LEPEL

LEPEL, town in Vitebsk district, Belarus. Before the 1917 Revolution it served as a county town in the province (gubernia) of Vitebsk, Russia. In 1802 the Jewish population of Lepel and district totaled 368. Their number increased to 1,509 in 1847 and 3,379 (53.7% of the total population) in 1897. Two Jewish state schools operated, for boys, with emphasis on vocational training, and for girls. During World War I the city was on the Russo-German front, and it also suffered greatly in the war between Russia and Poland (1919–20). There were 1,932 Jews (28.9%) in the town in 1926, and 1,919 by 1939. A Jewish elementary school existed there during the Soviet period. The Germans occupied the city on July 3, 1941, and later established a ghetto there. On February 28, 1942, almost all 1,000 Jews from the Lepel ghetto were shot. There is no information on Jewish life in Lepel after World War II. (Yehuda Slutsky)