Smarhoń (Belarusian: Смаргонь, Smarhoń, [smarˈɣonʲ]; Russian: Сморгонь, Polish: Smorgonie, Yiddish: סמאָרגאָן) is a city in Hrodna Voblast, Belarus. It is located at 54°29′1″N 26°24′0″E / 54.48361°N 26.4°E / 54.48361; 26.4Coordinates: 54°29′1″N 26°24′0″E / 54.48361°N 26.4°E / 54.48361; 26.4. It was the site of Smarhoń air base, now mostly abandoned. Smarhoń is located 107 km from the capital, Minsk. In the early 17th century it was established in Poland but in 1793 passed on from Poland to Russia as part of the Russian Pale of Settlement. Until the mid 19th century, Smarhoń was a private property of the princes of Radziwill with most of its population being Jewish. Shortly after World War I until World War II Smarhoń was part of the independent Poland.
[edit] Famous natives and citizens of Smarhoń
- Peter Blume (1906–1992) US painter, in magic realism style
- Alexander Deruga, Belarussian musician and folklore researcher, founder of the Smarhoń cymbals orchestra
- Abba Gordin, Belarussian Yiddish writer, playwright and theatre director, founder of the Hebrew school "Ivriya" in Smarhon, settled later in USA
- Aharon Abraham Kabak (1881–1944) Hebrew writer, settled in Palestine
- Abraham Sutzkever (1913–2010) a Yiddish and Polish poet and Second World War partisan.
- Moyshe Kulbak (1896–1937) Belarussian Yiddish poet, writer, executed by the NKVD
- Abraham Isaac Kook, Jewish theologist, rabbi, was Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, learned in Smarhon yeshiva with rabbi Noakh Shapira
- David Kussevitzki (1911–1985) Polish-US Jewish cantor
- Moshe Kussevitzki (1899–1966) Polish-US Jewish cantor
- Ida Lazarovich Gilman or Ida Mett (1901–1973) Russian anarchist militant and author, exiled in France
- Rabbi Menashe ben Porat from Ilia or Menashe m'Ilia (1767–1831) Belarussian-Lithuanian Jewish scholar, near to Haskalah trend
- Karol Dominik Przezdziecki (1782–1832) Polish count, fighter for the liberation of Poland in the revolt of 1830–1831
- David Raziel (1910–1941) fighter for the emancipation of Jews in Palestine, commander of the Irgun Tzvai Leumi nationalist resistance organization, was killed in Iraq in an anti-Nazi mission
- Esther Raziel Naor (1911–2002) Israeli politician, was militant in the Irgun Jewish nationalist resistance during the British mandate in Palestine
- William Schwartz (1896–1977) US painter
- Nachum Slushch (1871–1969 Israeli historian, archeologist and Hebrew writer
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