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WHEN SHKLOV WAS JEWISH
THE "GOLDEN ERA"
During the 18th and 19th centuries and in the early 20th
century before World War II, Shklov was a predominantly Jewish
town.
During the "Golden Era" of Jewish life in the late 18th century,
Shklov was a major center of Jewish learning and thought, and
boasted the largest Hebrew publishing house in Eastern
Europe. Although Jewish life in Shklov declined
somewhat following several blows, including emigration of
followers of the Vilna Gaon to Israel, the construction of a
railroad that bypassed Shklov, and early 20th century emigration
to the United States, nevertheless, the Jewish community remained
strong in Shklov until World War II.
The "Golden Era" was the period between Shklov's annexation by
Russia in 1772 and the Napoleonic War of 1812. With
the partition of Poland in 1772, the part of Poland that includes
Shklov, which is now in modern-day Belorussia, was annexed by
Russia. After becoming part of Russia, Shklov developed as
an important commercial center on the trade route linking Russia
with Western Europe. During this "Golden Era,"
Shklov was a thriving economic and cultural center, which boasted
a renowned Yeshiva, which was established by Benyamin Rivlin.
Benyamin ben Shlomo Zalman Rivlin (1728-1812), was
a close colleague and disciple of the Vilna Gaon, as well as being
a distant cousin. Rivlin spent many years in
Vilna studying with the Gaon. He then returned home to
Shklov and established a yeshiva there. Rivlin's
Shklov Yeshiva employed the Gaon's disciplined text-critical
method of Talmudic study, and became a center for transmitting the
Gaon's religious and philosophical worldview. Indeed
as Shklov was developing into a cultural center in the
post-partition period, it was the thought of the Vilna Gaon
who dominated the rabbinic culture of Shklov.
Rav Rivlin single-handedly played a major role in helping to
make Shklov into a center of rabbinic learning in the 1770's,
which it remained until he left for the Holy Land in
1812.
The yeshiva established by Rav Rivlin trained a generation of
scholars that followed the teachings of the Vilna
Gaon. Among these was Menahem Mendel ben Barukh Bendet
of Shklov, who prepared many of the Gaon's writings for
publication.
In early 1772 Shklov was the first community in Eastern Europe to
pronounce the followers of the Hasidim to be heretics. Rav
Rivlin was the driving force behind the enactments against Hasidim
issued by the Va‘ad Medinat Rusiya in Shklov in 1787.Although
most of the Jews of the Pale of Settlement were poverty-striken, a
certain number of Jews of Shklov acquired wealth as traders,
merchants and suppliers for the army. Although Jews
were prohibited from settling in Moscow until the end of the 18th
century, with the Russian annexation of Belorussia in 1772,
several Jewish merchants from Shklov took up residence in Moscow;
one of the most notable of these merchants was the trader and
contractor, Nathan Note Notkin of Shklov.
In 1783 the first Jewish printing house in Belarus was
established in Shklov. During the "Golden Era" Shklov
became the largest center of Hebrew printing in Eastern
Europe. Among the most famous books
printed in Shklov was the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, the major
recodification of the Shulchan Aruch by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of
Liadi, known to Chabad Hassidim as "The Alter Rebbe," author of The Tanya. Also
known as Shulchan Aruch Harav,
the first section was printed in Shkov in 1814. However,
Shklov's prominence as a political center of Russian Jewry later
declined in the early 1800's, and its role as a center of Hebrew
printing was soon surpassed by Vilna and Grodno.
If you
have additional information about Shklov to share
or other comments or questions, please contact Daria Fane
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Copyright 2013 Daria Fane