Novy Dvor

NOVY DVOR (Rus. Novyi Dvor), small town in the Grodno district (county of Sokolka), Belarus. The first Jews settled there during the first half of the 16^th century. During the second half of the 16^th century there was an organized Jewish community with a synagogue and cemetery. In 1561 12 houses and a number of orchards were owned by Jews. During the following decades Jews from Grodno joined the local community and, according to the decisions of the Council of Provinces of Lithuania (*Councils of the Lands; 1623), the community of Novy Dvor was subordinated to that of Grodno. In 1648 Jewish refugees from Ukraine arrived in Novy Dvor. A few years later local Jews suffered the onslaught of the Russian and Swedish armies. In 1765 there were 299 poll-tax paying Jews in Novy Dvor and the surrounding villages. During the 19^th century the sources of livelihood of the Jews of Novy Dvor were cut off and a period of economic stagnation ensued. In 1847 there were 394 Jews and in 1897, 490 (38% of the total population). In 1900 a new synagogue was erected, and during the first weeks of the Polish rule (1918) a Jewish self-defense organization was active. In 1921 there were 402 Jews (33% of the population) in Novy Dvor. From 1925 there was a *Tarbut school. The last rabbi of the community was Isaac Kamieniecki, who perished in the Holocaust.

Holocaust Period

At the end of June 1941, a few days after the Nazis entered the town, 50 Jewish men were deported to concentration camps. In October 1941 the Jews of Novy Dvor were sent to the ghetto at Ostryna, and in the spring of 1942 to the ghetto in Sukhovolia, and finally to the extermination camp of Auschwitz. Only six Jews of the community survived, three of them having joined the partisan movement. No Jews returned to Novy Dvor after World War II.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.