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Shklov
including Zarecha and Rizhkevich


Belarus

Location: Belarus,  54°13' N 30°18' E

Shklov Sign on Highway at Entrance
                to Town













  ROAD LEADING INTO SHKLOV
Holocaust Survivors -- Two
                  of Shklov's Last Remaining Jews
TWO JEWISH WWII SURVIVORS

Shklov Church
SHKLOV ORTHODOX CHURCH

Credit:  All Photos of modern Shklov on this Website by Daria Fane




Welcome

This web site is dedicated to the study of the town of Shklov and to the memory of its former Jewish population.  For further information, click on the links below:  


HISTORY OF SHKLOV

WHEN SHKLOV WAS JEWISH

WORLD WAR II

VESTIGES OF JEWISH LIFE

JEWISH CEMETERY

SHKLOV TODAY

JEWISH FAMILIES OF SHKLOV

MAPS, LINKS and  MORE









Location, Demography, Summary

Shklov is located on the banks of the Dnieper River in the Mogiliev District (oblast) of Belarus, some 20 miles north of the town of Mogiliev, and 113 miles east-northeast of Minsk.  This Shklov website also includes Zarecha, the contiguous shtetl just across the Dnieper River, as well as the Rizhkevich area, which was formerly a separate village on the Shklov side of the river, but which is now a part of Shklov.

According to the 1897 Census, at the end of the 19th century, 5,422 Jews lived in Shklov, comprising 78% of the total population.   At that time there were more than ten synagogues and prayer houses functioning.  The Jewish Encyclopedia published in 1905, reported that at that time the Jewish population of Shklov had grown to about 12,000, which was nearly 88% of the total population.  However, during the early 20th century many of Shklov's Jews then left the town, either for the big towns and cities, or to emigrate, and by 1939 only 2,132 Jews remained, comprising 26.2% of the population.  The majority of the Jews who remained in Shklov, along with thousands of Jews from nearby towns who had taken refuge in Shklov, were mercilessly murdered during World War II in a series of hideous mass shooting actions carried out by the Nazi forces in 1941.  Today the population of Shklov numbers some 16,000, but only a mere handful of Jews remain in the town.   According to one of those last remaining Jews, "there is no one left who knows how to pray or keep Jewish tradition."   The era of Shklov as a center of Jewish life has passed.      

During its "Golden Era" in the late 18th century, Shklov was a center of Jewish learning and the largest Hebrew publisher in Eastern Europe.  
Shklov was in the forefront of the conflict in currents of Jewish practice between the "Hasidim" and the "Mitnagdim" in the late 18th century.   Followers of the Vilna Gaon from Shklov led a wave of emigration to Israel in the early 19th century and played a key role in the establishment of the early settlement "Yishuv" in Jerusalem and Sefad.   Because of the town's role as an intellectual and cultural center, the Jews of Shklov have been termed "Russia's First Modern Jews." 



Other Names
Shklov:  Shklow [Bel], Shklov [Rus, Yid], Szkłów [Pol], Škłoŭ, Shkloŭ, Schklou
Zarecha:  Zarech'ye, Zarechnyy Shklov [Rus]
Rizhkevich:  Ryzhkovichi




View From
                Cemetery House
                Window Closeup Shklov House


Kraslava, Latvia -- Shtetlinks page
If you have additional information about Shklov to share
or other comments or questions, please contact Daria Fane



Compiled by Daria Fane

Last updated March 1, 2022

Copyright 2014 Daria Fane



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