Pinnsk Research Paper

Pinsk
Pinsk is a city in southern Belarus. The Jewish community in Pinsk was established in 1506. Initially, there was 100 Jews in Pinsk, which was less than 2.5 percent of the population. The Jewish population reached 1,000 by 1648, which grew to more than 2,000 people by 1766, and reached 28,000 by World War I, which was three-quarters of the entire city population.
The charter of the Pinsk Jewish community was granted in 1506 by Prince Feodor Jaroslawicz to Josko Meirowicz, Pesaḥ Ezofowicz, and Abraham Ryzykiewicz. Meirowicz, Ezofowicz, and Ryzykiewicz lead a returning group of fifteen Jewish families expelled in 1495 along with the rest of the Jews of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (a state from the 13th century to 1795). The charter promised
Jews personal and religious freedom, and legal protection. Additionally, Jews received permission to practice money lending, crafts, or business, collective and juridical autonomy, and the right to a shul and cemetery. With the support of the Catholic rulers and the Eastern Catholic church, Jews, for the most part, succeeded in maintaining their rights, despite occasional attempts by the Christian townspeople to limit Jewish economic activity and residential space. By 1580, Pinsk maintained a yeshiva which hosted many prominent rabbis and scholars, including Yehudah Leib Pohovitzer, Levi Yitsḥak ben Me’ir Yitsḥak, Me’ir Te’omim, Asher Ginzburg, Refa’el ha-Kohen, El‘azar Mosheh Horowitz, David Friedmann, and Naftali Katz.
Pinsk was seized and occupied a number of times and was in general affected by the Cossack revolts in Poland.
The revolts were sporadic fighting between the Polish army and Russia. Pinsk was also affected by the Cossack troops in the late 1650s and the Swedish invasion of 1706. During the Russian subjugation of 1660, many Jews were tortured and killed, and shuls and homes were destroyed. Many Jews were able to escape the city before the fighting had begun and were able to keep a piece of their property. For instance, in 1648, there were very few death of Jews. Regardless of the many catastrophes, the Jewish leaders and institutions were able to rebuild, unlike the Christians. There were more Jews than Christians in Pinsk at the
time.
In 1793, Pinsk was under the rule of tsarist Russia. The Jews became subject to the municipal council. In 1844, the kahal was officially eliminated. Some jobs were still controlled by Jewish officials such as public affairs, tax collections, and army conscriptions. There was a state-appointed “crown” rabbi, who was the official connection between the Jewish community and the government.
For most of World War I, Pinsk was under German rule. 9,000 Jews were banished to Poland proper. In addition, many Jews were forced into labor gangs, the food was limited, and disease was widespread. After the war, Pinsk was taken over multiple times by Ukrainians, Soviets, and Poles. Pinsk was finally conquered by Poland in September 1920. The warfare and politics were often followed by aggression and prejudice against the Jews.
On September 17th, 1939, the Red Army dominated Pinsk. Large businesses and factories were state-owned numerous people were expelled from the city. Most shuls and Jewish institutions were closed. On July 4th,1941, the Nazis occupied Pinsk. Over the course of a few weeks, they established a Judenrat. In the first week of August the Nazis planned aktions, which murdered around 11,000 Jews by gunshot, and they buried them in mass pits. On July 9th, part of the SS came to Pinsk and instantly began persecuting and murdering the Jews. On July 30th, 1941, Reichsf hrer SS Heinrich Himmler commanded: “All of the Jewish men in Pinsk should be executed, and the women and children should be driven into the swamps.”
In order to follow Himmler’s precise instructions, delivery trucks would be required to transfer the Jews and their murderers to the murder site.
On August 5th, 8,000 Jewish males were killed near the village of Posenich, which was 4 kilometers from Pinsk. The Nazis told them that they were being taken to work as laborers for three days. On the 7th of August, Jews were driven out of their homes to the gathering area near the village of Koslakowich. The murder of Jewish males from the age of 6 and up continued and another 3,000 were murdered. During these two tragic days at least 11,000 Jewish males lost their lives. Approximately 20,000 Jews were left behind after the departure of the SS cavalry units.
The Pinsk ghetto was established on May 1st 1942, and out of 10,000 inhabitants, more than 3,600 worked outside of the ghetto. From October until November 1942 the ghetto was liquidated, with approximately 10,000 Jews shot to death. Less than 200 vital workers and others were flocked into a “mini-ghetto” in Karlin and murdered on December 23rd 1942. When the Soviets liberated Pinsk on July 14th 1944, they found 17 Jews surviving in
hiding.
On October 27th, 1942, an order was issued by Himmler which stated: “I hereby issue the order for the destruction of the Pinsk Ghetto even though it has some economic advantages”. After two days right before dawn, the ghetto was surrounded by companies from the special destruction forces. For three days afterward, the Jews of Pinsk along with members of the Judenrat were escorted just 5 kilometers from the town to the village of Dobrovolie where mass graves had already been prepared. They were murdered and buried there.
After the war, Jews from other Belorussian towns renewed the Jewish presence in the city, although the community was but loosely organized and its religious services and other activities lacked official sanction. In 1991, a group of Karliner Hasidim from the United States arrived to organize the community under their leadership. In 1995, the government of Belarus restored the remaining synagogue to the community, which numbered approximately 500 people (out of 130,000).
Pinsk was under the rule of the Soviet Union’s from 1945 until 1991. In the year 1991, they became independent and were part of Belarus. Pinsk is one of the several cities in Belarus that went through a reestablishment of their Jewish communities during the past two decades. In 1991, a delegation of Karliner Hasidim from the United States arrived in Pinsk to help organize the small community that was increasing there. After four years, the government granted them authority over the city’s remaining shul.