Kurzeniec — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

• Kurzeniec: a small town in the district of Minsk, Belorussia.
• Until the second world war the town was in the district of Vilna, Poland.

Kurzeniec is situated at a road junction and on the railway and is surrounded by forests. Because of its situation the town suffered from invasions of foreign armies. Tombstones in the old cemetery testify to the existence of a Jewish community from the beginning of the 18^th century. In the 19^th ans 20^th centuries Kurzeniec was surrounded by small towns having Jewish communities. In a census taken in 1867 there were 1325 Jews among a population of 1955 inhabitants of Kurzeniec. In the sixties of the 19^th century Kurzeniec became the spiritual center for the surrounding communities, famous for its scholars and a focus for the Jews of Lubavitz in the district. Most of the Jews of Kurzeniec were Habad Hassidim and on good terms with the Mitnagdim minority in the town. Rabbi Zalman Kornitzer was considered the leading Hassid in town and Jehuda Leib Ephron, Rabbi Yehuda Sussmann, Rabbi Yosef Halevi and the Gaon Rabbi Zischke belonged to his circle.

There were four synagogues in the town which were filled to capacity on Shabbath and holidays. Among the Rabbis officiating in the community were the illustrious Rabbi Yaakov Landa, the Rabbi and Gaon Zischke and Rabbi Aharon Feldmann, the last Rabbi of the community; He perished in the Holocaust. Among the charitable institutions were gmiluth hassadim, hachnassath Kalah, meoth hittim and matan baseter. Most of the Kurzeniec Jews earned their iving in the central market of the town, where there were Jewish workshops and small shops. The clients were mainly peasants from the surrounding villages. Jewish peddlars also made a meager living from selling their wares among them. There were only a few well-to-do Jews in the town. Most of the Jews lived in straightened circumstances and therefore many of the young peope left Kurzeniec for the the big towns or even for the U.S.A.

After WW1, in 1918-1919 Zionist activities started in Kurzeniec. The Hebrew school "Tarbuth" founded and functioned till the outbreak of the second world war (1939). The educational level of the school was of the highest order and its literay disputations were famous in the vicinity. Zion, and Herut and Techiya.  Branch of Hehalutz was opened in 1922, at the time when such branches were opened all over the district. The youth of Hehalutz went to an agricultural training camp (Hachshara) in preparation for Alyah to Eretz Israel at a farm called Trumpeldoria" near Vilna. There was also branch of Hashimer Hazair in Kurzeniec. In 1939 there were 1,500 Jews in Kurzeniec.

Following the Ribbentrop-Molotov accord, signed by Germany and the U.S.S.R. in August 1939, the Red Army entered the district in September of that year and installed a Soviet government there. After the German attack on Russia on the 22^nd of June 1941 and the retreat of the Red Army, panic spread among the Jews of Kurzeniec and they tried to escape into Russia. A few of them succeeded. When the Germans entered the town, severe limitations were imposed upon the Jews and their conditions worsened from day o day. Rumors about killings in the villages reached them and they fled into the forests nearby and there constructed hiding places. During the first days of the Nazi occupation an underground cell was formed in Kurzeniec, its purpose was to sabotage the German army in any possible way. Many of the youth fled into the forests and formed fighting partisan groups there. After the war they gained public recognition , were mentioned honorably and even decorated. The Jewish population of Kurzeniec was gradually liquidated. From time to time the Germans executed single Jews in the town, but on Simhat Torah (Autumn 1941) they killed 54 Jews and after a short time 33 persons and later still 13-all of the Jewish community. On the 9^th of September 1942, three days before Rosh Hashana, the local German garrison carried out an "Aktion" (act of liquidation); all the remaining Jews, old and young, women and children, 1040 in number, were killed indiscriminately on this day.

From: Kehilanet