Above: painting of Bobruisk Fortress
| 1316-1341 | First mention of Bobruisk in documents from Lithuanian Grand Duke Gedemin. |
| 1508 | Bobruisk joins revolt against Lithuanian Duke Mikhail Glinsky, majority of Bobruisk citizens desire alliance with Russia. |
| 1600 | Bobruisk population reaches 2,000, Jesuit fathers erect stone church. |
| 1611 | Tax revolt in city against Starosta (Governor) Peter Trizna. |
| 1648 | Cossack rebellion in Ukraine spreads to Belarus, sympathetic Bobruisk residents join rebels. |
| 1649 | Cossack rebels in Bobruisk crushed by Polish troops. |
| 1655 | Bobruisk is destroyed by Cossack army under Zolotarenko in order to deny Polish use as military base. Area depopulated by 50%. |
| 1702-1708 | War between Sweden and Russia, Bobruisk suffers plundering, forced labor, epidemic disease. |
| 1741 | 150 houses counted in Bobruisk. |
| 1766 | 395 Jewish head-tax payers counted in Bobruisk, a small community compared to others in the area. |
| 1768 | Small fortress rebuilt in Bobruisk. |
| 1789 | 889 citizens counted in Bobruisk, 32% Jews (281). |
| 1792 | Bobruisk under Russian military control, Minsk Gubernye established. |
| 1795 | Bobruisk raised to level of County Seat. |
| 1810 | Tsar Alexander I orders the building of Bobruisk Fortress, Jewish contractors fill important role in mobilizing laborers, organization of the work, furnishing building supplies. |
| 1811 | Bobruisk has the eighth-largest Jewish kehila in Minsk Gubernye, 655 Jewish men counted. |
| 1812 | Bobruisk Fortress unsuccessfully besieged four months by Napoleon's Polish Corps. Later, Russian authorities oblige Bobruisk Jews to quarter captured French Army prisoners in their homes. |
| 1812-1820 | Bobruisk Fortress building renewed on large scale, Jewish contractors profit. |
| 1825-1855 | Fortress building continues throughout reign of Tsar Nicholas I. Approximately 5,000 soldiers, a good many Jewish, stationed there during most of 19th century. |
| 1823 | First yeshiva founded in Bobruisk by Rabbi Akiva Altshul. Later, some of the greatest rabbis in Russia study there. |
| 1851 | Chief Rabbi Barukh Mordekhay Etingah emigrates to the Land of Israel, subsequently separate Rabbinates are established for Misnagdim and Hasidim, but they maintain good relations. |
| 1854 | First news of a great fire where "whole city goes up in smoke." |
| 1863 | Polish Uprising, Bobruisk fortress involved. |
| 1869 | Yakov Germeyze, the famous Maskil (Enlightener) of Minsk,complains about "the Bobruisk Jews, who hated the Enlightenment and their followers." |
| 1873 | Libave-Romner railway line built through Bobruisk, two stations and Berezina River bridge built. |
| 1874 | 150 houses and 3 bes-medreshim burn down. |
| 1878 | Bobruisk ranked as second-largest city in Minsk Gubernye after Minsk itself, 17,935 Jews are counted. Secular education among Jews becomes more popular under the pressure of the military draft. |
| 1881 | Large fire breaks out in Bobruisk, but role of the anti-Semitic hooliganism of that year in the Pale of Settlement not established. Illegal traveling Yiddish theater troupes begin visiting Bobruisk. |
| 1882 | Jewish doctors in fortress falsely accused of selling bogus military medical exemptions. |
| 1884 | Jews comprise 88% of population, 97% of business volume and profits. Average Jewish merchant volume: 22,500 rubles a year. |
| 1885 | "Lovers of Zion" Union founded in Bobruisk. |
| 1886 | Bobruisk population reaches over 30,000. Volunteer fireman crew established. Shapiro misnagdic rabbinic dynasty begins. |
| 1893 | In response to an economic crisis, a charitable soup kitchen is established which later becomes the center of Zionist activity in city. |
| 1897 | Fortress loses its armaments, but remains as staging point for area summer military maneuvers. 34,336 citizens counted in new census including surrounding villages; of them 20,795 Jews, 60.5 %. Approximately 4,000 Jewish families, most employed in crafts, industry, and trade. |
| 1898 | Bobruisk is selected for site of illegal Bund press, later dispersed by secret police. |
| 1900 | Cooperative Movement founded in Bobruisk, later evolves into one of the largest and richest credit unions in all Jewry. |
| 1901 | Hasidic Rabbi Shemerihu Nokh Shniuerson opens a yeshiva, but most others begin to lose their students. |
| 1902 | Great Fire of Bobruisk, 2,500 families left homeless, 250 businesses, city market, 15 schools and synagogues destroyed. 7 million rubles in property damage. City quickly rebuilt with stone and brick structures. She'iri Tsion, an influential and pious Zionist union, founded. |
| 1903 | First street demonstrations by the Bund. Jewish boyuvke (armed self-defense units) organized and successfully deter pogroms in Bobruisk city. |
| 1905 | First Russian Revolution, general strikes organized in Bobruisk by Bund and Labor Zionists. Compared to other cities in Jewish Pale, state and local authorities show "great self-restraint." Rebellion of 800 fortress soldiers in "disciplinary regiments," later suppressed. |
| 1906 | Yearly draft board (priziv) of the Tsar's Army begins visiting Bobruisk. Secret police force the emigration to America of many Bund activists. |
| 1908-1911 | Most revolutionary organizations disintegrate, activity ceases. |
| 1908 | Zionist movement comes into its own in Bobruisk. Promotion of Hebrew language begins. |
| 1909 | Central city streets paved with cobblestones, street lamps installed. |
| 1910-1912 | Due to repressive zoning laws against shtetl Jews, thousands per year in Bobruisk County are forced to move to the city and many begin emigrating to America. |
| 1910 | The "Jewish Peoples' Library" in Bobruisk is reckoned among the "the four greatest social Jewish libraries" (in Russia). |
| 1912 | Revolutionary activity and strikes resume in Bobruisk. |
| 1913 | Due to overcrowding, a new Jewish cemetery is established distant from the city, "to where one had to travel by train." |
| 1914 | Outbreak of WW I. Bobruisk still about 61% Jewish. |
| 1915 | Front approaches Bobruisk. Despite growth of war-related employment, living conditions deteriorate as thousands of refugees stream into the city from the west. After Russian army retreats, groups of soldiers and Cossacks rampage through Jewish villages and hamlets in Bobruisk region. |
| 1916 | Zionist Hekhaluts (Pioneers) organized in Bobruisk. |
| 1917 | After the February Revolution, all restrictions on Jews are lifted, Pale of Settlement ceases to exist. Communist Party division founded in Bobruisk by Jewish youths. Bolshevist Caucus organized within the Bund. Constituent Assembly elections held in Bobruisk, Bolsheviks get 21% of the vote. |
| 1918 | Poles defeat Red Army and capture Bobruisk, Soviet laws in region nullified. Germans capture Bobruisk in March and rule for 9 months. Soviet authority returns at end of year. |
| 1919 | Red Army seizes supplies in Bobruisk, food reserves depleted, hunger reigns, black-market profiteering fuels severe inflation. Polish Army re-enters Bobruisk, units commit acts of mayhem against Jews. |
| 1920 | War in Bobruisk region renews itself; Belarussian partisans attack Polish divisions. Soviet Army recaptures Bobruisk. |
| 1921 | Anti-Communist Belarussian peasant gangs become organized, terrorize and kill hundreds of Jews in Bobruisk County, some hacked apart with axes. The kehila disintegrates under Soviet authority. |
| 1923-1939 | Although the general population of Bobruisk grows to 84,078, only 25-30% are Jews. Many emigrate to Poland and The Land of Israel. Anti-semitic incidents continue in the city. |
| 1924 | Twelve Jewish-Soviet schools teaching in Yiddish are opened. |
| 1928 | Despite heavy Communist pressure to close them, there are still 40 synagogues open in Bobruisk. Jacob Hakohen Ginzberg publishes the last Hebrew book in the Soviet Union, "The Calendar for 1929." |
| 1929 | Newspaper The Apikoyres (Heretic) is published by Jewish Communist atheists. |
| 1938 | Jewish societal activity comes to an end in Bobruisk. |
| 1939 | All Jewish schools in Bobruisk closed, Jewish students study in Russian and Belarussian schools. |
| 1941 | Hitler's army conquers Bobruisk. On Nov. 7, at the hands of the Nazi S. S. Einzatzgruppe B, in the town of Yeloviki, approx. 20,000 Bobruisk Jews are shot and buried in mass graves. A general slaughter is also carried out in Hlusk, Paritch, Uzarich and Dragonavka. Ghetto and labor camp are established near airstrip on southwest side of town. Some Jews previously evacuated by Soviets to Uzbekistan. Nazi authorities declare Bobruisk judenrein ("Jew-free"). |
| 1943 | Ghetto and labor camp liquidated, remaining Jews killed. |
| 1941-1944 | A very few Jews escape the slaughter and join partisans in the forests around Bobruisk, attack railway lines through the city and other targets. |
| 1944 | The Red Army recaptures Bobruisk and annihlates 20,000 Nazi soldiers. |
| 1946 | 6,500 Jews have returned to Bobruisk. |
| 1950's | New synagogue built by Bobruisk Jewish community is confiscated by authorities, converted into city archive. |
| 1959 | Approximately 30,000 Jews live in Bobruisk, but only a small minority speak Yiddish. The baking of Passover matsos is prohibited, and Bobriusk is not on the list of cities allowed to have foreign visitors. |
| 1967 | Bobruisk Yiskor Book is published in Tel Aviv, Israel by the Histradrut Labor Organisation with support from American Bobruisk landsmanshaftn. |
| 1986 | Explosion and fire at Chernobyl nuclear power plant , approx. 135 miles SE of Bobruisk; residents not informed until much later. Main radioactive plume misses Bobruisk, but renders areas to the east uninhabitable. |
| 1997 | Only 2,800 Jews remain in Bobruisk, most have emigrated to the US and Israel. Bobruisk Interest Group internet genealogy group is created under the auspices of JewishGen, Inc. |
The town had little importance until the early part of the 19th century, but the population grew significantly when Tsar Alexander I built his fortress in Bobruisk in 1810 to meet the threat of Napoleon's Army. In pre-Revolutionary times, it was within the Minsk gubyernia. The city is situated at the confluence of two not very large rivers, the Bobr (now pretty much dried up) and the Berezina, and is bordered by them on two sides.
Since these rivers flow ultimately into the Dniepr and thence to Kiev and on to the Black Sea, Bobruisk was for a long time a fairly important shipping city, with timber as one of its major exports. By the middle of the 19th century, the town had became an important lumbering center where timber from the adjacent forests or timber camps to the south of the city was rafted or entrained to southern Russia or the Baltic ports. Vessels traveling to northern and southern Russia were frequent visitors to the port. Other major Bobruisk commerce consisted of dry goods and grain; all of these industries were primarily in Jewish hands by the 1800's.
The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. III, says that there were some Jews in Bobruisk as early as 1583, but some speculate that Jews first came to the area, if not specifically to this city, during the 1400's out of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire. Traditionally Jewish settlement here is first mentioned at the end of the 17th Century in the kehillah of Bobruisk (named for the beaver, bobyor in Russian) and was first included in the jurisdiction of the township of Smilovichi. 395 poll tax payers are recorded in Bobruisk in 1766. The community increased appreciably after Bobruisk's accession to Russia. During the 1812 French invasion, Napoleon set up camp on the west bank of the Berezina, just over 40 km south of Bobruisk.
From the 1790's through 1880, there was political calm, particularly under the somewhat benign rule of Tsar Alexander II, in the "Pale of Settlement" zone, the Polish-Russian border area where Russian-Polish Jews were forced to live by virtue of edicts proclaimed in 1792 and subsequently in 1835. On March 1, 1881, terrorists assassinated Tsar Alexander II, and the sun which had risen on Jewish life in the 1850's suddenly set.
The last decade of the 19th century and continuing on into the early 20th century was characterized by economic stagnation, Tsarist oppression, periods of political instability and religious persecution. The assassination set off waves of pogroms. Around the turn of the century, the Russian Imperialist government periodically allowed groups of Cossack police to roam freely through the Byelorussian Jewish areas, randomly shooting and beating people, burning and destroying homes and businesses. Between 1881 and 1883, there were 224 pogroms in the Pale. The Jews of Bobruisk city, however, formed armed self-defence units called boyuvkes which deterred the pogorm-mongers from attempting any assault on the city. The Bobruisk Yiskor Book states that , in fact, hardly any pogoms occurred in the entire Minsk Gubyernia during this period.
Deborah Frankel Reese:
In my grandparents' time, even though it supported a population of 45,000 people, the town of Bobruisk was really more like a village, typical of the shtetls of the Jewish Pale of Settlement. It was totally devoid of charm, according to Anita Shapira, the biographer of Grandma's well-known cousin Beryl Katznelson, and she states that in spring and fall, the unpaved streets became a quagmire. The women's skirts became covered with mud, and as a result, Aunt Edith says they were referred to as Schlumperkehs, or "messy women". The only attractive buildings were two Polish churches, and "the one bright spot was the train station, which had a colorful flower garden." To make matters worse, on May 3, 1902 there was an enormous fire in Bobruisk which destroyed a great part of the city including most of the wooden structures, and left many homeless.A fellow Bobruisker researcher writes that "When I visited Bobruisk a few years ago, I found a Jewish woman who knew the town and its Jewish history quite well. She showed me any number of buildings and former institutions that the Katznelsons built or funded. The one that I remember best was, during the Katznelsons day, an orphanage that they founded; it's quite a striking, ornate thing one of the most interesting buildings in Bobruisk. As it happens, the Jewish-built buildings of Bobruisk mostly have a characteristic style that make them distinguishable from the rest of the city's building stock, and a whole lot more interesting, aesthetically." There were a number of such charitable institutions, including a noteworthy Institute for the Aged, a refuge for old men. There was a Jewish Hospital, "cheap kitchens," and a no-interest lending society. Edith's mother told her the peasant girls at market wore embroidered skirts and blouses, and had ribbons streaming from their bonnets.
In Shapria's book, she says that here "Jewish life was conducted within the confines of a closely-knit society and system of values, determined by Jewish law or in opposition to it. At the time of Grandma's adolescence, Bobruisk, like other Jewish towns, was opening up to outside influences, but the changes were not yet strong enough to undermine the fundamental Jewish experience, which remained indelibly imprinted on the sons and daughters of the town throughout their lives, however far they roamed."
Provisioning of the garrison of the large fortress built there at the beginning of the 19th century became another major Jewish occupation. Jews were often army suppliers, or suttlers, like quartermasters. According to some, the fort was actually a place to which Jewish and other military conscripts were sent after they were "snagged," and for this reason, many Jews did not like to come to Bobruisk, seeing it as the site of great pain. A large number of the Bobruisk Jews were also employed in the making of fur hats for the army. In 1902, other occupations included 110 Jewish families who ran dairies, a fairly large manufacturer of shoe uppers, a brick-making factory, 20 other small factories which employed 120 Jews etc. There were over 3,000 artisans, 285 small tailoring establishments, and a large number of shoe and boot making establishments. In the summer, young people often found employment at "plantations in the vicinity." In addition, there were 444 Jewish laborers, mainly in the carting business.
Orthodoxy was the only form of religious Judaism practiced in Russia at that time, and most of these Jews were Hassidic. However, there were also the Misnagdim (Opponents), a more orthodox group who mistrusted the "too liberal" Hassidim whom they felt emphasized song and dance, often fueled by alcohol. There was a mutual hostility between these two groups, and they worshipped in different synagogues. According to the Yiskor book, however, the two groups in Bobruisk maintained good relations and worked out a system of resolving disputes between them regardng religious ritual and dietary matters.
Shapira goes on to say "The rich were interested in their business affairs and the intelligentsia in their Jewish socialist Bund or the revolutionary movement." In fact, the Jews of Bobruisk were among the most active in the early Russian revolutionary movement. Towards the end of the 19th century, the town became a center of cultural and political and activity for Byelorussian Jewry, in which both the fledgling Zionist and radical wings were prominent. Bobruisk was the genesis of political Zionism which was confined primarily to the middle class and was formally started in 1897, at the first Zionist convention in Basel, Switzerland.
Deborah Frankel Reese:
The Yiskor Book mentions that a P. Katznelson and Grandma's uncle, Moshe Katznelson, were elected as delegates from Bobruisk to the 1903 Sixth Zionist Congress. It was Moshe's son, Beryl, who was at Ben Gurion's side when Israel was born. Our family was involved in both events.
After its foundation, Bobruisk also became one of the main bases of the Bund, a Jewish Socialist movement; in 1898, its clandestine printing press was seized by the police.
Education and culture flourished in Bobruisk, as well as religion and politics. The publishing house of Jacob Cohen Ginsburg became celebrated throughout Russia. Drama and literature thrived. In the Jewish Encyclopedia, there is a circa 1900 photo of the Okun Family in Bobruisk sitting in a rather elegant parlor with the writer Mendel Elkin, (who married Rivka Okun) writer A.Y. Paperno, and publisher Boris Kletsin, all part of the Bobruisk intelligentsia. The model kheder, established in 1900, provided comprehensive Hebrew instruction and did much to raise the standard of Hebrew education. A popular Yiddish library was also opened, established by Jews as a counterpoint to the Pushkin Munincipal Library which covered Russian culture in the town.
After World War I, the Bobruisk Jewish population suffered from the frequent changes of government during the civil war (1918-21). Subsequently, Jewish activities ceased. J. Ginsburg and other publishers continued to print prayer books and other religious publications in Bobruisk until 1928, the last work of Jewish religious literature to be published in the Soviet Union, Yagdil Torah, being printed in Bobruisk. A network of Communist schools giving instruction in Yiddish was established in Bobruisk after the 1917 Revolution and functioned until 1939.
Bobruisk was occupied by the Germans in World War II, and on November 7, 1941, 20,000 Jews were sent to their deaths in the nearby town of Yeloviki, where they were lined up next to a prepared grave, shot on the spot, and buried there. Other mass slaughters were carried out in the smaller villages and hamlets of Bobruisk District.
Don Mopsick:
A great uncle, Itshe Mekler, was tortured and executed on the first day of the S. S.Einsatzgruppe B's sweep through the area in 1941, after his neighbors accused him of hiding a Russian soldier in his home. However, quite a few of my Mopsik and Mekler relatives were evacuated by the Soviet government to the internal eastern areas of the Soviet Union such as Uzbekistan. They survived the war and returned to Bobruisk afterward, some newly-married to Easterners. Besa Mordekhay Mopsik was highly decorated for his service in the Red Army battling the Nazis, and later rose in the ranks of the KGB (but was eventually purged along with all the other Jews). Other Mopsiks died when the Bobruisk ghetto and labor camp were liquidated in 1943.On April 15, 1996, I received the following email from a Friedrich Lehmkuehler in Wertheim, Germany:
Don,When researching for the ancestors of my wife (her g-grandfather was a rabbi in a little village near Bobruisk which we never were able to locate) in the 1970's I got an answering letter from the International Tracing Service of The International Committee of the Red Cross in Arolsen/Germany concerning the Jews of Bobruisk in WWII (translated from German):
"According to your request of information about the destiny of the Jewish inhabitants of the Bobruisk region we could find out, that in Bobruisk, Generalbezirk Weissruthenien (general district Belarus), there has been a Jewish ghetto and a camp for Jewish forced laborers. A report of the chiefs of "Sipo" ("Sicherheitspolizei") an "SD" ("Sicherheitsdienst") of December 19, 1941 indicates this:
6,281 Jews in Bobruisk liquidated. So, Bobruisk is judenrein (clean of Jews, free of Jews).
The labor camp for Jews in Bobruisk was established in May 1942. The inmates (men) had to work as transport workers for the SS-Truppenwirtschaftslager (a logistic facility of SS) or in the workshops for repairs of clothes and shoes. In November 1943, the labor camp for Jews in Bobruisk is mentioned for the last time in the files we have here (in Arolsen). There are no lists with names, neither of the victims of liquidation nor of the inmates of the labor camp for Jews."
The Bobruisker Jewish population increased after the war, and was estimated at 60,000 in 1970. A large number left for Israel and the U.S. during the 1980's wave of Soviet Jewish emigration.
In April, 1986, the radioactive plume emanating from the explosion and fire at the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, Ukraine passed fairly close to Bobruisk, but not close enough to make it an uninhabitable radioactive "forbidden zone" like areas just to the east. Our cousins report that no one was aware of any of this until much later--the government kept a tight lid on information as the disaster unfolded.
The effects on the Byelorussian population were not as severe as one would think, according to a recent 60 Minutes story on the disaster. Although there was a significant wave of thyroid cancer among children born around that time (some have been receiving treatment at hospitals in Israel), the expected general cancer epidemic did not materialize. A scientist who appeared on the 60 Minutes piece speculated that this was because the radiation was spread out over a long time and distance compared with the concentrated blast effects at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. However, it does appear that some radioactive material is being taken up from the water table into the locally-grown and consumed food supply. Just the same, it is reported that one can visit the area without suffering ill effects.
According to information gathered during a recent visit by representatives of the United Jewish Fund, today there are only about 2,800 Jews still living in Bobruisk. The Israeli government actively encourages emigration to Israel and provides instruction in Hebrew and preparation for life in the new country. Since the end of the Soviet Union and later, a large number have also emigrated to New York City and have concentrated in the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn. In 1989, there was no synagogue, the last one having been closed in 1959, but today there is a Sunday School with about 100 students and 9 teachers and a fairly well-organized Jewish community. But they rent a room in a community building to use as a synagogue. Most of the old Jewish buildings are unavailable to the Jews there.
Genealogical research in Bobruisk itself is problematic. There was a separate Jewish cemetery in use since the 18th century, but our Bobruisker cousins report that it was destroyed by the nazis and turned into a park. According to the Yiskor Book, in 1913, due to overcrowding, a new Jewish cemetery was established distant from the city, "to where one had to travel by train." There is a new post-war Jewish cemetery which is rather large and contains only a handful of pre-war stones. There is a monument to the Holocaust victims, but the new cemetery is full and the authorities claim it is closed for Jewish burials at present.
Dr. Sheldon Benjamin, who has been to Bobruisk several times (see his Bobruisk Travelog):
Bobruisk has no rabbi. One of the guys in the group leads services. They have no list of the old shuls (there were 42 of them pre-war I believe). They have no archives or lists of anything--and asked if I knew where they could buy a copy of Sefer Bobruisk (Yiskor Book).From the Yiskor Book, published in Israel in 1967: "...thousands of Jews still live in Bobruisk in the fifth decade of the Soviet regime. But, as with all Jews in the Soviet Union, the right to maintain religious or national institutions was taken from them. Their future and the future of their children was with the general fate of the Jews in the Soviet Union.There is an old guy who lives in the cemetery who is thoroughly unhelpful and couldn't find his way to even look through the cemetery list for us even with the promise of cash--in the time we had available. Also, there are almost no pre-war Jewish stones in the cemetery. The site of the old Jewish cemetery was leveled in the war.
The Jewish buildings I have photos of include only about 3 former synagogues. It's amusing to note that the one synagogue built post-war by the the surviving Jews of Bobruisk--they paid for it themselves and built a modern building-- was taken by the government soon after it was opened and converted into the local government records archive. I don't know whether there are any Jewish records in that collection, but the irony is that the entire building was STOLEN from the Jews.
Let us remember them, let us mention them, and let us hope that they will also live to see days of renewal and redemption."