Following the recent anti-Lukashenko protests in Belarus, Debra Brunner writes on the Jewish perspective in the country right now
Working in Belarus has always had its challenges. It is a country steeped in bureaucracy and complex geopolitics as the buffer zone between Russia and the EU. Beyond the fall of the Soviet Union, it garnered independent status in 1991. In 1994 Alexander Lukashenko was voted the country’s new president with hopes of a new democratic future and has held the position for the last 26 years. Politics aside, the territory that is modern day Belarus was once home to over one million Jews. If we were to put a number on the size of the Jewish community today, it would be upward of 20,000 people.
The Together Plan Charity works to revive Jewish community life in Belarus and I founded it in London, while in Minsk it was founded by Artur Livshyts and they have been working in the field of Jewish community development in Belarus since 2009. In contrast to wider-known Jewish organisations, The Together Plan does more than provide humanitarian relief. It attempts to create deep personal relationships that are both socially and Jewishly meaningful so that communities in Belarus can better organise themselves vis-a-vis the values and interests of the local Jewish population.
The Together Plan working with the small Jewish community in Slutsk, Belarus
On Sunday 9 August, the day of the much-contested Belarusian presidential election, there was a three-day internet outage. The charity lost all connection between its offices but myself and Artur were able to communicate via text messages. The brutality of the beatings and the protests on the streets in many cities across the country soon made headline news across the globe and the situation has not relented. It is new and uncharted political territory as the days roll by and our contacts and community members in Belarus express their concerns of not knowing what tomorrow will bring. The atmosphere is charged and many people are divided, confused and unsettled.
The Together Plan is a member of the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Heritage and Culture (AEPJ) and, in this arena, they are developing a Jewish Cultural Heritage Trail in Belarus. This project has the community at its core, to give people a voice so that they can play a role in exploring and telling their story. Jewish history and heritage in Belarus is rich, tragic and little spoken of. In stark contrast to the current political situation, this cultural project unites people, with the potential to connect communities and enable those from across the globe, with ancestry in Belarus, to come into this cultural space to be a part of the dialogue around identity and heritage.
In this new political paradigm shift in Belarus, the work of The Together Plan has become even more imperative. The Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (CRCE) programme was launched in 1987 to demonstrate, via journeys through space and time, how the heritage of the different countries in Europe contribute to a shared cultural heritage. There are currently 38 fascinating established heritage routes available to explore, by theme or by country. The AEPJ network is working together so that in the fullness of time the European Routes of Jewish Heritage will become part of the CRCE.
The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organisation. It comprises 47 member states, including all the members of the EU. All of the member states have signed the European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty designed to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
Geographic Center of Europe, Polotsk, Belarus © Artamonov Alexander/WikiCommons
The challenges of building a cultural heritage trail that in time will become a certified route on the European Routes of Jewish Heritage are great. For one, Belarus is not a member of the European Union and has a tarnished reputation in the eyes of the EU for its questionable stance on human rights, ever amplified by the current political situation in the country. That said, Belarus hosts the geographic centre of Europe and has an incredibly rich Jewish history. There are copious potential opportunities, through this project, to create valuable open dialogue through cultural exploration and cross-border dialogue. Might this lead to changes in Belarus’s attitude to human rights? Only time will tell, but it is certainly an aspirational outcome as the project grows.
Header photo: Belarusian protests, 16 August 2020 © Uladzimir/WikiCommons
Debra Brunner is CEO of The Together Plan, a charity that works with Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union for a self-sustainable future.