SLUTZK

In the era of the Polish Empire (The Republic), Slutzk was the chief town of the principality of the same name (Slutzk District), forming a part of the Novogrudski region. The first information about Jews dates from 1583. In the beginning of the 17th century, there already was a Jewish community which, according to the decision of the Lithuanian Vaad in 1623, found itself in the sphere of influence of the Brest Kahal. But in the year 1691 the leaders of the Vaad included the community of Slutzk in the structure of the chief communities, taking into consideration the populousness and wealth of the community, and the many expert scribes and Talmudists. From that time a representative (Rosh ha-Medinah) from Slutzk sat at the Vaad and voted on all matters that came up for discussion concerning interests of all Lithuanian Jewry. The last Vaad took place in Slutzk in 1761 When Muscovite troops invaded Lithuania in 1655, fear spread, and the Jews fled to Vilna. After the military disturbances, Slutzk again became one of the liveliest market towns in Lithuania. The Radziwills, to whom the Slutzk Principality then belonged, helped with the material growth of Slutzk; privileges were apparently given to the Jews which explains the complaints against them by the Archimandrite of Slutzk (the superior or abbot of a larger monastery of the Eastern church) to Boguslav Radziwill in 1660. Still in 1754 "The Greco-Russian Clergy of the Slutzk ecclesiastical district" complain to the commissioner of the principality of Slutzk that, since the transfer of the tax rent to the Jews of Slutzk, all the privileges given to the clergy were destroyed. In 1766 they counted 1,577 Jews in the Slutzk Kahal region.

Now Slutzk is a district town in Minsk Gubernya

According to the tax assessment book for 1800 there were: three Christian merchants forty-seven Jewish merchants 641 Christian petty bourgeois 1,537 Jewish petty bourgeois

According to the inspection (census) of 1847, the Jewish population of the following communities were: Slutzk: 5,897 Kletzk: 2,138 Kopil:  1,824 Lyakhovetzk: 1,071 Nesvizh: 3,449

According to the Census of 1897, 260,000 inhabitants appeared on the District list; among them were 40,906 Jews. In the district settlements, in which there were not less than 500 inhabitants, Jews represented the greatest percentage in relationship to the general number of inhabitants. In Slutzk (in 1914) there was a two-grade private school for boys with a female shift, Talmud-Torah, Yeshiva, and a private school for boys.

Town	Total Population	Jewish Population
Slutzk	14,349	10,264
Vyzna	1,593	532
Gresk	1,674	207
Grozov	928	765
Kletzk	4,684	3,415
Kopil	4,463	2,671
Lyakhovetzk	5,016	3,846
Medvedich	913	274
Nevolozh	538	56
Nesvizh	8,459	4,687
Pohost	863	685
Romanov	1,535	494
Risinovich	541	102
Semyshovo	2,538	288
Sinyavka	792	418
Starobin	2,315	1,494
Timkovitz	2,393	1,523