|
 |
 |
Free Courses «Vitebsk: Real and Popular History of the Native Town». «The Jewish Vitebsk».
- Details
- Created on Tuesday, 02 May 2017 13:02
On April 27, 2017 the library hosted a regular session of the free courses. «Vitebsk: Real and Popular History of the Native Town». The topic of the lecture was «The Jewish Vitebsk».
The Jewish community is one of the oldest national communities on the territory of Belarus. The earliest record of Jews in Vitebsk roots back to 1523. In the early 17th century a Jewish community appeared in the town. Anatoly Dulov, the Head of the Chair of History of Belarus at VSU named after P. Masherov and PhD in History, spoke about the history of Jews in Europe, anti-Semitic stereotypes and the appearance of Jews on the territory of the East Slavs.
The General Conservator of State Archive of Vitebsk Region Konstantin Karpekin told about the dynamics of the Jewish population in Vitebsk, the contribution of the Jewish community to the social, economic and cultural life of the town in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Special attention was drawn to Jewish education, synagogues and prayer houses. Before 1917, there were 74 of them in Vitebsk. Galina Yakovleva, Associate Professor of the Chair of Universal History and World Culture at Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov, PhD in History, dwelled on the life of Jews in Vitebsk after 1917. She told about a campaign against the heders, the abandon of tradition, and Vitebsk Jewish Pedagogical School. A fragment from the documentary about the head of the intelligence and the security services of Israel Isser Harel, a native of Vitebsk, was shown to the audience.
The courses were concluded with the speech of Arkady Shulman, the chief editor of the Mishpokha magazine. He reminded the audience that in 1920-1930ss there were four state languages in the BSSR: Belarusian, Russian, Jewish (Yiddish) and Polish. And the Union of Writers had a section of Jewish writers.
A separate lecture would be devoted to the Holocaust, as it was stressed by the organizers of the courses. Those willing to study in depth the subject of the lecture may want to visit the Department of Local History Literature and Bibliography to find relevant literature. The records of the lecture can be found at the project's community on VK and on the website of the Vitebsk Regional Library.
