Svisloch
SVISLOCH
SVISLOCH (Pol. Swisłocz ), town in Grodno district, Belarus; within Poland before 1795 and between the two world wars. A number of Jews settled there at the beginning of the 18th century on the invitation of the owners of the locality, the princes of Tyszkiewicz. In 1752 the Council of Lithuania (see Councils of *Lands) imposed a poll tax of 215 zlotys on the Svisloch community, which numbered 220 in 1766. Until the middle of the 19th century the Jews of Svisloch earned their livelihood mainly from trade in timber and grain, shopkeeping, and crafts; they later also engaged in innkeeping and the lease of public houses. After a great fire, in which most of the Jewish shops were destroyed, the fairs were no longer held in Svisloch and the Jews were deprived of their principal sources of livelihood. Around 1870 Jews began to pioneer in the tanning industry and improved methods of manufacture with the assistance of German experts whom they invited. By the end of the 19th century a number of tanneries had been established in Svisloch, which employed hundreds of workers. Many Jews from the surrounding areas went there in search of employment. As early as the middle of the 19th century Jewish craftsmen in Svisloch attempted to organize themselves into guilds. At the beginning of the 20th century the *Bund Movement developed in Svisloch and it embraced the whole of the Jewish working populace (tanners, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters. smiths, and bakers), who organized strikes for the amelioration of working conditions in tanneries and factories. In 1905 the workers' organization was established for Jewish self-defense against pogroms. After World War i Zionist Socialism gained ground within the community. A hakhsharah farm was established by the He-Ḥalutz movement. A *Tarbut school and a school of the cysho (see *Education) were established. The Jewish population numbered 977 in 1847; 2,086 (67.3% of the total) in 1897; and 1,959 (66.7%) in 1921. The community came to an end in the Holocaust. Its last rabbi, Ḥayyim Jacob b. Moses Judah Mishkinski, perished together with the members of his community.
Ẓevi Hirsch *Edelman (Ḥen-Tov) and Samuel *Belkin were born in Svisloch.
bibliography:
Yizkor li-Kehillat Svisloch (1961); A. Ain, in: Volkovisker Yisker-Bukh, 2 (1949); idem, in: yivo Bleter, 24 (1945), 47–66; 25 (1945), 382–401; idem, in: yivoa, 4 (1949), 86ff.; I. Halpern, Tosafot u-Millu'im le-"Pinkas Medinat Lita" (1935), 56ff.
[Dov Rubin]