LETTER FROM WARSAW

The saga of the Slonim synagogue, one of the most beautiful in Belarus and the second oldest in the country, is entering a new chapter. Abandoned for decades, it was bought back for 42 Belarusian rubles (€12) at an auction organized by the authorities in February.

Its new owner, whose name had so far been kept secret, Denis Dudarev, met with the head of the Slonim regional executive committee in May. "My intentions to restore the Slonim synagogue are very serious," assured the mysterious Russian businessman, whose words were reported by local newspaper Slonimski Vesnik.

The man, who made his fortune in construction but about whom little else is known, now has five years to renovate the religious building while preserving its historical and stylistic features. Dudarev's company was the only one to participate in the sale of the synagogue. After a series of unsuccessful bids, the starting price was reduced to the modest sum of... €11.

Built in 1642, when the town of Slonim was an important cultural and commercial crossroads of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland), the synagogue was frequented by a Jewish community of around 1,000 people, whose importance has grown steadily over the centuries. The synagogue, built of stone and brick, was even part of an urban fortification system.

"It contains unique sculptures and frescoes. Nothing like it remains in the other synagogues of Belarus. Most of them were either destroyed during the recent wars – or by the Soviet authorities – or repurposed and stripped of all their decorations," pointed out Anton Trafimovich, a former journalist from Slonim, now in exile, who regrets knowing so little about the new buyer. "I hope he will respect the original character of the building, because we've already seen historical reconstructions in Belarus that deviated considerably from it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of independent journalists have had to leave the country or the profession, so the authorities can do as they please."

In 1921, 71% of Slonim's population of almost 10,000 was Jewish. Decimated by the Nazi occupiers, only around 40 Jews remained in 1946, shortly after the Soviet liberation. The place of worship was transformed into warehouses for a furniture store, then completely abandoned in the 1990s. A small market was set up next door in this town in western Belarus, which today has a population of 50,000.

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