Grisha, we are ready! Bring us to an important Belarusian historical moment. We buckle up (yes we decided to make our time traveling a bit more comfortable and put in some chairs and seat belts in Grisha), and shake our way to our new adventure.
We open the door and see that we have landed in a beautiful large living room where three men look at us with shocked and amazed eyes. One of the man is sitting on a chair and seems to be very sick and old. We wave at them shyly, understanding that this must be a very strange happening for them. Marta musters her courage and tells them that we are time travelers who are brought to this specific important moment in Belarusian history from the year 2017. The men now look like they are about to faint. One asks the other, do you see what I see? The other one replies, I think so..
After giving them a bit more time to overcome this shock, we ask them who they are and in what century we have landed? One of the three man answers that it is the year 1519 and that we have the weird pleasure to meet with Avram, Isaac, and Michael Ezofovich in the city of Vilna. Ah so you are three brothers, Masha asked. Yes, that is a good guess, our strange visitors.
When things got a bit more relaxed, we started to ask them who they are and whether they could maybe introduce themselves a bit more in depth. Suddenly we hear a knock on the door and a man wearing Kings clothing stands in front of the door. All brothers even the sick looking Avram, stand up and greet this ‘King like figure’ and addresses him as Grand Duke of Lithuania, (King) Sigismund I. Wow, we get very excited and want to know what this meeting is all about. Who are these people and why is the King himself visiting them? We sit down quietly in the corner and listen in to their stories.
So we hear them talk about the big economic success of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and that the King himself thanks especially the sick and probably dying brother Avram Ezofovich for helping in this big success. We find out that this Avram Ezofovich is a very wealthy and powerful Jewish man who is the minister of finance for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania! Because of Avram the tax system was established and he made a lot of other positive economic changes possible that he mostly financed out of his own pocket! He even borrowed the state and King money to finance many economic reforms.
We also find out that not only Avram but also his brothers had large impact on the economic prosperity of Grand Duchy of Lithuania during and after the death of Avram. All three are great entrepreneurs who really cared about the state of this great kingdom.
Another interesting learning we get from this very special meeting is that during the biggest part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania people were judged by their actions and not by their religion. The Jewish people during this time were considered as part of the society, and partially because of their entrepreneurial spirit the Grand Duchy of Lithuania could flourish the way it did.
It has been a very inspiring day for us. We learned new things about the Belarusian history and were happy to see how Avram Ezofovich and his two brothers could make a great impact in the kingdom and this time is called ‘the Golden Century’ in the Belarusian history! We will remember Avram Ezofovich as the first economic reformer on Belarusian lands and his brothers who brought big change and prosperity to Belarus in the 16th century!
We are heading back to Grisha and forward to a new adventure!
***We would like to give our special thanks to Zachar Shybeka, a Belarusian historian and professor, expert on this topic for providing us with information and guidance.
Read more about Belarus on our newest platform HiFive Belarus!
We open the door and see that we have landed in a beautiful large living room where three men look at us with shocked and amazed eyes. One of the man is sitting on a chair and seems to be very sick and old. We wave at them shyly, understanding that this must be a very strange happening for them. Marta musters her courage and tells them that we are time travelers who are brought to this specific important moment in Belarusian history from the year 2017. The men now look like they are about to faint. One asks the other, do you see what I see? The other one replies, I think so..
After giving them a bit more time to overcome this shock, we ask them who they are and in what century we have landed? One of the three man answers that it is the year 1519 and that we have the weird pleasure to meet with Avram, Isaac, and Michael Ezofovich in the city of Vilna. Ah so you are three brothers, Masha asked. Yes, that is a good guess, our strange visitors.
When things got a bit more relaxed, we started to ask them who they are and whether they could maybe introduce themselves a bit more in depth. Suddenly we hear a knock on the door and a man wearing Kings clothing stands in front of the door. All brothers even the sick looking Avram, stand up and greet this ‘King like figure’ and addresses him as Grand Duke of Lithuania, (King) Sigismund I. Wow, we get very excited and want to know what this meeting is all about. Who are these people and why is the King himself visiting them? We sit down quietly in the corner and listen in to their stories.
So we hear them talk about the big economic success of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and that the King himself thanks especially the sick and probably dying brother Avram Ezofovich for helping in this big success. We find out that this Avram Ezofovich is a very wealthy and powerful Jewish man who is the minister of finance for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania! Because of Avram the tax system was established and he made a lot of other positive economic changes possible that he mostly financed out of his own pocket! He even borrowed the state and King money to finance many economic reforms.
We also find out that not only Avram but also his brothers had large impact on the economic prosperity of Grand Duchy of Lithuania during and after the death of Avram. All three are great entrepreneurs who really cared about the state of this great kingdom.
Another interesting learning we get from this very special meeting is that during the biggest part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania people were judged by their actions and not by their religion. The Jewish people during this time were considered as part of the society, and partially because of their entrepreneurial spirit the Grand Duchy of Lithuania could flourish the way it did.
It has been a very inspiring day for us. We learned new things about the Belarusian history and were happy to see how Avram Ezofovich and his two brothers could make a great impact in the kingdom and this time is called ‘the Golden Century’ in the Belarusian history! We will remember Avram Ezofovich as the first economic reformer on Belarusian lands and his brothers who brought big change and prosperity to Belarus in the 16th century!
We are heading back to Grisha and forward to a new adventure!
***We would like to give our special thanks to Zachar Shybeka, a Belarusian historian and professor, expert on this topic for providing us with information and guidance.
Read more about Belarus on our newest platform HiFive Belarus!
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