JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
(JTA) — On a visit to the city of Slonim in Belarus, Ilona Reeves fell in love with a 380-year-old dilapidated building that used to house one of the area’s largest and oldest synagogues. Reeves, a 40-year-old author who lives in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, is a Christian, like virtually everyone who lives in…
(JTA) — The remains of a Jewish poet were reburied in Belarus under a crucifix in a ceremony that featured prayers by priests. The reburial of Shmuel Yefimovich Plavnik, better known by his pen name Zmitrok Byaduli, took place on Tuesday at a Christian cemetery in Minsk, promoting critics to complain that it erased the…
Ever since disputed election results were announced two weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in the streets of Belarus to call for the end of President Alexander Lukashenko’s 26-year rule. In response, security forces have arrested thousands of protesters, with hundreds reported injured and nearly half a dozen killed. Reports have emerged…
(JTA) — Seeking an air conditioned place to escape the summer heat, Artur Raisky and a friend decided last Saturday to walk to a McDonald’s in downtown Minsk, the capital of their native Belarus. But Raisky, 25, and his 22-year-old friend, Albert Kengerli, never reached the restaurant. They were arrested at random on the street…
(JTA) — Volunteers in Belarus reburied the remains of more than 1,000 Holocaust victims whose bodies recently were discovered during construction work in the city of Brest. The burial Tuesday was conducted by volunteers from the ZAKA Jewish search and rescue organization and overseen by a local Chabad rabbi, the news website Jewish.ru reported. The…
(JTA) — An Israeli immigrant from Belarus who later converted to Islam was convicted for trying to join the Islamic State. Valentin Vladimir Mazalevsky, 40, a married father of five who lives in the Arab-Israeli town of Shibli in northern Israel, was arrested in February for trying to join the jihadists. He was convicted on…
(JTA) — The hometown in Belarus of the late artist Marc Chagall saw its first opening of a synagogue in over a century. The Jewish community of Vitebsk, which is located 155 miles northeast of the Belarusian capital of Minsk, last month celebrated the inauguration of the new synagogue. Vitebsk’s rabbi, Malkiel Gorgodze, affixed a…
MINSK, Belarus (JTA) — At the age of 36, Yishai Malkin and his family are leading what millions of people in the former Soviet Union would consider a charmed life. A web designer, Malkin and his wife, an event manager, earn a combined monthly salary of $2,000. That’s comfortable enough to allow them to travel…
