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Motol / Motele, Belarus

A memorial and research site preserving the history, families, documents, photographs, and memories of the Jewish community of Motol.

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Entering Motol in 1999
Entering Motol, 1999. Courtesy of the Weizmann Archives, Yad Weizmann, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Other namesMotele, Motoul, Motal
LocationNear Pinsk, in present-day Belarus
Known forBirthplace of Chaim Weizmann
Site focusGenealogy, memory, documents, and photographs

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Use these main sections as a starting point. The original material has been preserved while the navigation and layout have been cleaned up.

Memories of MotolMemoirs, holiday recollections, and travel accounts.Families from MotolFamily stories, surnames, and submitted biographical notes.Photos & DocumentsPhotographs, cemetery records, name lists, and documentary material.Researching MotolA guide and links for people tracing Motol families.BibliographyBooks, articles, memoirs, and yizkor-book references.Other LinksJewishGen databases and related external resources.

A Brief History of Motol

In Jehuda Reinharz’s book, Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Zionist Leader, two stories are told about the founding of the town of Motol, both having taken place in the mid seventeenth century. In one, the original town was destroyed by Chmielnicki’s Cossacks and, in the other it was destroyed during the Swedish invasion of Poland. In both cases, a Jew named Motol or Mordechai survived the destruction and erected a building that then or later became a tavern or inn that was frequented by travelers or merchants on their way from Minsk to Pinsk and Pinsk to Minsk. Perhaps it is that tavern that gave rise to the saying, “from Minsk to Pinsk and Motele on Shabbas.” In any case, by 1847 the Jewish population grew to 222, and in another fifty years totaled 1,354 among the 4,297 inhabitants of Motol. (Reinharz, 1985).

Motol is located about 20 miles west of Pinsk on the Yasolda River in a region called Polesie made up mainly of forest and the marshlands from the many tributaries of the Pripet River. According to Reinharz, the economy was always very poor in that region. The timber industry was central to the economy. In addition, livestock could be raised on pastureland.   The small amount of cultivated land produced various grains and potatoes; and fishing, beekeeping and horticulture also formed part of the economy. (Reinharz, 1985).

Polesie was part of Poland until the various partitions during the eighteenth century. After Napoleon’s defeat, Russia annexed eastern Poland, and Polesie became part of the Pale of Settlement, the area designated for Jewish habitation. The area was subdivided into provinces, called guberniyas. Motol was located in Grodno Guberniya in the Kobrin District. Many of our ancestors lived in Motol during the time Chaim Weizmann described it in his autobiography, Trial and Error. When Chaim Weizmann and his family lived in Motol, “There was no post office. Mail was brought in by anyone from the townlet who happened to pass by the nearest railway station on his own business...But letters played no very important part in our lives; there were few in the outside world who had reason to communicate with us.” (Weizmann, 1949) Again according to Reinharz, contact with other communities took place primarily at marketplaces in the surrounding area – Pinsk, Kobryn, Stolin, Lunynets, Mozyr, Kamien, Kosirski, Sarny and Ovruc.