JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

history at Manchester University and returned to Oxford in
1946 as reader in the comparative study of institutions. During
World War II he served in the Royal Signal Corps. In 1957
he became professor of government and public administration
at Oxford and a fellow of All Souls’ College. The author
of numerous works on European history, American government,
and Soviet foreign policy, Beloff also wrote extensively
about developments in contemporary international relations,
particularly concerning Western Europe after World War II.
In The United States and the Unity of Europe (1963) he considered
the prospects of European unity and the interdependence
of Western Europe and the U.S. Two works on Soviet foreign
policy, The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia 1929–41 (1947–49)
and Soviet Policy in the Far East 1944–51 (1953) were among the
pioneering attempts to present a documentary and historical
assessment of the Soviet Union’s role and aims in international
politics and are considered standard works in this field. Beloff’s
studies of American government, including The American
Federal Government (1959), concentrated on the historical
roots of American federalism and how its evolution shaped
the structure and functioning of contemporary American
politics and institutions. Among his other works are: The Age
of Absolutism, 1680–1815 (1954); Europe and the Europeans…
(1957), a report prepared at the request of the Council of Europe;
The Great Powers: Essays in 20th Century Politics (1959);
and The Balance of Power (1967). In 1992 Beloff produced an
autobiography, An Historian in the Twentieth Century. In the
early 1970s Beloff was instrumental in founding University
College, Buckingham, Britain’s only purely private university,
and served as its principal from 1974 to 1979. An outspoken
Conservative, Beloff was knighted in 1980 and given a life
peerage by Margaret Thatcher in 1981.
His sister NORA BELOFF (1919–1997), political correspondent
of The Observer in 1964–76, was the first woman political
correspondent of a Fleet Street newspaper. A brother, JOHN
BELOFF (b. 1920), became probably the best-known serious
investigator of parapsychological phenomenon in Britain, and
is the author of The Existence of Mind (1962) and Parapsychology:
A Concise History (1993). Another sister married the Nobel
Prize-winning scientist Sir Ernest *Chain.
Add. Bibliography: ODNB online, s.v. “Sir Max Beloff”
and “Nora Beloff.”
[Brian Knei-Paz (Knapheis) / William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
BELORUSSIA, territory located between the rivers Neman
(west) and Dnieper (east) and the rivers Pripet (south)
and Dvina (north). Between the 14th and 18th centuries part
of *Poland-Lithuania, from the partitions of Poland (1772–95)
until the 1917 revolution it was part of the “northwestern region”
of Russia, and much of it was included in the three “guberniyas”
(provinces) of Minsk, Mogilev, and Vitebsk. Under
Soviet rule Belorussia became a political entity as the Belorussian
Soviet Socialist Republic. After the dissolution of the
Soviet Union, the area was called Belarus and was a C.I.S.
republic.
belorussia
Up to Soviet Rule
In Jewish history Belorussia is part of “Lita” (Lithuania), its
Jews being considered “Litvaks.” Jewish merchants apparently
first visited Belorussia in transit between Poland and Russia
as early as the 15th century. Jews were acting as toll collectors
in Nowogrodek (1445), *Minsk (1489), and *Smolensk (1489).
In 1495 the Jews in Belorussia were included in the expulsion
of Lithuanian Jewry, returning with it in 1503. As large-scale
farmers of customs dues and wealthy merchants, Jews from
*Brest-Litovsk played an important role in the development
of Belorussia. Their agents were often the pioneers of the
communities of Belorussia. A community was established in
*Pinsk in 1506. By 1539 Jews had settled in *Kletsk and Nowogrodek,
and subsequently in Minsk, *Polotsk, *Vitebsk,
*Mogilev, and *Orsha. The Christian citizenry consistently
opposed the permanent settlement of Jews within the areas of
the cities and towns under municipal jurisdiction. In Vitebsk,
for instance, Jews were not granted permission to build a synagogue
until 1630. Within the framework of the Council of
Lithuania (see *Councils of the Lands), Pinsk was one of the
three original principal communities; most of the communities
in Belorussia came under the jurisdiction of the Brest-
Litovsk community, while several were subject to that of the
Pinsk community. In 1692 the *Slutsk community achieved
the status of a principal community. Smaller communities
also grew up under the protection of landowners who rented
their towns, villages, taverns, or inns to Jewish contractors
(see *Arenda). These made constant attempts to break away
from the jurisdiction of older communities and manage their
communal affairs independently.
Until the partitions of Poland the communities in Belorussia
were constantly exposed to the danger of Russian incursions,
which were accompanied by wholesale massacres and
forced conversions. Such events occurred in 1563 in Polotsk,
and in many other communities between 1648 and 1655.
The relative strength of the Belorussian communities in
the middle of the 18th century is shown by the amounts levied
on them as listed in the tax register of the Council of Lithuania
for 1761: for the communities in the eastern part of Belorussia,
16,500 zlotys; Polotsk and environs, 3,000 zlotys; the
area around Minsk (including 40 small communities), 4,260
zlotys; Slutsk and its environs, 2,420 zlotys; Druya and its
environs, 750 zlotys; Nowogrodek, 300 zlotys. According to
the government census of 1766, there were 62,800 taxpaying
Jews living in Belorussia, forming 40% of Lithuanian Jewry.
The largest communities were in Minsk (1,396 Jewish inhabitants)
and Pinsk (1,350).
After Belorussia passed to Russia in the late 18th century,
*Shklov became an important commercial center on the route
between Russia and Western Europe. Although a small group
of Jews acquired wealth as building contractors, army suppliers,
and large-scale merchants, the vast majority of Jews in
the region of Belorussia were relatively destitute. Nevertheless,
their numbers grew. There were 225,725 Jews living in the
three “guberniyas” of Belorussia in 1847, and 724,548 in 1897
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