  RADUN
<!--[if
!vml]--><!--[endif]-->Alternate names: Radun and Радунь [Rus], Raduń
[Bel, Pol], Radin [Yid], Rodin, Radunj
township in Voranava district, Hrodna Voblast, Belarus. 54°03'
N, 25°00' E, 8 miles N of Eisiskes, 16 miles NW of Lida, 45
miles SSW of Vilnius (Vilna). 1900 Jewish population: 896.
also called Radin, and the
dependent villages of Adamoniszki, Balciszki,
Bartoszyszki, Dowgieliszki, Druskieniki Nowo, Druskieniki Stare,
Dubince, Dugalishok, Horodyszcze, Jantowty, Jurance, Kiwance, Klajsze,
Korgowdy, Kujze, Kurki, Lelusze, Lipkunce, Lunki, Mozejki, Nowinki,
Nowosady, Odwierniki, Orle, Palaszki, Palunce, Pcolony, Pielasa,
Pielunce, Piencieniszki, Podzitwa, Pomiedz, Popiszki, Postawki,
Powilance, Powloka, Rackuny, Radziunce, Serbeniszki, Skirejki,
Skladance, Slobodka, Smilginie Nowe, Smilginie Stare, Stracuny,
Stuczyki, Surkonty, Swianowszczyzna, Szawry, Talkunce, Tatarszczyna,
Ulanowszczyzna, Waszkicle, Wigance, Wojkunce, Woldaciszki
and estates, colonies,
and hamlets of Alekszyszki, Antokol,
Bartoszunce, Butrymy, Ejwunce, Falkunce, Gaj, Gierwielance, Giesztowty,
Girki Kadziunce, Janowicze, Januszyszki, Jodzie, Juciuny, Jurance,
Kadziunce, Kiemejsza, Korklina, Krzeczewicze, Lubiance, Maciunce,
Malewskie, Milkunce, Niekradszunce, Nosowicze, Olekszyszki, Palielunce,
Paszkiewicze, Pietraszunce, Poradun, Radun Plebanja, Rukance, Sapunce
I, II, and III, Serbeniszki, Siendzikowszczyzna, Surkonty, Szawry,
Talkunce, Tolciszki, Troczki, Wanagiszki, Wapielnia, Wieckiewicze,
Wilbiki, Witozence, Wolkiewicze, Zapasuiki
Historical Map - Radun (Рагунь) is to the upper left of Lida (Лида)
LOCATION AFTER 1939: Baranavichy
Oblast (Belarusian: Баранавіцкая вобласць, Russian:
Барановичская Область) was a territorial unit in the Belarusian Soviet
Socialist Republic created after the annexation of West Belarus into
the BSSR in November 1939. The administrative centre of the province
was the city of Baranavichy. The voblast was originally known as the Navahrudak
Voblast but it was soon renamed to Baranavichy Voblast. The
oblast was made up of 26 raions in 1944. These raions were
Byten, Gorodyshche, Ivyanets, Iwye, Yuratishki, Karelichy, Kletsk,
Kozlovshchina, Lyakhavichy, Lida, Lubcha, Mir, Masty, Navahrudak, Nova
Mysh, Nesvizh, Radun, Slonim, Stowbtsy, Shchuchyn, Vasilishki,
Valozhyn, Voranava, Dzyatlava, Zel’va and Zheludok.
In 1944, the oblast was diminished after transferring raions
of Lida, Radun, Schuchyn, Vasilishki, Voranava, Masty, Zel’va
and Zheludok to newly founded Hrodna Voblast (Founded after
remaining parts of Belastok Region to Belarus in 1945) and ones
of Iwye, Yuratishki and Valozhyn to Molodechno Voblast in
1944. Finally on January 8, 1954 the oblast was liquidated and the
raions were divided between the Brest (Raions of Gorodyshche,
Lyakhavichy and Novo Mysh), Grodno (Byten, Karelichi, Kozlovshchina,
Lubcha, Mir, Navahrudak and Slonim), Molodechno (liquidated in 1960)
(Raion of Ivyanets) and Minsk (Raions of Kletsk, Nesvizh and Stowbtsy)
Olbasts (Modern Brest Voblast, Hrodna Voblast and Minsk Voblast). Thus,
Baranavichy became part of Brest one as raion center after Nova Mysh
one's center was moved to Baranavichy in 1 May 1954 and renaming it as
Baranavichy one after 8 April 1957. Today:
Radun is in Voranava District, Hrodna Voblast, Belarus.
First a Polish royal
estate, Radun gained prominence in the sixteenth century due to its
location on the main road between Cracow and Vilna. Jewish residency
was prohibited until 1538 when local Jewish farmers saw Radun receive
municipal status enabling them to remain. In 1623, the Council of the
Province of Lithuania (Council of the Lands) subordinated Radun Jewish
community to Grodno kahal. 1765 Jewish poll tax payers of Radin and its
surrounding communities numbered 581. When Rech Pospolita (1795) was
divided, Radunj became a part of Russian Empire and belonged to
Vilenskaya Gubernya. By the end of the nineteenth century, the one
hundred houses in the town proper had 283 Jews in 1847, 896 in 1897
(53.3% of the total population), and 671 in 1921 (53.5%). In 1869,
Israel Meir Kohen (Hafez Chayyim after his famous Sefer) founded
Radun’ Yeshiva there in 1869, attracting students from a wide
area. The teacher of Talmud and Halakah was Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan (Pupko.)
Primary occupations of the Radun Jewish community were commerce,
crafts, and agriculture. Twelve percent of the two hundred Jewish
cooperative bank participants in 1921 were farmers. The Yekopo Relief
Society in Vilna granted nineteen loans in 1929 for 1,134 acres of land
(420 desytinas).
In 1912, when Radun belonged to Poland in Vilna
voevodstvo, Yeshi bar Zachri Mendel Hacohen Katz (1856-?), son of the
rabbi in Radin, was rabbi in Bakshty.
In 1928, Radun was designated as a miasteczko (small town) and gmina
wiejska (parish town), council office for the surroundings villages, in
the First Uchastok, Lida powiat, Nowogrodskie voevodstvo of Poland
between WWI and WII. The Justice of the Peace was in Eisiskes
and the Justice Court in Wilno. The
1928 miasteczko population was 1,254. The railway station was 21
kilometers away in Bastuny, on the
Lida-Wilno line. The post office and telephone were in Bastuny
and the telegraph in Lida. The town had two Catholic churches, one
synagogue, and one mosque. Markets were on Wednesdays. (Eliach, There Once was a World, says the markets
were on Tuesday: Little, Brown, 1998, p. 315.)
The pre-WWII Jewish population was about eight
hundred. The Soviets took Radun in 1939, ending Jewish community
activity. In 1939, it belonged to Belarussian Soviet Socialist
Republic, Baranovichi district. This
separated it from Eisiskes, which
remained in Lithuania. The
Nazi Aktion on May 10, 1942 murdered two thousand Jews from the town
and surroundings villages. The August 9, 1942 Aktion killed most of the
remaining Jewish population although some escaped to the partisans. The
Belarussians reported that 1,136 citizens of Radun murdered by the
Nazis. In 1962, Radun was in Voronovo District.
Dugalishok, a
predominantly Jewish village dependency of Radun that eventually became
something of a Jewish resort, attracted numerous summer vacationers
from the neighboring shtetlakh during the 1920s and
'30s. The most illustrious of visitors was the Haffetz Hayyim himself,
who brought with him many yeshivah students from Radun. Drawn to the
countryside by the beautiful pine forest, the excellent agricultural
produce, and the warm hospitality of the farmers, the young tourists
kept the villages abuzz all during the summer months." (Eliach, Yaffa. There
Once Was a World. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1998. P.
256.
Skladance: The Polish
Genealogical Society of America from Geograficzny
Krolestwa Polskiego online: "a peasant-owned village, Lida
powiat, in the 4th political district, gmina, rural district and
treasury-owned estate of Radun, 5 km. from the gmina, 23.5 km. from
Lida, and 44 km. from Wasiliszki; it has 25 houses, 204 Catholic
inhabitants (in 1864 there were 81 souls per the rewizja). Source: Slownik
Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego -
Warsaw
[1889, vol. 10, p. 680]. Translated by Barbara Proko, Boulder, CO and
edited by Fred Hoffman. From the PGSA Summer 1998 Bulletin. [lilnk to
Geograficzny translations has gone stale; good thing I quoted it]
More on Radun
- CEMETERY:
IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project
- Incorporation
papers location for two Landsmanshaftn for people from Radin: go to the
JGSNY
home page, click on "New York Landsmanshaftn and other organizations:
& then scroll down to "Incorporation Papers".The
town name is in the right column.
-
Rediscovery
Trip
to Lithuania,
including a stop in Radun by Rabbi Nosson Zev Grossman.
- Holocaust Martyrs
in Radun compiled by the Soviet
Extraordinary Commission.This list will be
translated by the US
Holocaust Memorial Museum and included in their massive
translation of all the Extraordinary Commission lists, which will be
searchable from Jewishgen.
- Holocaust in Radun
on Yahad in Unum site.
- Much information on Radun, with photographs
- Footage from a trip to Radun at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Famous Sons:
- Yoseph
Shlomo Kahaneman Rabbi studied
at Radun Yeshiva, founded a Yeshiva in Israel.
- Rabbi
Yisroel
Meir HaKohen (1838 - 1933), the Chofetz Chaim, born in
Zhetel, founded
the
Yeshiva of Radun, and was its first director.
- Long biographical essay on the Chofetz Chaim - in Russian, use a browser translation app
- Rabbi Eliezer
Kaplan graduate of Radun Yeshiva, murdered in Holocaust.
- Rabbi David
Rudnick studied at Radun Yeshiva, murdered in Holocaust - link is dead
as of 2009 Copy motlc.wiesenthal.org/pages/t012/t01232.html & paste it into the Wayback
Machine Archive "take me back" box. Click on results pre-2004
- Tzivia
Walkin nee Sachrof, raised in Radun.
Her
family members were neighbors of the Chofetz Chaim.
Her husband, Shmuel David Walkin, was
rabbi in Traby before WWII. They
fled to Vilnius and were able to leave there for Shanghai, where they
spent the war.
- Grodno (Belarus): Belorussian Historical
Archive in Grodno; from Elyashevich opus 166 Radunskaya Synagogue in
Lidski uezd. #456, 9 chronicles, 1897-1900
- Postcards of Radun:
at the bottom of the Radun frame in Shtetls
of
Belarus
- YIVO's
on-line photograph collection
- The Radin
Collection at the University of Texas Briscoe Center has some of its pre-World
War II photos online.
- Grodno Region Department, National Belorussian
Historical Archives of Grodno and
National Belorussian Historical Archives, Grodno Region Department,
Director: eizengauz Ploschad 2, Grodno 230001 Belarus. Those records
can be found in the ALD
- Ksiega
Adresowa Handlowa, Warszawa Bydgoszcz 1929
- Glowny Urzad Statystyczny Rzechzypospolitej
polskiej
- Translation of
Slownik
Geograficzny entry for Radun. [scroll
down to Radun on the linked page. Alternate translation
here]
- Barbara Proko's translation of the Slownik
entry.
- "In Ghetto Radun", chapter 26, There
Once was a World, Yaffa Eliach, Little Brown, 1998, pp.
595-610.
- EVREISKAYA ENCY.: XIII: 272 [12 lines].
- Encyclopedia
Judaica
- Dubnow,
S. Pinchas ha-Medinah (1925);
- Kaganowitz, M. (editor), Sefer
Zikkaron li-Kehillat Ivye (H/Y), 1968;
- Yahadut
Lita, 3, (1967), p. 57-58;
- Yad
Vashem: M.41-141 70632, Russian, 11 Nov, 1944: Accounts of
battles and sabotage of the partisan group with the name MATROSOV from
May to June 1944 in eastern Belorussia; information on the underground
communist organizations in the region WASILIZKI from May-June 1944;
establishment and actions of the partisan brigade by the name "Leninsky
Komsomol" in the areas WASILIZKI, SKIDEL, RADUN in the years 1941-44;
especially the condition of the Jews who remained in the family camps
among the partisans.
- Virtual
Shtetl: Museum of the
History of Polish Jews
- Shtetl Finder (1980), p. 83:
"Rodin, Radin".
- Pinkas HaKehilot
- Encyclopedia of
Jewish Life
(2001), pp. 1049-1050: "Radun".
If
you have Lida uezd
materials to share, please considering donating it.
If you read Yiddish or Hebrew, please contact us.
Records are
held both in Grodno and Vilna archives.For Lida records translation,
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with any questions.For current translations, please see the ALD:
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SIG Database.
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