Photograph: Old man

European Jews

Minsk province, Pinsky district, Shtetl of Stolin

1907

Gelatin silver printing with chemical development (DOP)

11 x 8,3

РЭМ 3117-2

In 1847, Stolin’s Jewish community numbered 777 people. According to the 1897 census, the Jewish population was already 2489 (74.4 %) of the 3343 residents. The population growth was due to the settlement in the shtetl of Jews from neighboring villages, mainly timber traders. In the 19th century, the shtetl became a center of the Hasidic movement; the tzadiks of Stolin had tremendous influence among the Jews of the Northwestern Territory. The progenitor of the tzadik dynasty was Asher Perlow. In 1873, his five-year-old son called “Yenuka Kadisha” (holy infant) became his successor. This caused discontent of many Hasids, but later Israel Perlow proved to be an energetic religious actor, a skilled organizer, who remained the Community’s leader up to the early 1920s.