Luninets is a town and administrative centre for the Luninets district in Brest Province,
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
, before which it was in
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(1540-1793, 1920-1939) and
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
(1793-1920, 1939-1941, 1944-1991). It has a population of some 24,000, and is immediately east of the
Pinsk districtPinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region is known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...
within Brest. It was home to
Luninets air baseLuninets is an air base in Belarus, located 4 km northwest of Luninets. It was a fighter-bomber training airfield during the Cold War. It was home to 1169 BRAT flying Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters....
during the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
.
Luninets is said to be mentioned in print sources dating to 1540.
Luninets is a town and administrative centre for the Luninets district in Brest Province,
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
, before which it was in
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(1540-1793, 1920-1939) and
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
(1793-1920, 1939-1941, 1944-1991). It has a population of some 24,000, and is immediately east of the
Pinsk districtPinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region is known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...
within Brest. It was home to
Luninets air baseLuninets is an air base in Belarus, located 4 km northwest of Luninets. It was a fighter-bomber training airfield during the Cold War. It was home to 1169 BRAT flying Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters....
during the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
.
History
Luninets is said to be mentioned in print sources dating to 1540. It was part of the
PinskPinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region is known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...
region which was under Polish rule between the 16th and 18th centuries but fell to
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 1793 in the
Second Partition of PolandThe Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The partitions were carried out by Prussia, Russia and Habsburg Austria dividing up the Commonwealth lands...
. In 1888, while under Russian sovereignty, a railway junction was built in Luninets, linking it by rail to
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
,
RivneRivne is a historic city in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Rivne Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Rivne Raion within the oblast...
, Vilna and Homel, and a proper railroad station was added in 1905.
Luninets became part of
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1920 following the
Polish-Soviet WarThe Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic, four states in post-World War I Europe. The war was the result of the belligerents' desire to expand their territories and their influence...
, but nineteen years later was incorporated back into the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
in 1939, and—with the exception of occupation by
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
from 1941 to 1944—remained part of the Soviet Union until 1991, at which time sovereignty ceded to the Republic of
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
.
Jewish Community (Shtetl)
Many Jews moved into Luninets, particularly from nearby Kozhanhorodosk, following the town's linkage by railroad which established it as an important regional centre. Most of them settled in its Zamed quarter and market area. At the community's height the Jewish population numbered roughly 3,000; a third of the town's population.
Religious and Cultural Life
Four Hasidic groups were represented among Luninets's Jewish population:
KarlinKarlin-Stolin is the name of a hasidic dynasty originating with Rebbe Aaron the Great of Karlin in present-day Belarus. Karlin was one of the first centres of chasidim to be set up in Lita ....
, Stulin, Horodok, and Brenza. Religious life was centred around four synagogues, which also functioned as social gathering places for young adults. In 1910 a mikva (ritual bath) was added, along with a cemetery.
Education was dispensed through a
Talmud TorahTalmud Torah schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of public primary school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew, the Scriptures , and the Talmud...
, which included a well-liked educator known as Rabbi Perez; a mixed experimental
Klass school founded in 1906 by a teacher named Kaplansky; a Hebrew
TarbutThe Tarbut movement was a network of secular, Hebrew-language schools in parts of the former Jewish Pale of Settlement, specifically in Poland, Romania and Lithuania...
school; and a
yeshivaYeshiva or yeshivah , or metivta or mesivta ) also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for study of its traditional, central texts...
, Beth Israel. The yeshiva was headed by Rabbi
Elazar ShachRabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach , was a leading Eastern European-born and educated Haredi rabbi who settled and lived in modern Israel.He was the rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak the pre-eminent yeshiva of Lithuanian...
, who would go on to become one of
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
's most eminent Haredi rabbis and Talmudic scholars, dean of the prestigious
Ponevezh yeshivaPonevezh Yeshiva, often pronounced Ponevitch Yeshiva, is a world renowned yeshiva located in Bnei Brak, Israel. It was originally established in the town of Panevėžys, Lithuania...
in
Bnei BrakBnei Brak is a city located on Israel's central Mediterranean coastal plain, just east of Tel Aviv, in the Dan metropolitan region and Tel Aviv District....
, and founder of the
Degel HaTorahDegel HaTorah is an Ashkenazi ultra-orthodox political party in Israel. For much of its existence it has been allied to Agudat Israel under the name United Torah Judaism.-Ideology:...
LithuanianLithuanian Jews are Ashkenazi Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ....
party.
Like many European shtetls, Luninets's Jewish community included both religious and secular Jews, and both bundist and Zionist movements. The shtetl's cultural life included a Habima drama circle and a secular library, named for
Yosef Haim BrennerYosef Haim Brenner was a Ukrainian-born Hebrew-language author, one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature.-Biography:Brenner was born to a poor Jewish family in Novi Mlini, Ukraine...
. Many of the town's Jews were active in trade unions and the workmen's circle as
BundBund may refer toin German context:Bund is the German language and Yiddish word for Federation or Union, in which context it is pronounced "boont". Since 1949, the word is frequently used in reference to the Federal Republic of Germany , its parliament , its military , etc...
members.
The local Zionist movement, led by teachers at the Tarbut schools included Zerah Bakleczuk, Ben Yishai, and Haim Gloiberson ben Maimam, extended to branches of the Keren Kayemet, Keren Hayessod, and Keren Ha-avoda. Local branches for the Hehalutz movement (1922)
Poale ZionPoale Zion was a Movement of Marxist Zionist Jewish workers circles founded in various cities of the Russian Empire about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901.-Formation and early years:Poale Zion parties and organisations were started across the Jewish diaspora in the...
(1926), Hashomer Hatzair (1926), and the Revisionist Party (1929) followed. A local kibbutz was even set up, known as Kibbutz Shaharia, although it was dissolved when most of its members emigrated to Israel.
Economic Matters
Most of the Jewish residents were traders and craftsmen, however things turned bleak in the 1930s when the Polish government issued a boycott against all Jewish.
Holocaust
In 1939, the Soviet Union occupied the shtetl. Jewish schools were shut down, and stores and bank accounts were plundered. In June 1941, the Germans took control of Luninets, and although many residents attempted to flee into the Soviet Union, the majority were unsuccessful and were turned over to the Nazis. In August 1941 almost all of the men were shot and killed, and the women and children were moved into a ghetto. Latter that month, the Nazis shot and killed all the ghetto's remaining residents, burying them in a common grave.
Luniniec's only Jewish survivors are those who left before the war's outbreak, or the handful that managed to sneak into the Soviet Union during the war.
External links