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JEWISH Minsk

Jewish city story of Minsk

The capital of Belarus, Minsk is a beautiful city with a rich historical heritage that was largely promoted by the Jewish population. Jews began to populate Minsk actively in the 16th century, and since that time their number has only grown. It is hard to believe that from the middle of the 19th century until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Minsk was a predominantly Jewish city - 52% of the capital's population were Jews, and this was the city's largest community. 

From the beginning of the 14th century until 1793, Minsk was part of Poland-Lithuania; it later fell under czarist rule and became the most important commercial center of Belarus from the 15th century. At the same time, the first Jews appeared on the territory of modern Belarus, during the era of the existence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Jews who lived there in this medieval state...

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מסעדות בסגנון יהודי JEWISH STYLE RESTAURANTS

Restaurants

Kuhmistr

When the owners of “Kukhmistra” decided to open a restaurant of Belarusian national cuisine in Minsk, there were very few establishments of this type in the city. It was immediately decided to adhere to maximum authenticity and historicity, both in cooking and in the story about them, for which a well-known historian of Belarusian cuisine Ales Bely was invited as a consultant. The desire for maximum historical authenticity, for following the canons of authentic Belarusian cuisine, cooperation remains with us to this day. In the 1970s - 80s. in our premises there was a "Komsomol" buffet and a photo laboratory of the youth magazine "Maladost", with which a whole galaxy of Belarusian writers and artists of the era of "stagnation" was associated. Vladimir Korotkevich, Vasil Bykov, Yanka Bryl, composer Igor Luchenok, cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalyonok were guests of the editorial office then more than once. However, since the opening of the restaurant, the VIP list has accumulated no less impressive. Perhaps hundreds of Belarusian and Russian pop stars, well-known public figures, entrepreneurs, and cultural figures have managed to visit us. Kuhmistr - (in German - "master, or master of the kitchen") - means about the same as what is called "chef" today. So in the Commonwealth, including the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, they called the cooks who commanded the royal, princely and magnate kitchens, who were invited first from Italy, France and Germany, but were gradually replaced by capable local students. By the way, since the summer of 2018, in the lobby of the restaurant, guests have been greeted by a life-size figure of the real Kukhmistr - the visible embodiment of our identity. Dressed in the fashion of the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, a collective image of all the glorious chefs of our history, but most of all, he took from the famous Pavel Tremo, the cook of the last king of the Commonwealth, Stanislav Poniatovsky, looks almost like a living person and is very much loved with him “in an embrace”. take pictures of our guests. Our interior saturated with many mysterious or simply funny trinkets, hints at the atmosphere of a bourgeois Minsk apartment, when the idea of ​​the Belarusian nation and statehood was born, but traditional culture, both folk and gentry, was still alive - which the 20th century prepared for difficult trials. And at the beginning of 2019, we began to equip a small memorial corner dedicated to the Ruzhany Sapieha Palace and Park Complex, the restoration of which has been underway in recent years and we are making our contribution to it.

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World Jewish Travel Official August 2, 2022

The Jewish City Story of Minsk, Belarus

The capital of Belarus, Minsk is a beautiful city with a rich historical heritage that was largely promoted by the Jewish population. Jews began to populate Minsk actively in the 16th century, and since that time their number has only grown. It is hard to believe that from the middle of the 19th century until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Minsk was a predominantly Jewish city - 52% of the capital's population were Jews, and this was the city's largest community. 

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Hotels in Minsk

Hotels

Hotel Europa

Hotel "Europe" is a hotel with a hundred years of original history. Over the years, such famous personalities as Vladimir Mayakovsky and Marc Chagall have stayed here. It was built at the dawn of the nineteenth century, when Minsk was part of the Russian Empire. Then, at the intersection of Gubernatorskaya Street and Cathedral Square, a building of a new hotel in Minsk was erected, which had 2 floors. The pre-revolutionary hotel was built at the expense of the richest Minsk merchant dynasty of that time, the Polyakov family. The hotel immediately gained great popularity among Minsk bohemia and guests of the then ordinary provincial city, which was repeatedly captured on the canvases of artists of that time. In 1884, after a fire, the hotel became known as "Europe". At the beginning of the twentieth century, the hotel was reconstructed and became a six-story hotel. In addition, the building changed externally, it was rebuilt in the then fashionable Art Nouveau style in Russia. The expressive facades overlooking Cathedral Square and Gubernatorskaya Street were distinguished by the high quality of their decorative workmanship. The hotel was owned at that time by brothers Grigory and Yakov Polyaks. In 1913 The first-class restaurant of Saulevich, ladies' and men's hairdresser's, and a reading room worked in the hotel. Each of the 130 rooms had a telephone, a washbasin, electric lighting, water heating, and a bath. The hotel was famous for its excellent service at that time. We also note the fact that it is “Europe”, and not any other hotels in Minsk, that can boast of being that it was here that the elevator began to run for the first time in the city. A car or carriage was sent to the trains. At Saulevich's restaurant, visitors were entertained by the Romanian and Viennese ladies' orchestras. The hotel building did not survive the war and was completely destroyed. So, for about 60 years, no one even thought about restoring this famous in its time, amazing, the largest civil building in the pre-revolutionary city of Minsk. But the circumstances were different. The hotel was suddenly remembered already in the 21st century. In 2004, the City Hall of Minsk was instructed to rebuild the hotel building in compliance with the stylistic features that this hotel had at the beginning of the last century. The President of the Republic of Belarus signed a decree that the hotel must comply with the status of "five-star". The revived "Europe" opened its doors to visitors in 2007.

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