Ukraine and Belarus
 Discovering Your Roots |
| The centers of the "Pale of Settlement," in 1900 the largest concentration of Jews in the world and the places from which most American and European Jews came. |
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| Many Diaspora Jews have roots in the republics of Ukraine and Belarus. Even though half the Jewish population was murdered by the Nazis and by their local collaborators during the Holocaust, Ukraine has one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe and is undergoing a dramatic revival of Jewish life which travelers will be able to observe first hand. Ukraine is also the birthplace of Hasidism. We can visit the graves of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, and Nachman of Bratslav, whose Hasidic tales continue to fascinate.
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| Belarus, part of historic Jewish "Liteh," has the third largest Jewish population in the Former Soviet Union, most living in the capital, Minsk. Once the home of leading rabbis, "enlighteners" (Maskilim), Bundists and Zionists, Belarus too shows signs of reviving Jewish life, though thousands have emigrated recently, as they have from other former Soviet states. |
