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Timeline
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Svisloch (Polish Swislodz) town in the Grodno Oblast
Belarus
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Beginning of the 18c A number of Jews settled in Svisloch on the invitation
of the owners of the locality, the princes of Tyszkiewicz |
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Svisloch in Poland |
| 1752 |
The Council of Four Lands (Council of Lithuania) imposed a poll tax of 215
Zlotys on the Svisloch community. |
| 1766 |
The population was 220 |
| After 1795 |
Svisloch in Prussia |
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Rabbi Ezekiel of Svisloch son of
Abraham Hayim Katzenellenpogen descendant of Ezekiel Katzenellenpogen
author of "Kenesset Yezekiel". ABD and Chief Rabbi of Hamburg; ABD
of Altona,
Hamburg and Wandsbeck.. ABD and Rabbi of Svisloch wrote an approbation
to Mar'ot HaTzovz'ot by Moses Zeev, published in Grodno, 1810. ABD
Bialystok. His son Abraham born about 1804 settled in Drohitchin. |
| 1805 |
Zevi Hirsh Edelman (Hen-Tov) was born. He died in Berlin 1858. |
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Until the middle of the 19 c. the Jews of Svisloch earned their money mainly
from the trade of timber, grains, shop keeping and crafts. Later they engaged in
inn keeping and the lease of public houses. |
| 1830 |
There was a "Great Fire" which leveled al the stores in
Svisloch. Two other fires occurred before 1900 after the
"great fire" in which most of the Jewish stores were again destroyed.
After 1830, the fairs were no
longer held in Svisloch and the Jews were deprived of their principal sources of
livelihood. |
| 1831 |
Polish insurrection against Russia |
| 1847 |
The Jewish population was 977 |
| 1857-1891 |
Rabbi Meir Yona of Svisloch first
published a volume of the classical halachic work "Ha Ittur", (written by Rabbi Isaac ben Aba Mari of Marseille, a
contemporary of Maimonides), in 5634 (1836). In his Preface he acknowledges
his
community of Svisloch (today in Belarus)
and singles out only one prominent
local benefactor by the name of Zelig SORKIN (in Hebrew: samech aleph resh
kuf
yud nun), who was, presumably, something like the President of the community
and
a relatively wealthy person. He died 1902-1903. |
| 1870 |
The Jews in Svisloch began to pioneer in the tanning
industry and, with the assistance of German master craftsmen whom they invited to
the town, improved methods of manufacture. Pinkhes Bereznitski
opened the first tannery. |
| 1891 - 1903 |
Rabbi Shneur Zalman Pines was rabbi concurrently with
Meir Yona Shatz's son Mordechai. |
| 1892 - 1903 |
Rabbi Ahron Kotler (son of Rabbi Shneur Zalman Pines).
Known as the "Shislovitzer iluy" (Svisloch genius, he immigrated to the
United States in 1940. He founded the yeshiva and complex of talmudic
institutions in Lakewood NJ. His grandson Rabbi Malkiel Kotler is rabbi
there today. |
| 1903 |
Railway built through the town. |
| 1897 |
The Jewish population was 2,086 or 67.3% of the community of Svisloch. |
| 1900 – 1915 |
By the end of the 19th c.
the town had 8 leather factories employing between 40 and 50 workers
each. There were a dozen or more smaller shops employing from 6-12
workers. As they employed hundreds of workers, many Jews from the
surrounding areas came in search of employment. |
| 1900-1908 |
At the beginning of the 20th century the bund Movement
developed in Svisloch and it embraced the whole Jewish populace (tanners,
tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, smiths and bakers), who organized strikes for
the amelioration of working conditions in tanneries and factories. |
| 1900-1901 |
The Bund called the first strike. |
| 1903 |
Rabbi Yossef
Rosen - Son in law of Rabbi Dov Ber Galov, Rav gaon ,
great in Torah, famous. Born 1865, Rabbi in Svisloch. After WWI, he
immigrated to the US and became rabbi in
Passaic, NJ in 1926. He died 1954. |
| 1903 |
Railroad was built through the town |
| 1904 |
Russo-Japanese War |
| 1904 |
The Bund called the second strike |
| 1905 |
The establishment of the workers’ organization established for Jewish
self-defense against pogroms. |
| 1907 |
General Strike |
| 1908 |
Lockout and workers defeat |
| 1908 |
Unemployment and low earning capacity in Svisloch led to mass
immigration. |
| 1910 |
Half the town was destroyed by fire |
| 1911 |
Samuel Belkin U.S. Rabbi, educator and scholar was born. He became
president of Yeshiva University NY. |
| 1914 – 1918 |
World War I - Occupation by the Germans |
| 1915 |
Under German occupation, a group of woman left for America |
| 1918 |
After WWI Zionist Socialism gained ground with the community. A hakh-sharah farm was established by the He-Halutz movement. A tarbut school and
a school of the CYSHO were established. |
| 1918 – 1939 |
Svisloch was in again Poland |
| 1921 |
The Jewish population was 1,959 or 66.7 % of the total population of
Svisloch. |
| 1942-1945 |
The Svisloch Jews were removed to the Wolkavysk Ghetto.
October 1, 1942 the Wolkavysk Ghetto was liquidated. Then there were
1500 left in the ghetto, Many were executed or sent to work camps. There
was an organized mass killing in the forest near Svisloch where 1500
were liquidated. Svisloch came to an end with the Holocaust.
The last rabbi Hayyim Jacob Moses
Judah Mishkinski perished with the community
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