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CLOSING TOWN SYNAGOGUES

At the beginning of the 1920s Gorodok had eight synagogues (the Jewish population of the town was three thousand people). There were two stone synagogues located in Bolshaya Street, three synagogues in Nevelskaya Street. It is known that another synagogue was located in Proletarskaya Street.

Plan of Gorodok. 1922.

In 1920s and 1930s Bolsheviks were closing one synagogue after another. In 1923 a synagogue in Staronevelskaya Street was closed down. At the end of 1929 three more synagogues were closed. One of the stone synagogues was turned into a youth club, the other – into a grain storage area. The synagogue in Proletarskaya Street was also turned into grain storage. In 1930 one of the synagogues in Staronevelskaya Street was closed as well.

By 1939 all the synagogues in Gorodok had been closed down by the authorities. In 1938 the authorities issued a list of Jewish residents, who signed the protocols on closing the town synagogues. After that there was a decision to turn all the remaining synagogues into schools.

Thus all the synagogues were closed. The buildings, where Jews were once saying their prayers and studied the Torah, were now to be used to teach the children completely different views on life, which condemned religious traditions.

List of Jewish residents of Gorodok, who signed the protocols on closing the local synagogues, 1938.

Konstantin Karpekin,
Chief research assistant, State archive of Vitebsk region

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