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Jews of Novogrudok

The sources on Novogrudok Jewish community are scarce though it has been established that the number of towns with permanent Jewish population started to grow in 16 century. Jews also settled in Novogrudok being in charge of customs and tax collection at the time. Novogrudok was located off the trade routes and therefore was not a major city for the merchants to live unlike Brest or Grodno. Novogrudok Jews sold furs, bee farming products, fish and many other commodities.

In terms of discrimination and persecution by the authorities and locals, in general Lithuanian Jews (litvaks) were doing better than their Polish peers. The Jews from time to time had conflicts with the local nobility – schlyakhta – as well as with the city residents. Though in 1563 a decree was issued for them to relocate and respectively to abandon their houses, the Jews somehow pushed their interests and stayed.

The population number of Novogrudok at that time can only be deduced from the tax size which was much smaller than that payable by Brest and Pinsk communities. By that time Jews owned slightly less than 30 per cent of the real estate in the area and their community in Novogrudok was substantial. The 17 century was particularly destructive for the town – wars gave way to epidemics and fires and the city population and its standard of living dropped significantly. There was a lot of harsh treatment of the Jews by the soldiers stationed in Novogrudok in spite of the respective decrees by the authorities. The troubles of the century made the parliament sejm introduce zero tax several times.

In 1754 King’s privilege made an accent on Jews. Those living in juridicas (a property of the church or nobility) and conducting trade had to pay taxes same as Christians – to maintain cobbled streets, city clock, etc. Jews were banned to run shops in the city market – these had to be based near the school. To prevent profiteering Jews were also banned to leave the city premises to buy food and to start trading operations before nine o’clock in the morning. They could not employ Christian servants.

In 1881 Novogrudok had a few breweries and a brick factory. Thin water supply and poor geographical position dwarfed the development. The Jews, many of them relocated to Novogrudok from the villages, survived by means of trade and crafts.

The 1921 census revealed 4500 Jews living in Novogrudok out of the total of 9230 city residents. In the early 20 century simple Jewish people were often very poor but strived to provide their kids with good education, preferably in Hebrew. The Jewish community was immensely proud of its writers and rabbis who achieved world recognition. Tarbut School for 800 pupils was open in Novogrudok after WWI cultivating Zionist ideals and improving Jewish self-awareness.

There were several other schools, including private ones, a shelter for orphans and a caring home for the elderly and a Jewish hospital that enjoyed high reputation among all the locals. The community attached each graduate of the orphanage to a craftsman for apprenticeship. There was a multitude of interest clubs and political parties in Novogrudok and in general the atmosphere was very friendly with zero crime rate.

The 1930s saw anti-Semitism trends intensify in Poland. Many groups declared the need to boycott Jewish shops, limit the number of Jewish university students and the employment of Jews in public offices. Many Jews - by some sources as many as 25 to 30 per cent - were surviving on the aid money of international funds. Many of those preferred to immigrate to Palestine and the USA.

By 1938 Jews were quite frequently attacked and it suddenly became clear that the Polish army would not be able to protect the population from the oncoming Nazi invasion that was sensed by many. The 1939 Soviet takeover saw to massive deportations of the locals – Poles, Jews and Belarusians, around 1.5m in total were extradited to Siberia where they lived through the war. Others that remained had to go through the horrors of the Nazi occupation.

Over five centuries Novogrudok was home to the generations of Jews who took part on developing the city. The community was erased during the Great Patriotic War and out of six thousand Jews only handfuls managed to escape this grim fate and to join the partisan warfare against the Nazis. One of examples of their struggle is the partisan team of the Bielski Brothers.

If you wish to take a private city tour of Novogrudok or research your Novogrudok (Nowogrudek) family roots, do not hesitate to contact me.