Mir, Belarus
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| Some pictures were found in
a box of old photographs that belonged to my grandfather,
Joseph Jacobson. He lived in Mir, before coming to the
United States in 1884 at age 14 to live in Des Moines,
Iowa. His older brother Hyman Isaac had come to Des Moines
to work as a Shochet (ritual butcher). Hyman Isaac encouraged
his brothers Moses and Joe, his married sister Malka and
her husband Isaac Chapman, nephews and a variety of cousins
to move to Iowa in the years before the turn of the century. These photos seem to have been taken
some time after WWI, but well before WWII. Because they
have numbers on the front, I think that they are part
of a series that may have been for sale, possibly at
a talk about someone's trip to Eastern Europe. My grandfather
died in 1932, so the photos would have been taken before
that time. Photographs can be a way of entering
the past. It is how I first found my way to Mir. |
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| I posted the photos on this
web site in late August 1998, under the title "Might be Mir" with
the hope that someone might know for sure. Two people whose
ancestors also came from Mir contacted me by e-mail within
a few days. They assure me that this was indeed Mir and provided
more details. If you have ancestors from Mir, please let me
know and share information. If you have old photos
in this series or any pictures of Mir, I would be happy
to put them on these web pages. Please e-mail me: rkimble@uoregon.edu |
A close up of the
center of the old photo of Mir.
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This is a close-up
of the photo above. Now you can see the road going
uphill. Just beyond the bridge, notice how close the
buildings are to each other and how narrow the road
becomes once it enters the town.
I guess that the poles are for
telegraphy wires, but I cannot see that wires have
been strung.
According to a visitor to Mir
in the mid 1990s, the town did not have running water
in many homes or public buildings. In the 1990s,
there were four pumps, powered by electricity, in
four corners of the town where one could bring containers
and get water to carry home. Other water pumps
were still hand operated.
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A close up of the
left side of the old photo of Mir. |
The shul. Rick Saffran said this synagogue
was called the "beit haknesset hacar" which means
the cold shul. It is still standing today and in 1996 was
being used as a school. (click on photo to see enhanced views)
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Updated
August 2007 |
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