Belarusian Yelsk has been known in sources since the 16th century. The Jewish community appeared here at the end of the 19th century. By the 1930s, just over 1,000 Jews lived in the city. In the 21st century, only a few Jews remained in Yelsk. There is no registered Jewish community.

There are two Jewish cemeteries in Yelsk: old and new. The old one functioned until the middle of the twentieth century, and then it was closed. In the 2000s, local Jews appealed to the executive committee with a demand to put the old cemetery in order. This caused bewilderment, both among representatives of the regional authorities and local residents.

Since the 1950s, no one has been buried at the cemetery, and there are no relatives left to care for the graves. Nevertheless, several years of efforts yielded results and the cemetery was put in order at the expense of budget funds. The authorities set a condition that the external fence and the establishment of order will be carried out at the expense of budget funds, and the care of the territory inside the Yelsk Jews will pay at the expense of attracted funds.

Local residents had to raise money, look for sponsors abroad, and monitor the progress of the work in order to bring the started improvement to the end.

Local Jews did not stop at the improvement and achieved from the regional authorities that a monument to the perished Jews of Yelsk was erected at the cemetery at the expense of budgetary funds. This is how the old cemetery acquired additional memorial value.

The new cemetery has been cataloged. Descriptions of more than 150 graves are available on the Web. One of the earliest burials included in the catalog is dated 1951. This is the grave of Fruman Isaac Aharonovich (1900-1951). The last burials date back to the 2010s. One belongs to Mikhail Arkadievich Kotik (1950-2011), the other belongs to Yakov Mikhailovich Gekhman (1926-2014), and the third to Fira Yakovlevna Gekhman (1927-2015).

The dates of life and burial have not been preserved on several graves. These are the burials of Erenburg Maria Yankelevna, Feldman Rakhil Evseevna and Neister Ekaterina Yanovna. At the grave of Katsman Vera Lvovna, only the date of birth - 1926 - has been preserved. In addition, only the date of birth - 1897 was preserved on the monument to Mats Mary Izrailevna.

There are graves in the cemetery where anthroponomical data are not fully preserved. In particular, the grave on which you can read only "Khaya Moiseevna". Date of birth has not been preserved. At the same time, the date of burial remained - 1978.