Minsk Ghetto Survivors

Since 1995, our congregation has maintained a friendship with a group of survivors of the Minsk Ghetto of the Holocaust. These elderly Jews, numbering about 71 people (in May of 2020), still live in and around Minsk, Belarus. We speak with the ghetto survivors about 4 times a year, by telephone, and provide financial assistance to some of their neediest members, who are ill, disabled, or alone. We also assist them with funds for Jewish holiday celebrations and trips to memorial sites. The survivors live on a fixed monthly pension and have trouble paying for housing, food and medicine.

The ghetto survivors published a book of short memoirs about the Minsk and Belarusian ghettos. To read the book, Memory and Time, in Russian, click here.

The first story has been translated into English. To read “The First Days of The Great War” by Lev Stelman, in English, click here.

Michael Treister, one of the survivors of the Minsk Ghetto, wrote a memoir about life in the ghetto and after the war.  To read his memoir, click here.

If you would like to contribute to this program with other Hakafa members, please contact Judy Solway or Julia Volpe.