LETTER FROM WARSAW
The epic tale of the Slonim synagogue, one of the most beautiful in Belarus and the second oldest in the country, begins a new chapter. Abandoned for decades, it was bought for 42 Belarusian rubles (12 euros) during an auction organized by the authorities in February.
Its new owner, whose name has so far been kept secret, Denis Dudarev, met with the head of the executive committee of the Slonim region in May. “My intentions to restore the Slonim synagogue are very serious”assured this mysterious Russian businessman whose comments were reported in the local newspaper Slonimski Vesnik.
The man, who made his fortune in construction but about whom little is known, now has five years to renovate the religious building while preserving its historical and stylistic characteristics. Mr. Dudarev’s company was the only one involved in the sale of the synagogue. After a series of unsuccessful auctions, the starting price was lowered to the modest sum of… 11 euros.
A historic synagogue
Built in 1642, when the town of Slonim was at an important cultural and commercial crossroads of the Republic of the Two Nations (i.e. the union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland), the synagogue was frequented by a community Jewish community of a thousand people, whose importance has continued to grow over the centuries. The synagogue, in stone and in brick, was even part of a system of urban fortifications.
“It contains unique sculptures and frescoes. Nothing like this remains in other synagogues in Belarus. Most were either destroyed during the last wars – or by the Soviet authorities – or repurposed and cleaned of all their decorations, underlines Anton Trafimovich, a former journalist from Slonim, now in exile, who regrets knowing so little about the new buyer. I hope that it will stick to the original character of the building because we have already seen historical reconstructions in Belarus which departed considerably from it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of independent journalists have had to leave the country or the profession, so the authorities can do as they please. »
An abandoned gem
In 1921, 71% of Slonim’s population (of nearly 10,000 people) was Jewish. Decimated by the Nazi occupiers, only around forty Jews still lived there in 1946, the day after the liberation by the Soviets. The place of worship was transformed into warehouses for the needs of a furniture store, then definitively abandoned in the 1990s. A small market was set up right next door, in this town in western Belarus which has a population of 50,000. inhabitants today.
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