Belarusian Jews - Late 20th Century To Modern Days

Late 20th Century To Modern Days

In the second half of the 20th century, there was a large wave of Belarusian Jews emigrating to Israel (see Aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1970s), as well as to the United States. In 1979, there were 135,400 Jews in Belarus; a decade later, 112,000 were left. The wave continued after dissolution of the USSR and Belarus regaining independence (see Aliyah from the Commonwealth of Independent States in the 1990s), when most of the former Soviet Union's Jewish population left for Israel.

The 1999 census estimated that there were only 29,000 Jews left in the country. However, local Jewish organizations put the number at 50,000, and the Jewish Agency believes that there are 70,000. About half of the country's Jews live in Minsk. Despite anti-semitic government policies, national Jewish organizations, local cultural groups, religious schools, charitable organizations, and organizations for war veterans and Holocaust survivors have been formed.

Since the mass immigration of the 1990s, there has been some continuous immigration to Israel. In 2002, 974 Belarusians moved to Israel, and between 2003 and 2005, 4,854 followed suit.