Slutsk

The city is situated in the south-west of its Region, 26 km (16 mi) north of Soligorsk.

Slutsk was first mentioned in writing in 1116. It was part of the Principality of Turov and Pinsk, but in 1160 it became the capital of a separate principality. From 1320–1330 it was part of the domain of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Later it was owned by the Olelkovich and Radziwiłł families, which transformed it into a center of the Polish Reformed Church with a gymnasium and a strong fortress.

Following the 17th century, the city became famous for manufacturing kontusz belts, some of the most expensive and luxurious pieces of garment of the szlachta. Because of the popularity of the cloths made here, belts worn over the żupan were often called of Slutsk despite their real place of origin.

Slutsk was part of Russian Empire after Second Partition of Poland in 1793. It was occupied by Germany in 1918 and by Poland between 1919 and 1920 during Polish Soviet War. In 1920, it was the centre of a major anti-bolshevik uprising known as the Slutsk defence action.

Until World War II and the Slutsk Affair, the city was predominantly Jewish; however, now the population includes no more than 100 Jews. Slutsk was occupied by the German Army on 26 June, 1941, and placed under the administration of Reichskommissariat Ostland. The period of German occupation ended on 30 June, 1944, when troops of the 1st Belorussian Front recaptured the town during the Minsk Offensive of the Red Army.

The first indication of Jews in Slutsk is from 1583 when the city was part of Lithuania.[3] Formal recognition came in 1601. By 1623, Jews owned 16 homes. In 1691, Slutsk became one of the five leading communities of area of Lithuania.[3] By 1750 there were 1,593 Jews. Although this number represented a third of the cities population, 75% of the town's merchants were Jews, and a similar proportion accounted for Jewish ownership and merchandizing of alcohol.[3] After annexation by Russia in 1793, growth of the city slowed, in part due to it being bypassed by the railroad. By 1897 the Jewish community numbered 10,264 inhabitants, or 77% of the city population.[3] They played a central role in the cities markets, particularly in agricultural produce.

Slutsk was not insignificant in terms of Torah study. Among the rabbinic figures who served there were Yehudah Leib Pohovitser, Chayim ha-Kohen Rapoport, Yosef Dov Ber Soloveichik (1865–1874), and Isser Zalman Meltzer.[3] The famous Slutsk-Kletsk Yeshiva was found in Slutsk in 1883 by Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky. Another outstanding scholar of learning in the Talmud and Torah who was also a Hebrew poet and became a Hebrew educator in the United States was Ephraim Eliezer Lisitzky, who was born and grew to his teens in Slutsk before emigrating to the U.S. According to legend the Baal Shem Tov visited Slutsk in 1733 at the invitation of Shmuel Ickowicz.[3] Despite this, the town was known for its anti-hasidic misnagdim. The Haskalah and modern Jewish political parties also were represented among the population.[3]

• Mikhail Basalyha – Belarusian painter
• Uladzimir Basalyha – Belarusian painter
• Isaac Dov Berkowitz – Jewish and Israeli author
• Eliyahu Feinstein – rabbinic authority
• Yaakov Yosef Herman – Orthodox Jewish pioneer in America
• Semyon Kosberg – Jewish Soviet engineer
• Shneur Kotler – rosh yeshiva, Lakewood yeshiva
• Harry Lefrak – father of Samuel J. LeFrak, builder and realtor
• Shmuel David Leibowitz-Father of Boruch Ber Leibowitz
• Boruch Ber Leibowitz – leading rosh yeshiva
• Yisroel Leibowitz-leading Rabbi in Vilna from 1926
• Chaim Sholom Leibowitz-Son of Yisroel Leibowitz - Editor Of Birkas Shmuel, magnum opus of His Uncle Boruch Ber Leibowitz
• Isser Zalman Meltzer – Rabbi of Slutsk from 1903 to 1923
• Anastasiya Prokopenko, world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in modern pentathlon
• Gregory Razran, (1901-1973), Russian American psychologist
• Princess Sophia of Slutsk, medieval Eastern Orthodox saint
• Edward Sperling – Jewish writer and humorist
• Mikola Statkevich – Belarusian politician
• Meyer Waxman – Rabbi and author
• Mikhail Yakimovich – Belarusian handball player
• Lidia Yermoshina – Belarusian politician
• Shaul Yisraeli – religious Zionist rabbi

Slutsk is twinned with:[4]

• Slutsk Affair
• Slutsk defence action
• Slutsky
• List of cities and towns in Belarus
• Pas kontuszowy
• Słuck Confederation

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  Slutsk train station
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  Slutsk bus depot in the 1920s
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  Slutsk Homeland Museum
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  Commercial college
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  Painting of the Slutsk Defence Action
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  Calvinist Church and high school
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  Site of the Slutstk Ghetto (today a playground and park)
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  Slutsk high school
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  The high school, "The oldest school in Slutsk"
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  Native Belarusian man
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  Slutsk family
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  Studying Talmud in Slutsk
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  The Slutsk River

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sluck.

• Home page of the city of Slutsk
• Slutsk, Belarus at JewishGen