Motal

Motal Моталь / Мотоль
Motal Location in Belarus
Coordinates:
Country	Belarus
Voblast	Brest Voblast
Raion	Ivanava Raion
Government
Elevation	280.4 m (919.9 ft)
Population (2014)
• Total	3,772
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	225822
Area code(s)	+375 1652

Motol (Belarusian: Моталь, Russian: Мотоль, Polish: Motol, Yiddish: מאָטעלע‎) is a township in Ivanava Raion of Brest Region located about 30 kilometres west of Pinsk on the Yaselda River in Belarus.

History

Motal was in the Kobryn Uezd of Grodno Governorate until the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917. Between World War I and World War II it was in the Drahichyn county of the Polish Polesie Voivodeship. It is near the center of Polesia which constituted an irregular rectangle of roughly 110 miles from east to west and 50 miles from north to south.

Motal was a Shtetl. In 1937, Motal had 4,297 inhabitants, of whom 1,354 were Jews. (Reinharz, 1985).

The Destruction of Motele (Hurban Motele) was published in Hebrew by the Council of Motele Immigrants in Jerusalem in 1956. It was edited by A.L. Poliak, Ed. Dr. Dov Yarden. The book has 87 pages and contains memoirs and events leading up to the destruction of the Jews of Motele in 1942.

Economics

The largest company in Motol is Agromotol.

Education

Motol has 2 secondary schools and an art school.

Notable people

Chaim Weizmann

• Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first President, was born here
• Saul Lieberman, rabbi and a scholar of Talmud
• Leonard Chess (Lejzor Czyz) and Phil Chess (Fiszel Czyz), founders of Chess Records

Sources

• Jehuda Reinharz, Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Zionist Leader (1985).
• Itzhak Epstein, pdf Jewish Motol: Genealogical and Family History Bibliography

External links

• Photos at radzima.org
• Shtetl Links: Motol Home Page