Views of Mir in 1990s

Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz, together with Rabbi Finkel, was head of the Mir Yeshiva until his death in 1936. Descendants of Rabbi Levovitz went to Mir many times in recent years. They located the rabbi's grave, rebuilt his memorial, and have erected a wall around the Jewish cemetery. They have provided these photos and information on Mir. Memorial

A local farmer had taken part of the Jewish cemetery and turned it into a potato field. He used his horse and plow to remove all the gravestones and plow over the graves. Because Rabbi Levovitz's grave had a cement foundation to the small building on his grave, the farmer could not remove it. That made it possible for those searching for the grave to know for sure that they had located the site in 1989.

After the farmer's death, the cemetery land was purchased from the farmer's son. Then the memorial to Rabbi Levovitz could be rebuilt. The Jewish cemetery was enclosed with a new wall. It is two meters high and made of poured concrete and metal. (See white wall on the right of the photo). The perimeter of the cemetery is almost a kilometer.
The yellow house is where the son of the farmer still lives.

Here is one of several monuments that the Russians put up at sites where Jews from Mir were murdered by the Nazis and buried in a mass grave. At this location, 800 Jews were killed. The inscription states that on this site the fascists killed innocent citizens.

At the top of this photo is another monument put up by the Russians. The inscription tells us that 1600 innocent citizens were killed by the fascists here. Below are two plaques that were installed in October 1997. Both are in Hebrew. One is a memorial to the 1600 Jews murdered here. The second adds that the holy Rabbi of Mir, Rabbi Avrohom Tzvi Kamai, was killed on this spot.

There are plans to add Hebrew inscriptions to all the memorials in Mir.

Mir, in recent years may resemble the Mir of our ancestors in some ways. In the large courtyard where there were once three synagogues, the buildings remain. The "cold shul" is a school. The second synagogue is used as a bank. The third stands empty and abandoned. Another large building in town, the Mir Yeshiva is still standing, in use today as a post office. The doors and window frames are painted bright aqua. Many houses and fences are painted aqua, greens, red and yellow. The main streets of town are paved. Many of the streets that were cobblestone in our grandparent's day are the same today. Side streets are dirt or mud, depending on the season. These streets are full of chickens and geese.

Farmers grow potatoes, cabbage and beets. There is no industry. No group of tradesmen and shopkeepers have come to Mir to replace the Jewish population of the past. There is no institute of higher learning to attract scholars from all over Europe.

Other photographs of Memorials in Mir

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