments
- 6 Cultural Life
- Jewish Literature
- The Yiddish Theater in Minsk
- The Yiddish Language
- 7 Jews in the Reconstruction of the Economy and Cultural Life
- In Administration, the Economy, and Science
- In Secondary and Higher Education
- 8 International Contacts
- Ties with Abroad
- Belarusian Jewry and the Establishment of the Stateof Israel
- 9 The Policy of State Anti-Semitism
- State Action Against Judaism and Jewish Culture
- State Action Against Individual Jews
- Rehabilitation
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1: Documents
- Appendix 2: Tables
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- Back cover
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