Gadyach

Jewish settlement in Gadyach was first mentioned in regard to 1792. The Jews there were mostly engaged in commerce or crafts. In 1810 Gadyach established a Jewish cemetery, where the founder of Chabad Hasidism, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady, was buried in 1812. In 1897 the 1,853 Jews in Gadyach comprised 24 percent of the total population. When the October Manifesto was issued on October 17, 1905, the Jews of Gadyach suffered a pogrom. In 1939 the Jewish population of 623 comprised 5.8 percent of the total population. German troops occupied Gadyach on September 27, 1941. The Jewish population was murdered in two operations that took place in Goncharskiye Yarki in January and in April, 1942. The town was liberated by the Red Army on September 11, 1943.