The city of Bobruysk was once a typical Belarusian shtetl. In 1897, 20759 Jews lived here (60,5% of the population), while in 1926, the Jewish community had a population of 21558 (42%).

To form an image of what a Jewish city once looked like, explore the downtown area of Dzerjinsky Street and its marketplace. Stroll down Karl Marx Street and Komsomolskaya Street with their typical balconies, then take Socialistitcheskaya Street, which had a synagogue at numbers 34-35, now the site of a clothing workshop. Finally, be sure to explore the crowded Tchongarskaya Street, on which another synagogue once stood at number 31, in ruins today. Downtown as a whole resembles certain old photos of Jewish villages -without their inhabitants, however, as the majority have either died or moved away.

The Jewish cemetery is located outside the city along the route to Minsk (Minskaya Street), on the right just upon leaving town. It is huge for such a small city, and well maintained and still much visited.