Slutsk is one of the oldest cities in Belarus, rich in history and cultural heritage. The Jewish community existed here for several centuries, leaving a deep mark on the history of the city. Its heyday was in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the tragedy of World War II became a terrible page in the fate of the Jewish population of Slutsk. However, the memory of the Jewish community lives on in the architecture, history and the descendants of those who once filled the city streets with life.

The first Jews appeared in Slutsk in the 16th century, when the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was ruled by King Sigismund II Augustus. As in other cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Jews were granted the right to reside there and were engaged in trade, crafts, and finance. By the 18th century, the Jewish community of Slutsk had become a significant force in the economic and cultural life of the city.
The Jewish community developed especially in the 19th century, when the number of Jews in Slutsk was more than half of the population. Jews opened shops, workshops, owned cloth factories, mills and bakeries. Trade was the main source of income, and Slutsk Jews supplied goods far beyond the borders of Belarus.
The community also paid special attention to education. The city had cheders, yeshivos, synagogues, and secular schools where both religious subjects and sciences were taught. One of the famous centers of Jewish education in Slutsk was the local yeshiva, which educated many outstanding rabbis and thinkers.
In 1905, pogroms against Jews organized by the Black Hundreds took place in Slutsk. Despite this, the Jewish community continued to develop.
After the October Revolution of 1917, many Jews became involved in political life, some supported the Soviet regime, while others emigrated. The Soviet regime changed the way of life of Jews: religion was prohibited, synagogues were closed, and Jewish entrepreneurs faced confiscation of property. However, during the 1920s and 1930s, there were Yiddish-language schools in Slutsk, as well as cultural clubs.
The real tragedy of the Jewish community of Slutsk unfolded during the Second World War. In June 1941, German troops occupied the city. Almost immediately, persecution of Jews began: they were deprived of their property, resettled in ghettos, and then mass exterminated. In October 1941, a terrible act of mass extermination of Jews was carried out in Slutsk - thousands of men, women and children were shot in the outskirts of the city. In total, about 10,000 Jews from Slutsk were killed during the Holocaust. This marked the end of centuries of Jewish life in the city.
After the war, the Jewish community in Slutsk never revived on its former scale. Only a few survivors returned to the city, but already in the Soviet years many of them left for other regions of the USSR, Israel and the USA.
Despite this, there is still a Jewish community in Slutsk, although it is very small. The community actively participates in city events, organizes cultural and educational programs, and also maintains the memory of Slutsk's Jewish history.