There is no reliable historical data on when Jews settled in Klimavichy, a small regional center in the Mogilev region (Belarus). In the 1764 census conducted by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Klimavichy was then in its possession), no mention of Jews was found. The first documentary references to them began to appear after the town became part of the Russian Empire in 1772 and became the county center of the Mogilev province. And if in 1780 there were only 6 inhabitants of Jewish nationality in Klimavichy, then after a few years Jews took an active part in the management of the city. So, in 1784, 2 Jews sat in the city magistrate, and the mayor was also a Jew. According to archival data, in 1787 already 1,200 Jews lived in Klimavichy.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish population of the city was mainly engaged in various crafts and small trade. In 1910, there were 5 synagogues in Klimavichy, of which 2 were Hasidic. Before the First World War, Jews in the city owned drugstores, bakeries, all hotels, about 70 various shops and stores.

During the period of Soviet rule, from 1917 until the beginning of the Second World War, the Jewish population of the city decreased markedly. So, as of 1926, about 2600 Jews (40% of all residents) lived in the city, and before the war, in 1939 - 1679 (17.6%). Many (especially young people) traveled to large industrial cities to work and study.

The Germans occupied Klimavichy in early August 1941. By this time, there were few Jews left in the city, and those who were still trying to leave were returned by the Germans. The Jews were forced to sew white stars on their clothes and were forbidden to leave their place of residence. The so-called 'Judenrat' was created, which was supposed to convey the orders of the Germans to the Jews and be responsible for their implementation. The occupiers imposed an indemnity on the Jewish community and forced 12 of its most respected members to go from house to house and persuade fellow tribesmen to give gold and valuables to the Germans. But the Jews refused to give up their property, and for this the Germans shot all 12 envoys. In the course of implementing their Nazi program to exterminate the Jews, the Nazis created a ghetto in Klimavichy, in which more than 900 people were killed between August and November 1941.

In September 1943, Soviet troops drove the Germans out of the city, thus ending its more than 2-year occupation by the Nazis. According to the archives, only 15 Jews of the city managed to survive during the occupation. Some of the Jews returned to their hometown after the war, but many of its inhabitants either died in the meat grinder of the war or remained to live in other regions of the USSR. A memorial sign was erected at the site of the execution of Jews in the 1950s.

After the war, the remaining small Jewish community of Klimavichy secretly gathered in private houses for prayers and Torah reading. Many of those Jews who still remained to live in Klimavichy in the post-war years left for Israel or Western countries.