Alternate names: Valozhyn [Bel], Volozhin [Rus, Yid], Wołożyn [Pol], Volozhyn, Vałožyn, Volozin, Belarusian: Валожын. Russian: Воложин. וואלאזשין - Yiddish: 64 miles SE of Vilnius (Vilna), 44 miles NE of Navahrudak (Nowogródek), 43.8 miles WNW of Minsk. 54°05' N, 26°32' E, 64 miles SE of Vilnius (Vilna), 44 miles NE of Navahrudak (Nowogródek). 1900 Jewish population: 2,452. Yizkor: Wolozyn; sefer shel ha-ir ve-shel yeshivat "Ets Hayim" (Tel Aviv, 1970) and Pamiat-Volozhinski Rayon (Minsk, 1996) ShtetLink. Town images including cemetery.
- photos, maps and stories. Jews lived here from the 16th century with 383 in 1766 and 1,434 out of a total population of 5,600 in 1921. Industry consisted of tanning, flour milling, cement block manufacturing, and brickworks. The Orthodox Jewish Archives of Agudath Israel of America at 84 William St., New York, NY 10038 may have some information about the yeshiva begun in 1803. [August 2010]
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Forward story about restoration: "Belarusian volunteers often can do little more than remove weeds or paint perimeter walls, as they did last July in the Jewish cemetery in Volozhin, a historic center of East European Jewish learning. Headstones remained toppled in the mud for a lack of lifts to pull them up." [December 2010]
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JOWBR burial listings: Jewish Cemetery
:Belarus SIG Newsletter Issue No. 2 - February 1999 [October 2000]
"Before the war there were 3,500 Jews who lived in the town, over half its population, but the yeshiva building, now locked, is all that remains of what was once Jewish, except for the cemetery in the middle of town. There, along its inside border, there is garbage strewn about, having been tossed over the wall from the surrounding streets; but there are many gravestones that still stand straight, with the common names of Jews that can easily be read: here is Pollack, here Ginsburg, there Rogovin, and Kagan. There are many graves of the Persky family, relatives of Shimon Peres and Lauren Bacall. There is a memorial tombstone to the Jews who died in the Holocaust, and in the middle of the field stands the grave of Reb Haim Volozhin. And that is all that remains. Source: Jerusalem Post, [3 Jan 2001]
photos of monument at the Jewish cemetery where more than 2,000 Jews are buried in 6 mass graves. Cemetery dates from 1656 with a tomb of the founder yeshiva, Rabbi Haima Volozhiner;a memorial to more than 2000 Jews of Volozhin murdered in the Holocaust; and a monument for 300 Jews of the city burnt alive. photo of cemetery [March 2009]
photo of cemetery including grave of the founder of the Volozhin Yeshiva, Rabbi Haim Volozhiner, and all the following heads of the Yeshiva. The grave is in the center of the cemetery. 6 Volozhin mass graves of Jews shot during WWII. photos. [February 2010]
Hebrew website with photo [Apr 2014]
[UPDATE] Mass Holocaust Burial Site Discovered in Volozhyn [October 2014]