Jews began to settle in Zelwa (Zelva) in the 17^th century. In 1766, the community had 522 members. After the abolition of the Lithuanian Va’ad in 1766, the local fairs became an occasion for the reunions of rabbis of the most important communities of the Grand Duchy. In August 1781, at a fair in Zelwa, which was attended by rabbis from Grodno, Brest, Pinsk and Sluck, the act of exclusion of the Hasidim from the Jewish community was pronounced. In 1796, the town was visited by Israel Loebel – a famous preacher who led an active anti-Hasidic campaign.

The 1785 inventory shows that there were 84 Jewish properties in Zelwa. All of them were located around the market square or at Grodzieńska Street[1.1]. According to the inventory carried out in 1815, 406 plots in Zelwa belonged to Jews, not including town squares. On some plots of land there were three or even four houses.

In 1829, there were 827 Jews living in Zelwa (452 men and 375 women), that is 75% of all the inhabitants. In 1847, the community had 846 members. It was a landmark year for the town, as it became part of the railway network. In 1885, a group of drunken railway workers incited a pogrom, destroying Jewish property and beating Jews they encountered on their way.

According to the 1897 census, 1,844 Jews lived in Zelwa. In the fonds no. 100 in the National Historical Archive of Belarus in Grodno, some handwritten copies of Zelwa's municipal records have been preserved. They include information about Malinowa Street and alleys around the railway station. There were 185 Jews (38 families) living there. The average Jewish family consisted of five members. There were 71 people (38%) who could write. Most of them (43) stated that they could read and write in Yiddish[1.2].

Jews were mainly involved in crafts and trade. Statistical data concerning the professional activities of the Jewish community can be retrieved on the basis of the preserved documents from 1897. There were 13 tailors, 7 shoemakers, 4 carpenters, 4 labourers (2 in the mill, 1 in the weaving workshop, and 1 in the bakery), 3 woodworkers, 3 artisans and 2 masons. There was also a glazier, a butcher, a blacksmith, a locksmith, a baker, a washerwoman, a bookbinder, a melamed (a teacher in the local cheder – Szmuel Indzicki), a forestry industrialist, a wheel lubricant factory owner, a leaseholder of the post office, two pig farmers and three owners of small shops[1.3].

At the turn of the 20^th century, the local community became involved in political and social activities. Groups of supporters of the Haskalah and Hovevei Zion emerged. Local branch of the Bund was established after 1900. Difficult economic conditions and acts of anti-Semitism led to the increased emigration of Jews, with many families leaving for the United States and Canada.

According to the 1921 census, 1,344 Jews lived in Zelwa. There was a synagogue and a prayer house in the town, as well as schools with Hebrew and Yiddish as the language of instruction. Zelwa boasted an active Zionist youth movement. The town was a centre of the wood industry. The biggest sawmill was owned by Salman Baradzicki. There were also plants producing quilts and tanneries in the town. A co-operative bank, acting as an aid agency, also operated in Zelwa. Jewish shops, pharmacies and medicine stores were mainly located around the market square. On the third day of every month, there was a fair in the town. It attracted buyers from the entire municipality. Many Jewish factors (trade agents) gathered at the market. Apart from participating in commercial transactions, they settled disputes or provided advice. Despite certain signs of economic recovery, the factors contributing to intensified emigration continued to prevail. People were moving to Canada, Australia, Argentina and Chile.

The German occupation put an end to the history of Jewish community in Zelwa. Soon after Germans entered the city in early July 1941, the local Jews, as well as many refugees from central Poland, started to suffer from restrictions and harassment. According to one of the inhabitants of the town, Adam Daniuk, people exchanged their belongings for food in order not to die of starvation. A ghetto was established in the town. In 1942, Judenrat bought five cows from local peasants. Meat was divided between hungry families. When  Germans learned about it, they arrested six people involved in the campaign and publicly hanged them (according to another version, seven butchers were hanged).

On 2 November 1942, Jews were ordered to take their belongings and go to the railway station. Those too weak to walk were shot by Germans. The others were deprived of their belongings, pushed to freight wagons and transported to the Nazi German death camp of Treblinka. The total of 4,069 people was killed during the occupation, most of them Jews. However, several dozen people managed to escape to the forest before the final “Aktion.”

Bibliography

• Paszuta N., Z historyi jauriejskich abszczyn Zelwenszczyny XIX – paczatku XX st.,  [in] Sławuty zelwienski kraj, Lida 2004, pp. 131–136.
• Wajcieszyk H., Z historyi miasteczka Zelwa (20–30–e hh. XX st.), [in] Szlach u nawuku, Hrodna 2011, pp. 152–157.
• Zelwa, [in] The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, eds. S. Spector, G. Wigoder, vol. 3, New York 2001, p. 1502.