The Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations and Communities has traditionally supported its member organisation, Hillel Minsk, in preserving and revitalising Jewish heritage.
This year, the organisation once again supported Hillel Minsk’s annual MEGA (Memory. Education. Generation. Action) volunteer project, dedicated to restoring the historic Jewish cemetery of Uzlyany, Belarus.
The eight-day initiative brought together 32 young volunteers in the historic Belarusian shtetl of Uzlyany, where they worked to preserve one of the last remaining physical reminders of a once-thriving Jewish community.
During several days of intensive work, participants located, excavated, raised, cleaned, documented, translated and photographed 120 Jewish gravestones. Located on marshy ground, the cemetery’s matzevot had gradually sunk beneath the earth over decades, with many disappearing completely from view. Volunteers carefully excavated each stone by hand, restored them to their original position whenever possible, removed layers of soil and vegetation, and recorded the inscriptions they uncovered.
Each restored matzevah represents far more than a piece of stone. It tells the story of an individual life and preserves a fragment of the collective memory of a Jewish community that was almost entirely destroyed during the Holocaust.
The project went beyond physical restoration. Each day concluded with educational workshops on Jewish history and heritage, team-building activities and sports programmes that strengthened the connection between participants. The volunteers also celebrated Shabbat together and marked Havdalah, bringing Jewish tradition and heritage preservation together through a shared experience.
Located approximately 50 kilometres southeast of Minsk, Uzlyany was once a vibrant shtetl where Jewish residents played a central role in local commerce, crafts and community life. By the early twentieth century, Jews represented a significant part of the town’s population, maintaining religious, cultural and economic institutions that shaped the character of the community.
In 1923, more than 540 Jews lived in Uzlyany, contributing to a rich Jewish life that existed for generations before its destruction during the Holocaust.
German forces occupied Uzlyany on 28 June 1941. Soon afterwards, the Jewish population was subjected to anti-Jewish decrees, forced labour, confiscation of property and confinement in a ghetto established within the village.
The ghetto existed for only a few months before it was liquidated. On 8 October 1941, the Jewish community of Uzlyany was murdered. Hundreds of Jewish men, women and children were taken to the Jewish cemetery and nearby execution sites, where they were killed by Nazi German forces. Historical research estimates that approximately 375 Jews from Uzlyany were murdered during the liquidation of the ghetto, bringing centuries of Jewish life in the town to a tragic end.
Today, the Jewish cemetery remains one of the few surviving witnesses to that history.
Despite the destruction of its Jewish community, Uzlyany was the birthplace of several remarkable individuals whose influence extended far beyond Belarus.
David Sarnoff (1891–1971), often considered one of the founding figures of modern broadcasting, was born in Uzlyany before emigrating to the United States as a child. He later became the legendary head of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), playing a major role in the development of radio and television during the twentieth century.
Eugene Lyons (1898–1985), another native of Uzlyany, became a prominent American journalist, foreign correspondent and author. His writings on the Soviet Union and totalitarianism remain important historical sources.
Uzlyany is also connected to Mikhail Gebelev, one of the leading figures of Jewish resistance in Nazi-occupied Minsk. With family roots linked to the town, Gebelev helped organise escapes from the Minsk Ghetto and assisted Jews in joining partisan units, becoming one of the most important figures of Jewish underground resistance in Belarus.
The MEGA project demonstrates that preserving Jewish heritage is not only about restoring old stones—it is about restoring names, stories and dignity.
Every cleaned inscription allows descendants, historians and future generations to reconnect with a community that once flourished in Uzlyany. For the volunteers, the project became more than a restoration effort; it was an opportunity to transform historical memory into personal responsibility.
Through education, community and action, they ensured that the Jewish history of Uzlyany will not disappear beneath grass and silence.
In a place where an entire Jewish community was erased during the Holocaust, every restored gravestone stands as a powerful reminder that memory can still be protected—and that remembrance itself is an act of resilience.
