Chabad Lubavitch of Belarus

Chabad-Lubavitch in Belarus: the Minsk mission under Rabbi Shneor Deitch since 2005, the Ohr Avner day school, the Minsk synagogue opened in 2010, Chabad centres in seven cities, its weaker position than in Russia under the Lukashenko government, and allegations around the departure of the previous chief rabbi

Chabad Lubavitch of Belarus
Type	Jewish religious organisation (Chabad-Lubavitch)
Headquarters	Minsk
Location	Bobruisk, Brest, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev, Orsha, Pinsk and Vitebsk
Area served	Belarus
Key people	Shneor Deitch (chief rabbi of Minsk and senior emissary); Basya Deitch (Ohr Avner day school)
Website	https://www.jewishminsk.com
Remarks	Linked to the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS

Chabad Lubavitch of Belarus is the Chabad-Lubavitch network in Belarus. Its senior emissary is Rabbi Shneor Deitch (also spelt Deutsch or Deitsch), a French-born rabbi who has been based in Minsk since 2005 and is described as the city's, or the country's, chief rabbi. The movement's directory lists Chabad centres in seven Belarusian cities.

Unlike in Russia, Chabad has not had a privileged relationship with the state in Belarus. In 2007 JTA reported that the government of Alexander Lukashenko stayed out of Jewish communal politics, and that Chabad was not the dominant Jewish organisation in Minsk.

History

Before 2005

Deitch's predecessor as Chabad's chief rabbi in Belarus was Iosef Gruzman, who left around 2004. JTA reported in 2007 that Chabad had for years been fighting internally over the ownership of its synagogue, and that this had damaged the reputation of the Jewish community with the authorities, according to Leonid Levin, president of the Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Organisations and Communities.

Minsk under Shneor Deitch (from 2005)

Deitch and his wife Basya, who is from Jerusalem, came to Minsk in 2005. In 2007 JTA found the Chabad building at Kropotkina Street largely empty. Deitch told it that Chabad then had a day school with 90 pupils and a summer camp, and that the synagogue would open within months. Avraham Berkowitz, executive director of the Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities, told JTA that Chabad had six rabbis in Belarusian cities. JTA again reported six Chabad centres in Belarus in 2013.

A new synagogue and community centre opened in Minsk in 2010, on the site of the community's former synagogue. Chabad.org, the movement's news site, called it the first synagogue built in the city since 1930. It said the building was paid for by the Ohr Avner Foundation of Lev Leviev, Colel Chabad, the Lauder Foundation and George Rohr, and that the project was supervised by the Russian chief rabbi, Berel Lazar. Deitch said that more than 1,800 people had come to High Holiday services there.

Vitebsk synagogue (2023)

In July 2023 a restored Chabad synagogue was inaugurated in Vitebsk. According to the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, the restoration was led by Rabbi Yitzchak Kogan of Moscow with government approval. Berel Lazar attended, as did the minister for religion, the regional governor and the mayor. Chabad rabbis from Minsk, Mogilev, Brest, Grodno, Bobruisk, Vitebsk and Pinsk took part.

Centres and institutions

In October 2026 the Lubavitch.com directory listed Chabad centres in Bobruisk, Brest, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev and Orsha. The FJC names the following rabbis:

• Minsk: Shneor Zalman Deitch;
• Mogilev: Menachem Mendel Alperovitz;
• Brest: Chaim Rabinowitz;
• Grodno: Yitzchak Kaufman;
• Bobruisk: Shaul Habbo;
• Vitebsk: Malkiel Gorgodze;
• Pinsk: Moshe Fima and Avraham Gvirtzman.

The Minsk centre is in postcode district 220002. Its departments include a kosher soup kitchen, a kindergarten, a summer camp and the Ohr Avner Jewish day school, which is run by Basya Deitch.

Relations with the state

JTA reported in 2007 that Chabad had not been able to build the kind of relationship with the Belarusian government that it had in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin openly supported Berel Lazar. Rabbi Grisha Abramovich of the Association of Progressive Jewish Communities of Belarus said Lukashenko's government did not involve itself in the community's internal politics.

In October 2007 Lukashenko said on the radio that Jews had turned the city of Bobruisk into "a pig sty". JTA reported that most Belarusian Jewish leaders played the remark down; it did not report a statement from Chabad.

When Belarus and Israel ended visa requirements for each other's citizens in 2014, Deitch welcomed the change. Lubavitch.com quoted him as saying that antisemitism in Minsk was "basically non-existent". In 2017 JTA described Deitch as the country's chief rabbi and Chabad's senior emissary in Belarus. In the same report, critics of the government said that Jewish heritage sites lacked legal protection, citing a court-approved plan to build flats on a former Jewish cemetery in Gomel.

Relations with other Jewish bodies

In 2007 JTA reported that the Progressive (Reform) movement, led by Abramovich, was considered Minsk's largest Jewish religious organisation. It said Chabad claimed about 5,000 members, although far fewer appeared to take part in its activities regularly. The Joint Distribution Committee's country director, Stuart Saffer, said Gruzman had refused to take space on the communal "campus" that housed the other Jewish organisations. Deitch said that Belarus had 20,000 Jews and that not every organisation could be in the same place.

Allegations

These are allegations reported in the press, not findings of any court or regulator.

• JTA reported in 2007 that Gruzman had left "amid accusations of financial irregularities and erratic behavior". Neither Gruzman nor Chabad would comment.

See also

• Chabad-Lubavitch
• Chabad Lubavitch of Russia
• Chabad Lubavitch of Ukraine
• Chabad Lubavitch of Poland
• Chabad Lubavitch of Moldova