Iwye

Iwye is the administrative center of the Iwye district of Grodno region. It is located {{convert|158|km}} east of the regional capital Grodno.{{cite book |last1=Gaponenko |first1=Irina Olegovna |title=Назвы населеных пунктаў Рэспублікі Беларусь: Гродзенская вобласць |trans-title=Names of settlements of the Republic of Belarus: Grodno region |date=2004 |location=Minsk |publisher=Technalohija |page=217 |isbn=985-458-098-9 |language=be}}

Iwye was historically a multiethnic and religiously diverse settlement with a Jewish majority. Beginning in the 15th century, the area was settled by Jews, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Muslim Lipka Tatars.{{cite book |last1=Bill |first1=Stanley |last2=Lewis |first2=Simon |title=Multicultural Commonwealth: Poland-Lithuania and Its Afterlives |date=14 November 2023 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |isbn=978-0-8229-9019-2 |page=236 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Multicultural_Commonwealth/W5UFEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=I%C5%ADje&pg=PT236&printsec=frontcover |access-date=15 June 2025 |language=en}} There was also an Arian community in Iwye in the 16th century.{{cite book |title=Belarus: pages of history |date=15 May 2022 |publisher=Litres |isbn=978-5-04-162594-8 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Belarus_pages_of_history/UDIVEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=I%C5%ADje&pg=PA120&printsec=frontcover |page=120 |access-date=15 June 2025 |language=en}} Iwye's population was over three-quarters Jewish by 1938, and the town had a Tarbut school, an association football team, a fire brigade, a theater, and an orchestra.

The Jewish community of Iwye was devastated by the mass killings of the Holocaust during World War II. In 1942, Nazi German troops executed 2,500 Jews by shooting in the nearby forest of Stonevichi, while 1,000 were confined to a ghetto in the town's north. A small group of 80 Jews survived by hiding or joining local partisans in their fight against the Nazis. The railway line from Lida to Maladzyechna, which stopped at Iwye and was used by the Nazis, was destroyed by partisans during the war.{{cite news |title=Неуловимый «Балтиец», или Партизанская одиссея Ивана Пролыгина |trans-title=The Elusive 'Baltiets', or the Partisan Odyssey of Ivan Prolygin |url=https://lidanews.by/news/80-let-velikoy-pobedy/34807news.html |access-date=20 June 2025 |work=Lida News |language=ru}} After the war ended, the Holocaust survivors were "repatriated" to Poland, as control over Iwye changed from prewar Poland to the Soviet Union. Seven Jewish families remained in Iwye until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and they all moved to Israel soon thereafter. In 2009, the Belarusian government opened a museum in Iwye commemorating the town's Jewish history.{{sfn|Bill|Lewis|2023|p=237}}

The architecture of Iwye has been influenced by the Lipka Tatar community in particular, with the wooden mosque remaining a landmark of the town and Iwye bearing the nickname "the Tatar capital of Belarus". The mosque was built in 1882 and was the only mosque in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Saints Peter and Paul Church is a Roman Catholic church protected by the Belarusian government as part of the country's "historical and cultural heritage".{{cite web|title=List of protected monuments in Iwye District|url=http://ivje.gov.by/ru/region/history/istkultcennost|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714123738/http://ivje.gov.by/ru/region/history/istkultcennost|archive-date=14 July 2014|website=Official Site of Iwye District|language=ru}}

There are 6,906 people living in Iwye {{as of|2025|lc=yes}}.{{cite web|url=https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/solialnaya-sfera/naselenie-i-migratsiya/naselenie/statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_148168/|title=Численность населения на 1 января 2025 г. и среднегодовая численность населения за 2024 год по Республике Беларусь в разрезе областей, районов, городов, поселков городского типа|trans-title=Population as of 1 January 2025 and average annual population for 2024 in the Republic of Belarus by regions, districts, cities, and urban-type settlements|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250329210112/https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/solialnaya-sfera/naselenie-i-migratsiya/naselenie/statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_148168/|archive-date=29 March 2025|website=belsat.gov.by|publisher=Government of Belarus|access-date=8 May 2025|language=ru}}

• Chaim Ozer Grodzinski (1863–1940), rabbi of Vilnius{{cite news|last=Sorasky|first=Aharon|author-link=Aharon Sorasky|title=Glimpses of Greatness: Reb Chaim Ozer Is Klal Yisrael|work=Hamodia Features|date=22 July 2010|page=C3}}
• Moshe Shatzkes (1881–1958), rabbi of Iwye{{cite web |title=Harav Hagaon R. Moshe Shatzkes ZT"L 1882–1958 |url=https://www.yu.edu/riets/about/mission-history/historic-roshei/moshe-shatzkes |website=YU.EDU |publisher=Yeshiva University |access-date=16 December 2020}}

• Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany

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• {{JewishGen-LocalityPage|1943674|Iwye, Belarus}}

{{Grodno Region}}

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Category:Lipka Tatar communities

Category:Lipka Tatars of Belarus

Category:Historic Jewish communities in Belarus

Category:Holocaust locations in Belarus