A series of ceremonial events took place last week in Vishneyeva, Belarus, the hometown of Israeli President Shimon Peres, as a kick-off in celebrating his 90th birthday on August 2.
The ceremonies, organized in collaboration with the Belarus government, were held in the presence of Peres’s eldest daughter Tzvia Walden and were part of the Limmud FSU Festival which were held in Belarus over the weekend
As part of the events, a special permanent photo exhibition was opened on the life of President Peres and a plaque was revealed on the home that now sits on the lot where President Peres grew up.
The plaque reads: "In this place, Shimon Peres, son of Yitzhak and Sarah Perski, the Nobel Laureate and 9th President of the State of Israel, was born on August 2, 1923."
Right next to the house still stands the original water well which President Peres often speaks about how delicious the water was and how the taste still sticks with him today.
The town of Vishnyeva also held an emotional memorial service near the Valley of Death monument to commemorate the city’s 2,000 Jews that were murdered at the hands of the Nazis.