Upon annexation of Belarusian lands, Russian czars included the territory into the so-called Pale of Settlement, a western border region of Imperial Russia in which the permanent residence of Jews was allowed.
By the end of the 19th century, many Belarusian Jews were part of the general flight of Jews from Eastern Europe to the New World due to conflicts and pogroms engulfing the Russian Empire and the anti-Semitism of the Russian czars.