President Of World Association Of Belarusian Jews Yakov Gutman Passed Away

He was a tireless fighter for the preservation of the Jewish heritage and democratic changes in Belarus.

On July 15, President of the World Association of Belarusian Jews, native of the Homel region Yakov Gutman died in New York. This year he turned 75 years old, Radio Svaboda reports.

The death of Yakov Gutman has been reported by his grandson Josh Kotlyar:

“With pain in my soul, I report that this morning my grandfather Yakov passed away. He was a kind, generous and caring person. He was also one of the smartest and most well-read people I knew. From him I learned a lot about the history of our family, about the USSR, about Judaism, as well as about science and much more. Each phone call became a long conversation, during which we both learned something new about the world (and I managed to learn some new phrase in Yiddish).

He was a tireless fighter for the rights of Jews in his native Belarus, this fight began in the Soviet times, when Jews were denied access to prestigious universities, when religious ceremonies were forbidden, when censorship threw out all words related to religion from Yiddish and where it was impossible to speak Hebrew or to study it without the permission of the special services.”

Yakov Gutman’s ancestors came from Mazyr. During World War II, many Jews died. On August 31, 1941, more than 20 citizens committed the act of self-immolation, repeating the feat of the defenders of the Jewish fortress of Mossad in 73 AD. Despite the obstacles from the local authorities, Yakov Gutman managed to erect a monument to the “Belarusian Mossad” in Mazyr.

In the program “Voices of the Century” on Radio Svaboda, Yakov Gutman recalled:

“The most significant fact that influenced my whole life occurred in October 1991. Two centuries earlier, the yeshiva began work in Valozhyn, which became the mother for all yeshivas in Europe. The four people from the rabbinical dynasty who founded it are buried in the cemetery there.

And then in October we laid the first stone in the fence around this cemetery. There was a very interesting aura. Cardinal Kazimierz Świątek arrived from Pinsk, deputies of the Supreme Council Liavon Barshcheuski, Piotr Sadouski, Aleh Trusau. Barshcheuski began his speech in Belarusian, and ended it in Yiddish. He said in Belarusian that it was impossible for goats and rams to walk in this holy place. And then he spoke Yiddish. This shocked us, because the greatest respect that you can express to your interlocutor is when you speak their language.”

For nearly two decades, Yakov Gutman lived in the United States, but continued to support democratic organizations in his homeland and defended Jewish heritage. In particular, he dealt with the issue of preserving necropolises in Belarusian cities and towns.

On his last visit to Belarus in 2017, he sought to stop the destruction of the Jewish cemetery in Homel on Sozhauskaya Street. The authorities transferred the territory of old burials to the development of multi-storey buildings. The case went to trial.

In protest against the anti-Jewish statements of Lukashenka, Gutman held pickets at his administration, during one of them he was detained in 2004. Soon after, he left for the USA.

Yakov Gutman explained his departure overseas as follows:

“I’m leaving there, since it’s impossible to solve any Jewish issues while sitting in Minsk. It is impossible to solve the issue of changing the political regime. I do not agree with this regime, as it pursues an official anti-Semitic policy. I really want to apologize to the Belarusian people. I have done everything I can, and I will do my best to ensure that this people live no worse than others.”

Earlier, in the 1990s, Yakov Gutman helped with the departure of children affected by the Chernobyl disaster for treatment in Israel and Finland.

Homel historian and journalist Maryja Bulavinskaya recalls Gutman:

“We met in 2017, when Yakov Gutman came to Homel to protect the Jewish cemetery. He defended Jewish heritage since the Soviet times, picketed the Lukashenka administration in 2004; he was detained, he was hospitalized. He defended many necropolises, including the Jewish cemetery in Mazyr. This is a sincere person who defended the heritage; the man who defended justice, loved his native land, and believed in change.”