Mir, Belarus
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Mir is a town in Karelichy raion, Hrodna voblast, Belarus () about 85 km southwest of Minsk.
Mir village was founded sometime prior to 1345. It is home to a late medieval castle, which made the town the target of many attacks over the centuries. Mir's claim to fame in recent history, is that it is the original home of the Mir Yeshiva which operated there intermittently from 1815 until the fall of Poland in 1939.
Today Mir has little industry and is no longer an internationally renowned center of Jewish learning. Home to about 2,500 people today, none of whom are descended from the once thriving Jewish community, its primary "attraction" is the great number of memorials erected by the Soviet government as well as by various Jewish groups over the past half century. Although originally a Polish village, the area where Mir is located was transferred to the Byelorussian SSR following World War II.
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