24 | APRIL 20 • 2023 

S

ome educators 
leave a legacy to 
their students. 
History teacher Gennadiy 
Grigorievich Bosovets of 
David-Horodok in Belarus 
takes it one 
inspirational 
step further. 
He initiated the 
creation of a 
monument in 
remembrance 
of the Jewish 
descendants of 
David-Horodok 
in the town square. 
Many of the descendants 

today, fondly known as 
David-Horodokers, live in 
Metro Detroit. The Detroit 
David-Horodok Organization 
has 600 families on the 
mailing list, while the Israeli 
David-Horodok Organization 
has 200. Both groups 
include members worldwide 
and include second- and 
third-generation Holocaust 
survivors. David-Horodok, 
Davyd-Haradok and David-
Goradok are just some of the 
spellings of the town.
According to the website 
Shtetl Routes, the city was 
named after Prince David, 

grandson of Yaroslav the 
Wise and founded in 1100 
with Jews settling in the 
1500s. The Jewish community 
flourished in the 1800s, with 
three synagogues. Due to 
pogroms and antisemitism 
in Russia, many of the 
descendants left during the 
late 1800s and continued to 
leave until 1939. 
From 1921 to 1939, 

David-Horodok was part of 
Poland, and afterwards the 
city became part of Russia. 
The Nazis entered the town 
in 1941 and shot 7,000 men, 
women and children in the 
forest. When the Soviets 
entered the town in 1944, 
no Jews were left in David-
Horodok. 
Today, there are no Jewish 
residents in the city.
But the memory of the 
Jewish presence is alive, 
thanks to historians and 
David-Horodokers. At the 
mass grave site, there is a 
monument established by 
the Israeli organization in 
2009. Bosovets teaches his 
students about the area. 
When he noticed the path to 
the memorial was difficult for 
visitors to reach, he conceived 
the idea to construct another 
sculpture in the city center. 
This project was funded by 
both the Detroit and Israeli 
organizations of descendants 
of David-Horodok.
The new sculpture not only 
marks the path to the mass 

A Sculpture of 
Remembrance 
and Hope

OUR COMMUNITY

A history teacher ignites the 
flame remembering the Jewish 
descendants of the small town 
of David-Horodok, Belarus.

The wood 
and granite 
sculpture, by 
local artisan 
Sergey Zhilevich, 
has a carving 
of a father and 
son on one side 
and a mother 
and daughter 
on the other.

David-Horodok history 
teacher Gennadiy 
Grigorievich Bosovets 
with his students at 
the sculpture in the 
town square.

Carla 
Schwartz
Contributing 
Writer

