Begin remembered in Belarus hometown

JTA — The late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was remembered in his Belarus hometown two months before what would have been his 100th birthday.

Some 200 people attended Tuesday’s ceremony in front of the building of the Tachkemoni School in Brest where Begin studied as a child, according to the event’s organizers from Limmud FSU, which organizes Jewish cultural events across the former Soviet Union.

The statement said the ceremony was the first of several events scheduled to take place this year in the region in memory of Begin, a Revisionist Zionist who fought the British presence in pre-state Israel and signed a peace deal with Egypt during his premiership from 1977 to 1983. He died in 1992; Begin would have turned 100 on Aug. 16.

“Begin is not only the most famous Jew to come out of Brest, but probably the most famous resident to ever live in the city,” said Chaim Chesler, the founder of Limmud FSU.

Begin, a founder of the Likud Party, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for reaching peace with Egypt as part of the Camp David Accords.