"In November 1998, according to Mr. Gutman, Mr. Zametalin sent a letter to the foreign minister, the external economic relations minister, the State Committee on Religion and National Affairs, and the Belarusian Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities, warning them against 'any contacts with Mr. Gutman, who has had his citizenship revoked by a number of countries and who represents a nonexisting organization.' "
"In the opinion of Mr. Gutman, the Supreme Court's verdict was easy to predict, because the court was unlikely to argue with Mr. Zametalin. 'But I started the proceedings deliberately to show people what sort of regime rules Belarus and what methods are used against an international non-governmental organization, which is engaged in humanitarian activities in Belarus, Israel, and the United States,' Mr. Gutman told BelaPAN."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 112; Tuesday, December 28, 1999; 7:50 p.m.
"The Days will begin on November 22 with a ceremony at the Belarusian Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. The organizers include the Israeli Embassy, the Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations and Communities, the Belarusian Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, the Ministry of Culture, and the Presidential Administration."
"The festivities will be attended by Arieh Shumer, director general of the Israeli Presidency, who has arrived in Minsk specially for the purpose. While in Minsk, Mr. Shumer will meet with Prime Minister Sergei Ling, Presidential Administration Chief Mikhail Myasnikovich and Pavel Shipuk, chairman of the Council of the Republic of the Belarusian National Assembly. On November 23, the festivities will continue in the village of Motol 25 kilometers from Pinsk, where Mr. Weizmann was born into the family of a lumber dealer on November 27, 1874. A special exhibition will open at a local museum, and a commemorative plaque will be placed on a school in Pinsk where Mr. Weizmann once studied. Meetings with members of the local Jewish community will be arranged at Pinsk's synagogue and Jewish cultural center."
"On November 24, Mr. Shumer will make a visit to the Yama memorial in Minsk, the site where the Nazis massacred 5,000 Jews on March 2, 1942. He will also visit the Chatyn (Khatyn) memorial 54 kilometers north of Minsk, where 149 inhabitants of a tiny village were burnt alive by the Nazis on March 22, 1943."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 86; Monday, November 22, 1999; 1:10 p.m.
"Speaking at the ceremony, Martin Peled-Flex, the Israeli ambassador to Belarus, said that Israel will always remember about responsibility for the survival of its people during World War II."
"Yakov Basin, president of the Association of Communities of Progressive Judaism, said that the Belarusian government was not doing its best to prevent the revival of Neo-Nazism. He pointed out that books about Ziono-fascism are on sale without restrictions in Minsk and reminded those present about recent acts of vandalism against a monument to victims of the Holocaust in Brest. Mr. Basin suggested that a memorial to the 800,000 Holocaust victims in Belarus be erected on Yubileynaya Square in Minsk."
"The ceremony was attended by Ivan Pashkevich, deputy chief of the Belarusian Presidential Administration; German Ambassador to Belarus Horst Winkelmann, and Israeli embassy officials."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 99; Friday, October 22, 1999; 10:00 p.m.
"In their article, Messrs. Drako and Kostyan, speculating about the threat of fascism in the former Soviet Union, say, 'Many Jews served in the Nazi Wehrmacht. Some of them were promoted to high ranks and decorated.... That is why one may say the Hitler's fascism and Ziono-fascism of the World War II period is just the same.' "
"In August [1999], the JRA publication, Berega, published the reply given by Messrs. Drako and Kostyan to one of its inquiries. The House of Representatives members blame 'Jewish Bolsheviks' for killing Russian Czar Nicholas II, Jew Kaplan for killing Lenin, 'Ziono-fascist [Madeleine] Albright for organizing the killing of Slavic Serbs,' etc. They call on the JRA to pray to God to execute 'Ziono-fascists Albright, Novodvorskaya [a Russian human rights activist], Borovoi [a Russian State Duma member], Berezovsky, Pinkus, etc.' Commenting on the statements, Mr. Dorn said that the House of Representatives and its leaders had failed to condemn Messrs. Drako and Kostyan, thus expressing solidarity. Mr. Dorn urged the Belarusian government to adopt a law on the restitution of the property of religious communities confiscated in the Soviet era."
" 'One may speak a lot about what the former prayer houses, churches, synagogues, and mosques are housing at present, but one must not forget that they were not built for the money of the state, which used them free of charge for decades, but for the money of communities,' Mr. Dorn said."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 63; Friday, October 15, 1999; 3:20 p.m.
"The fact of the death of 21 people in the fire has been mentioned in the memoirs of Basya Pikman in the Black Book by Ilya Erenburg and Vasily Grossman; in an article by Sergei Shevtsov published in a February, 1997, issue of the newspaper Zvyazda; and in a story narrated by the neighbor of the Shermans, who died in the blaze, published in the book of the Pamyat series titled Mazyr and the Mazyr District."
"In 1995, Yakov Gutman, president of the World Association of Belarusian Jewry (WABJ) and Ivan Zamulko, chairman of the Mozyr City Executive Committee, signed an agreement to build a monument at the site."
"The City Executive Committee has set up a special commission headed by Leonid Pisanik, first deputy chairman of the Committee, to document the massacre. Mr. Pisanik told BelaPAN, that the members of the commission include representatives from the Executive Committee, local archives, non-governmental organizations, Mozyr old-timers, and Mr. Gutman. 'We have to compile and study thoroughly all the information concerning the deaths of Jews and then submit it to the city's Soviet, which is to decide whether to build the monument,' said Mr. Pisanik."
"According to him, the commission plans to complete its work within a month or two."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 113; Monday, August 30, 1999; 4:30 p.m.
"In the editorial, Chief Editor Vadim Telesh expresses hope that the newspaper will become 'the shore of understanding and respect for our readers.' Mr. Telesh reminds the readers that historical circumstances scattered Jews around the globe and says that the newspaper would like to link together 'the shores of the people's memory.' The newspaper is open for a public dialogue, says the editorial, and it will represent diverse views of representatives of the Jewish communities and associations in Belarus."
"First issues of the monthly newspaper printed on 16 pages will be distributed through the Jewish communities. The newspaper's print run is 2,000 copies."
"In the future, the newspaper will have one page in English and will be available on the Internet."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 107; Thursday, June 24, 1999; 6:10 p.m.
"Mr. Dorn stressed that the JRA was trying to assist Belarusian medical institutions on a regular basis. Not long ago, according to him, a sizable shipment of disposable syringes was sent to a hospital located in the settlement of Druya in the Braslav district. More medical beds will soon arrive."
" 'We consider it our duty to do what we can to provide international assistance to older residents of Belarus belonging to different nationalities,' stressed Mr. Dorn. He expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Health for assistance in arranging the delivery of humanitarian aid shipments in Belarus."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 97; Tuesday, June 22, 1999; 8:00 p.m.
"Maly Trostenets was one of the largest Nazi death camps, where 206,500 POWs, Belarusian civilians, political prisoners from Germany, Austria, Poland, France, and Czechoslovakia, Jews, and children were slaughtered during World War II."
"According to JRA President Yury Dorn, with the help of his association, US diplomats have already made a tour of old Jewish cemeteries and monuments to victims of the Holocaust in Minsk and its vicinity."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 34; Tuesday, June 8, 1999; 5:30 p.m.
"In the opinion of Mr. Dorn, to ignore the centuries-long history of Belarusian Jews would mean to disrespect the country's past. Besides, he added, children will see only one side of history if nobody tells them about the Holocaust."
"According to Mr. Dorn, about 1.5 million Jews resided in Belarus in 1941, before the German invasion, and had substantial influence on the country's economic, cultural, and political development. As many as 800,000 Belarusian Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis. After the war, the country's Jewish population continued to decline, chiefly due to emigration. At present, no more than 70,000 Jews live in Belarus."
"Mr. Dorn expressed hope that classes about the Holocaust would soon form part of the regular curriculum in secondary schools."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 125; Sunday, May 30, 1999; 4:20 p.m.
"According to Valentin Malishevsky, chairman of the Volozhin District Executive Committee, most of the town residents were Jews at the end of the 18th century. The Academy was founded by Rabbi Haim Volozhiner in 1803. It became a sacred place of the Jewish people and Volozhin was included in the world's encyclopedias."
"Speaking at the ceremony, Martin Peled-Flax, the Israeli ambassador to Belarus, called for the preservation of the spiritual heritage of the Volozhin Academy, "a shop that shaped our national soul" as poet Haim Byalik called it. Yury Dorn, president of the Judaic Religious Association in Belarus, said that a center for the study of the history of the Belarusian Jewry and Volozhin's Jewish community will be opened at the Academy's building after repairs."
"The Volozhin Academy was the first contemporary Academy of Judaism, which trained 400 students at the same time from Belarus, Lithuania and Poland, as well as Jewish youth from Austria, Britain, Egypt and Syria and other countries. After a fire in 1885, Rabbi Naciv, who headed the Academy for 40 years, donated all his fortune for the restoration of the building. In 1882, the Russian Tzar closed down the Volozhin Jewish Theological Academy because Rabbi Naciv opposed the introduction of the Russian language and a sharp reduction in the number of students."
"The unveiling ceremony was attended by representatives of the town's public, students of the Jewish Contemporary Knowledge College, and Franklin Swartz, executive director of the East European Jewish Heritage Project."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 101; Tuesday, May 25, 1999; 12:50 p.m.
"Earlier this month, officers of the police department promised to David Abramov, JRA executive director, to track down those who carried out the arson attack."
"The JRA asked the police to investigate the incident immediately after the attack. As Mr. Abramov told BelaPAN, the officers had promised that "the police will certainly find those responsible" because the incident had undermined the country's reputation."
" 'Although this case is not unprecedented, I believe it would be important to find and punish the offenders at least once, because otherwise the process will be on a growing trend. From desecrating Jewish cemeteries by Nazi swastika, the fascist thugs have gone over to setting fire to synagogues and may start killing people according to their lists in the future,' Mr. Abramov said."
"Unidentified persons set fire to the building of the synagogue at 136 Daumana Street in the late hours of April 11. The fire was put out just as it began to spread inside the building. The arsonist spray-painted on the wall: 'Kill Yids, Save Russia!' The damage was assessed at 180 million rubels."
Source: BelaPAN, No. 85; Thursday, May 20, 1999; 8:00 p.m.
"The SCRNA stresses in its statement that Belarus remains a multinational country and preserves her traditions of mutual understanding, friendship, and cooperation among representatives of different religions and nationalities. The authors of the statement point out that the country has proclaimed and adheres strictly to a democratic ethnic policy in line with national laws and international legal standards."
"The SCRNA expresses its determination to 'make an all-out effort to prevent attempts to fractionize Belarusian society along religious and ethnic lines, bring into our life the ideas and practices of national discrimination and religious intolerance, and disrespect citizens' religious and national feelings.' "
Source: BelaPAN, No. 69; Thursday, April 15, 1999; 8:50 p.m.