Voronovo

from H. Rabin, Voronovah : sefer zikaron li-kedoshe Voronovah she-nispu be-sho'a ha-Natsim ba-shanim 1941-1944, Tel Aviv?: Irgun 'ole Voronovah be-Yisra'el, 1970/1 The Jewish town of Voronovo, about sixty kilometers from Vilna ("a ten hour walk") and thirty kilometers from Lida, came into being in the middle of the seventeenth century. From 1650-1690, a Polish lord named Woronowski lived on the estate called "Woronowka," about half a kilometer from Woronowa. He owned the estate and fields including the land of Woronowa and the stream flowing through called "Balatnai" or "Balatienke." The lord leased his fields to Jews. An avid card player and gambler, he borrowed money from Jews using his estates as collateral. The land, forfeited for debts, remained primarily in Jewish hands until World War II.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Jewish community of Woronow numbered seventy souls. Some of the families living in Vornovo since the seventeenth century were OLKENITSKI, LEVINE, PUPKO, SHELUBSKY, ORKIN, KAPLAN, KAMENITSKI. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Jewish population was 250 families or 1200 people. The railroad came to the town in 1882. By 1930, the town expanded toward Lida. About 1940, 350 families and 1,600 people lived in Voronovo. About 35% were engaged in agriculture. The balance were 25% handicrafts, 20% carters-peddlers, and 20% were merchants, storekeepers, and free professions. Community institutions included a Talmud Torah, Hospitality
Hostel, and Burial Society.