Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Belarus President Raps Jewish Governor for Not Keeping Jews ‘Under Control’

Image by Getty Images

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko criticized a Jewish regional governor for not keeping the country’s Jewish population “under control.”

In a three-hour televised address on Wednesday, Lukashenko called out Semyon Shapiro, governor of the Minsk region, for not chastising Yuri Zisser, the Jewish head of the Tut.by website. Tut.by has criticized Lukashenko’s tax on those who work fewer than 183 days a year.

“I told you a year ago to take all the Jews of Belarus under control,” Lukashenko said in his speech to parliament.

At the end of his speech, Lukashenko called the Jews of his country “white boned,” meaning they do not enjoy menial work. He also praised them for their role in resisting Nazi occupation during World War II.

Lukashenko has retained authoritarian control of Belarus, the former Soviet Union state, since 1994.

The outspoken leader stirred controversy in 2007 when he said that Jews turned the city of Bobruisk into a “pigsty.” He subsequently sent a delegation to Israel.

As of 2009, some 13,300 Jews were living in Belarus in a total population of 9.5 million, according to Reuters.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.