compiled from the sources below by Ellen Sadove Renck

Radin/Radunj/Radun /Raduny/Radunskaya at 54º03 25º00

and the dependent villages of Adamoniszki, Balciszki, Bartoszyszki, Dowgieliszki, Druskieniki Nowo, Druskieniki Stare, Dubince, Dugalishok, Horodyszcze, Jantowty, Jurance, Kiwance, Klajsze, Korgowdy, Kujze, Kurki, Lelusze, Lipkunce, Lunki, Mozejki, Nowinki, Nowosady, Odwierniki, Orle, Palaszki, Palunce, Pcolony, Pielasa, Pielunce, Piencieniszki, Podzitwa, Pomiedz, Popiszki, Postawki, Powilance, Powloka, Rackuny, Radziunce, Serbeniszki, Skirejki, Skladance, Slobodka, Smilginie Nowe, Smilginie Stare, Stracuny, Stuczyki, Surkonty, Swianowszczyzna, Szawry, Talkunce, Tatarszczyna, Ulanowszczyzna, Waszkicle, Wigance, Wojkunce, Woldaciszki
and estates, colonies, and hamlets of Alekszyszki, Antokol, Bartoszunce, Butrymy, Ejwunce, Falkunce, Gaj, Gierwielance, Giesztowty, Girki Kadziunce, Janowicze, Januszyszki, Jodzie, Juciuny, Jurance, Kadziunce, Kiemejsza, Korklina, Krzeczewicze, Lubiance, Maciunce, Malewskie, Milkunce, Niekradszunce, Nosowicze, Olekszyszki, Palielunce, Paszkiewicze, Pietraszunce, Poradun, Radun Plebanja, Rukance, Sapunce I, II, and III, Serbeniszki, Siendzikowszczyzna, Surkonty, Szawry, Talkunce, Tolciszki, Troczki, Wanagiszki, Wapielnia, Wieckiewicze, Wilbiki, Witozence, Wolkiewicze, Zapasuiki

First a Polish royal estate, Radun gained prominence in the sixteenth century due to its location on the main road between Cracow and Vilna. Jewish residency was prohibited but in 1538, local Jewish farmers saw that Radun received municipal status so that they could remain. In 1623, the Council of the Province of Lithuania (Council of the Lands) subordinated the Radun Jewish community to Grodno.

The 1765 Jewish poll tax payers of Radin and its surrounding communities numbered 581. When Rech Pospolita (1795) was divided, Radunj became a part of Russian Empire and belonged to Vilenskaya Gubernya. By the end of the nineteenth century, it had one hundred houses. The town proper had 283 Jews in 1847, 896 in 1897 (53.3% of the total population), and 671 in 1921 (53.5%). In 1869, Israel Meir Kohen (Hafez Chayyim) founded a yeshiva there, attracting students from a wide area. The teacher of Talmud and Halakah was Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan (Pupko).

Primary occupations of the Radun Jewish community were commerce, crafts, and agriculture. Twelve percent of the two hundred Jewish cooperative bank participants in 1921 were farmers. The Yekopo Relief Society in Vilna granted nineteen loans in 1929 for 1,134 acres of land (420 desytinas).

In 1912, when Radun belonged to Poland in Vilna voevodstvo, Yeshi bar Zachri Mendel Hacohen Katz (1856-?), son of the rabbi in Radin, was rabbi in Bakshty. In 1928, Radun was designated as a miasteczko (small town) and gmina wiejska (parish town), council office for the surroundings villages, in the First Uchastok, Lida powiat, Nowogrodskie voevodstvo of Poland between WWI and WII. The Justice of the Peace was in Eisiskes and the Justice Court in Wilno. The 1928 miasteczko population was 1,254. The railway station was 21 kilometers away in Bastuny, on the Lida-Wilno line. The post office, and telephone were in Bastuny and the telegraph in Lida. The town had two Catholic churches, one synagogue, and one mosque. Markets were on Wednesdays (Eliach, in There Once was a World, says the markets were on Tuesday;  Little, Brown, 1998, p. 315).

The pre-WWII Jewish population was about eight hundred. The Soviets took Radun in 1939, ending Jewish community activity. In 1939, it belonged to Belarussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Baranovichi distruct.  This separated it from Eisiskes, which remained in Lithuania.  The Nazi Aktion on May 10, 1942 murdered two thousand Jews from the town and surroundings villages. The August 9, 1942 Aktion killed most of the remaining Jewish population though some escaped to the partisans. The Belarussians report 1,136 citizens of Radun murdered by the Nazis. In 1962, Radun was in Voronovo District.

"Dugalishok  [a predominantly Jewish village] eventually became something of a Jewish resort, attracting numerous summer vacationers from the neighboring shtetlek during the 1920s and '30's. The most illustrious of its visitors was the Haffetz Hayyim himself, who brought with him many of the yeshivah students from Radun. Drawn to the countryside by the beautiful pine forest, the excellent agricultural produce, and the warm hospitality of the farmers, the young tourists kept the villages abuzz all during the summer months." (Eliach, Yaffa. There Once Was a World. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1998. P. 256.

Sources:
Ksiega Adresowa Handlowa, Warszawa Bydgoszcz 1929
Glowny Urzad Statystyczny Rzechzypospolitej polskiej.

Translation of Slownik Geograficzny entry for Radun

Need to convert old Russian units?

Grodno Archives:
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--5 Metrical Book of Divorce- Synagogue in Radunj 1897
30 Radunj Lida yezd, Vilnja gub.
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--6 Metrical Book of Divorce- Synagogue in Radunj 1898
30 Radunj Lida yezd, Vilnja gub.
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--2 Metrical Book of Death- Synagogue in Radunj 1898
40 Radunj Lida yezd, Vilnja gub.
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--8 Metrical Book of Divorce- Synagogue in Radunj 1900
40 Radunj Lida yezd, Vilnja gub.
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--1 Metrical Book of Death- Synagogue in Radunj 1897
70 Radunj Lida yezd, Vilnja gub.
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--3 Metrical Book of Death- Synagogue in Radunj 1899
70 Radunj Lida yezd, Vilnja gub.
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--4 Metrical Book of Death- Synagogue in Radunj 1900
70 Radunj Lida yezd, Vilnja gub.
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--7 Metrical Book of Divorce- Synagogue in Radunj 1899
70 Radunj Lida yezd, Vilnja gub.
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--10 Metrical Book of Marriage- Synagogue in Radunj 1900
70 Radunj Lida yezd, Vilnja gub.
56 Fond 9 chronicles 1897-1900 Vilna Guberniya
Inv#1--9 Metrical Book of Divorce- Synagogue in Radunj 1899
90 Radunj Lida yezd
Address: Grodno Region Department, Director: Miss Karina Botrakova, National Belorussian Historical Archives of Grodno
and
National Belorussian Historical Archives, Grodno Region Department,
Director: Miss Karina Brotrakova
Teizengauz Ploschad 2, Grodno 230001Belarus

Other possible research sources:

• "In Ghetto Radun", chapter 26 of There Once was a World, Yaffa Eliach, Little Brown, 1998, pp. 595-610.
• EVREISKAYA ENCY.: XIII: 272 [12 lines].
• Encyclopedia Judaica;
• Dubnow, S. Pinchas ha-Medinah (1925);
• Kaganowitz, M. (editor), Sefer Zikkaron li-Kehillat Ivye (H/Y), 1968; ,
• Yahadut Lita, 3, (1967), p. 57-58;
• Yad Vashem: M.41-141 70632, Russian, 11 Nov, 1944: Accounts of battles and sabotage of the partisan group with the name MATROSOV from May to June 1944 in eastern Belorussia; information on the underground communist organizations in the region WASILIZKI from May-June 1944; establishment and actions of the partisan brigade by the name "Leninsky Komsomol" in the areas WASILIZKI, SKIDEL, RADUN in the years 1941-44; especially the condition of the Jews who remained in the family camps among the partisans.