little stories of Jewish Nesvizh

7pm GMT, 9pm Israel, 10pm Belarus, 2pm EST, 11am PST

This is the second in our three part series of Jewish Nesvizh.

Step back in time and discover the little stories that made up the big heart of Jewish Nesvizh, a once-thriving shtetl in Belarus where Jewish life flourished for centuries.
Through a tapestry of true stories about real people, this talk brings to life the daily rhythms, hopes, struggles, and celebrations of the Jews who called Nesvizh home. You’ll meet the townspeople whose lives were interwoven with the Nesvizh’s history, stories passed down, rediscovered in archives, memoirs and Yizkhor books, and preserved through memory.

Presented by The Together Plan, this moving talk forms part of a wider effort to reclaim and share the lost Jewish heritage of Belarus. The event will be in support of an exciting initiative to create a stunning new memorial in Nesvizh, one that celebrates life, resilience, and remembrance.

Join us for an exciting talk of storytelling, history, and reflection, honouring the people of Jewish Nesvizh and ensuring their voices continue to be heard.

About the speakers:
Tamara Vershitskaya, based in Belarus, is a researcher, translator, founder and Curator of the Jewish Resistance Museum (JRM) in Novogrudok (Belarus) and is the Jewish Heritage Specialist at The Together Plan. In 2007 Tamara created a permanent exhibition on the former ghetto site called ‘Jewish Resistance Museum’ telling two stories of the most successful Jewish resistance in the Nazi occupied Europe. One of them – the story of the Bielski partisans – is widely known thanks to a Hollywood movie ‘Defiance’. Ever since the JRM has been gradually developing into a Memorial Museum with an indoor and outdoor exhibition, two very special Gardens, a Memorial Wall and preserved fragments of the tunnel built by the ghetto prisoners.

Ken Domeshek is a grandson of Nesvizh. His paternal grandfather was born there. His paternal grandmother was born in the nearby farming village of Negnewicze. Other ancestral relatives lived in Nowogrudek, Korelitz, Lyubcha, and Wsielub. Twenty years ago, Ken began searching for answers. He now has a substantial collection of reference materials for Nesvizh and the surrounding shtetls. Some of his research has been published in the Yizkor book for Korelitz and posted on the kehila websites for Korelitz and Nesvizh. And when conventional genealogy encountered roadblocks, he used his scientist background to pursue genetic genealogy. Ken has access to the DNA results of many Jewish Nesvizh descendants and he runs the “Damesek” Y-DNA project on Family Tree DNA.

This event is part of our campaign to install two new memorials in Nesvizh, one in memory of the contribution that the Jewish community made to the town of Nesvizh and the second to mark the area that is the Jewish cemetery which is today a public park.

The Together Plan
preserving the past, building the future, changing lives for the better!