My family came from Horodok, Vilna Gubernya.  It is near Minsk and this letter is from Jewish Members who live in Minsk and  who are trying to gather information for a Museum.

I think this should be posted on the Discussion Group but I don’t know how to do it.

Bette Greenfield  

Dear Bette Greenfield,

               We are volunteers-local historians group. We look forward to your help in collecting information about the former village Horodok.

Historical information:  -since the second half of the NINETEENTH century Horodok belonged to the Vileika County Vilnius province;

-from 1921 to 1939 this village was part of Poland;
-since September 20, 1944 – in the Molodechno region, and from January 1960 – Molodechno district, Minsk region.

               Our immediate plans are to continue studying local history through the history of individual families whose roots go back to the Horodok.

                We will be grateful for any materials: photos and films, memories, documents, correspondence, your stories about family members, etc. We are ready to use materials in Russian, Belarusian, Polish, English, Yiddish, Hebrew and other languages. The information you provide will be used to prepare local history publications on the site of the Horodok (http://horodok.by/) in the mass media, creating a full and multi-faceted chronicle of the town, perpetuating the memory of those who died during the Second World War, forming a culture of memory for new generations.

               The history of the country is formed from the stories of individual families.     Therefore, it is very important for us to establish the history of people who are connected with the history of the town of Gorodok.

The past is the starting point for the future, so the goal of our work is to create a cultural and historical area "Museum of the Jewish, Belarusian, Polish, Tatar community" on the basis of the SEI "Gorodok educational and pedagogical complex kindergarten-basic school of the Molodechno district".

This platform will become a place for collecting not only information, but also a place for communication and dialogue of cultures. That is why we, the older generation, should be interested in history, to tell, teach, and discuss important milestones in the history of the town. After all, the young will soon become the older generation, and it will be their turn to pass the baton.

               We believe very much in what we do.

                Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Lina Tsivina-moderator of the cultural project: "Horodok and its Jewish history".

Alexey Zhakhovets - creator of the Horodok website.by (site about the Horodok of Molodechno district).

Tatyana Shumel - teacher of history and social studies of the SEI «Horodok educational and pedagogical complex kindergarten-basic school of the Molodechno district».

As the addition to my previous message regarding Horodok near Molodechno, please refer to the entries in town’s 1921 statistical data as shown in 1929 Poland Business Directory at

https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/poland/1929/P2077.pdf

Jewish folks have been representing 70% of the total number of the local town residents, and nearly all economical positions.

Perhaps Bette Grienfield, who has initiated this thread, can forward data from 1929 Directory to Horodok, Belarus town’s folks who are working on town Jewish History to reproduce the names from the Directory on their site.

BTW Bette, two of the names that you are researching: A. Sznill (Haberdashing) and O. Szepszenwort (Flour) are shown in the Directory listing.

Alexander Sharon

JGFF editor