View source for Iwye

{{Short description|Town in Grodno region, Belarus}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name               = Iwye
| native_name        = {{ubl|{{native name|be|Іўе}}|{{native name|ru|Ивье}}}}
| nickname           = 
| settlement_type    = [[List of cities and largest towns in Belarus|Town]]
| image_skyline      = Вид на костёл г.Ивье.jpg
| image_size         = 
| image_caption      = 
| image_map          = 
| map_caption        = 
| pushpin_map        = Belarus
| pushpin_label_position = bottom
| subdivision_type   = Country
| subdivision_name   = {{flag|Belarus}}
| subdivision_type1  = [[Regions of Belarus|Region]]
| subdivision_name1  = [[Grodno region|Grodno]]
| subdivision_type2  = [[Districts of Belarus|District]]
| subdivision_name2  = [[Iwye district|Iwye]]
| leader_title       = 
| leader_name        = 
<!-- Unsourced:
| established_title  = First mentioned
| established_date   = 1444
-->
| area_magnitude     = 
| area_total_km2     = 
| area_land_km2      = 
| area_water_km2     = 
| population_as_of   = 2025
| population_footnotes = <ref name="pop"/>
| population_note    = 
| population_total   = 6,906
| population_metro   = 
| population_density_km2 = 
| timezone           = [[Moscow Time|MSK]]
| utc_offset         = +3
| coordinates        = {{coord|53|55|N|25|46|E|region:BY|display=inline,title}}
| elevation_m        = 
| postal_code_type   = Postal code
| postal_code        = 231337
| area_code          = +375 1595
| blank_name         = License plate
| blank_info         = 4
| website            = 
| footnotes          = 
}}
'''Iwye'''{{efn|{{bulleted list|{{langx|be|Іўе|Iŭje}}, {{IPA|be|ˈiʊje|IPA}}|{{langx|ru|Ивье|Ivye}}, {{IPA|ru|ˈivʲjɪ|IPA}}|{{langx|lt|Yvija}}|{{langx|pl|Iwie}}|{{langx|yi|איוויע|Ivye}}}}}} is a town in [[Grodno region]], [[Belarus]]. It is the administrative center of [[Iwye district]]. {{As of|2025}}, Iwye has a population of 6,906.

Iwye was historically a multicultural settlement with a [[Jews|Jewish]] majority, but nearly all of the town's Jews were killed by the [[Nazis]] in the [[Holocaust]]. The architecture of many buildings in Iwye were influenced by the town's historical [[Lipka Tatars|Lipka Tatar]] community.

== Geography ==
Iwye is the administrative center of the [[Iwye district]] of [[Grodno region]]. It is located {{convert|158|km}} east of the regional capital [[Grodno]].<ref name="enc">{{cite book |last1=Gaponenko |first1=Irina Olegovna |title=Назвы населеных пунктаў Рэспублікі Беларусь: Гродзенская вобласць |trans-title=Names of settlements of the Republic of Belarus: Grodno region |date=2004 |location=[[Minsk]] |publisher=Technalohija |page=217 |isbn=985-458-098-9 |language=be}}</ref>

== History ==
Iwye was historically a multiethnic and religiously diverse settlement with a Jewish majority. Beginning in the 15th century, the area was settled by Jews, [[Roman Catholics]], [[Eastern Orthodox Christians]], and Muslim [[Lipka Tatars]].<ref name="Bill & Lewis p. 236">{{cite book |last1=Bill |first1=Stanley |last2=Lewis |first2=Simon |title=Multicultural Commonwealth: Poland-Lithuania and Its Afterlives |date=14 November 2023 |publisher=[[University of Pittsburgh Press]] |isbn=978-0-8229-9019-2 |page=236 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Multicultural_Commonwealth/W5UFEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=I%C5%ADje&pg=PT236&printsec=frontcover |access-date=15 June 2025 |language=en}}</ref> There was also an [[Arianism|Arian]] community in Iwye in the 16th century.<ref>{{cite book |title=Belarus: pages of history |date=15 May 2022 |publisher=Litres |isbn=978-5-04-162594-8 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Belarus_pages_of_history/UDIVEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=I%C5%ADje&pg=PA120&printsec=frontcover |page=120 |access-date=15 June 2025 |language=en}}</ref> Iwye's population was over three-quarters Jewish by 1938, and the town had a [[Tarbut]] school, an [[association football]] team, a fire brigade, a theater, and an orchestra.<ref name="Bill & Lewis p. 236"/>

The Jewish community of Iwye was devastated by the mass killings of the [[Holocaust]] during [[World War II]]. In 1942, [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] troops executed 2,500 Jews [[Execution by shooting|by shooting]] in the nearby forest of Stonevichi, while 1,000 were confined to a [[ghetto]] in the town's north.<ref name="Bill & Lewis p. 236"/> A small group of 80 Jews survived by hiding or joining local [[Partisan (military)|partisans]] in their fight against the Nazis. The [[railway]] line from [[Lida]] to [[Maladzyechna]], which stopped at Iwye and was used by the Nazis, was destroyed by partisans during the war.<ref>{{cite news |title=Неуловимый «Балтиец», или Партизанская одиссея Ивана Пролыгина |trans-title=The Elusive 'Baltiets', or the Partisan Odyssey of Ivan Prolygin |url=https://lidanews.by/news/80-let-velikoy-pobedy/34807news.html |access-date=20 June 2025 |work=Lida News |language=ru}}</ref> After the war ended, the Holocaust survivors were "repatriated" to [[Poland]], as control over Iwye changed from [[Second Polish Republic|prewar Poland]] to the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="Bill & Lewis p. 236"/> Seven Jewish families remained in Iwye until the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991, and they all moved to [[Israel]] soon thereafter. In 2009, the Belarusian government opened a museum in Iwye commemorating the town's Jewish history.{{sfn|Bill|Lewis|2023|p=237}}

== Architecture ==
The architecture of Iwye has been influenced by the Lipka Tatar community in particular, with the wooden mosque remaining a landmark of the town and Iwye bearing the nickname "the Tatar capital of Belarus". The mosque was built in 1882 and was the only mosque in the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic]].<ref name="Bill & Lewis p. 236"/>

The [[Saints Peter and Paul Church, Iwye|Saints Peter and Paul Church]] is a Roman Catholic church protected by the Belarusian government as part of the country's "historical and cultural heritage".<ref>{{cite web|title=List of protected monuments in Iwye District|url=http://ivje.gov.by/ru/region/history/istkultcennost|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714123738/http://ivje.gov.by/ru/region/history/istkultcennost|archive-date=14 July 2014|website=Official Site of Iwye District|language=ru}}</ref>

== Demographics ==
There are 6,906 people living in Iwye {{as of|2025|lc=yes}}.<ref name="pop">{{cite web|url=https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/solialnaya-sfera/naselenie-i-migratsiya/naselenie/statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_148168/|title=Численность населения на 1 января 2025 г. и среднегодовая численность населения за 2024 год по Республике Беларусь в разрезе областей, районов, городов, поселков городского типа|trans-title=Population as of 1 January 2025 and average annual population for 2024 in the Republic of Belarus by regions, districts, cities, and urban-type settlements|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250329210112/https://www.belstat.gov.by/ofitsialnaya-statistika/solialnaya-sfera/naselenie-i-migratsiya/naselenie/statisticheskie-izdaniya/index_148168/|archive-date=29 March 2025|website=belsat.gov.by|publisher=[[Government of Belarus]]|access-date=8 May 2025|language=ru}}</ref>

== Notable people ==
* [[Chaim Ozer Grodzinski]] (1863–1940), rabbi of Vilnius<ref name="glimpses">{{cite news|last=Sorasky|first=Aharon|author-link=Aharon Sorasky|title=Glimpses of Greatness: Reb Chaim Ozer ''Is'' Klal Yisrael|work=[[Hamodia]] Features|date=22 July 2010|page=C3}}</ref>
* [[Moshe Shatzkes]] (1881–1958), rabbi of Iwye<ref name="YU">{{cite web |title=Harav Hagaon R. Moshe Shatzkes ZT"L 1882–1958 |url=https://www.yu.edu/riets/about/mission-history/historic-roshei/moshe-shatzkes |website=YU.EDU |publisher=[[Yeshiva University]] |access-date=16 December 2020}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany]]

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{JewishGen-LocalityPage|1943674|Iwye, Belarus}}

{{Grodno Region}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Iwye| ]]
[[Category:Lipka Tatar communities]]
[[Category:Lipka Tatars of Belarus]]
[[Category:Historic Jewish communities in Belarus]]
[[Category:Holocaust locations in Belarus]]