Jalowka

Jalowka (Narewka) was a town of the ethnic Poles, majority, and ethnic Belarusians as well as some Jews and possibly Muslim/Tatar minorities who were loyal to the tradition of the freedom as enjoyed under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the freedom that appeared even greater when under the 18th century Russia).
The Roman Catholic church, as a result of the failure of January Uprising of 1863–1864, was converted to the Eastern Orthodox church as punishment. Many Polish patriots were sent to Siberia as punishment, and some of their land was given to Russian soldiers (who within a couple generations became Polish patriots themselves and participated on the Polish side during the Polish-Soviet War of 1920). Many locals were forced to convert to Eastern Orthodox faith, but majority of the town later converted back to Catholicism. The Eastern Orthodox church was turned back into a Catholic church after World War I ended. Another church, Church of St Anthony, was destroyed during World War II, and has never been rebuilt. A large Catholic cemetery is near this church.

There was also a large population of Belarusians and/or the Eastern Orthodox and Jews (743 in 1878). Jews first came into the area in 1690 and there are two Jewish cemeteries in the vicinity.

ources

*http://kirkuty.xip.pl/jalowka.htm
*http://www.dziedzictwo.ekai.pl/@@jalowka_kosciol