The city of Brest-Litovsk, which is located in Belarus of the former Soviet Union and borders Poland, was actually called 'Brisk' by the local Jews.

Brisk was established in 1090\4850 and during the 14th century Jews began settling in the city. The Jewish settlement reached its peak right before WWII, when Brisk served as a spiritual center of Torah for Jews all around Lithuania.
Among the biggest Jewish leaders of Brisk one can find the Maharshal – Rabbi Shlomo Luria, the Bach – Rabbi Yoel Sirkis, Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin and Rabbi Yosef Dov Ber and his son, Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik who established the 'Brisker Yeshiva' in the city. Yeshivas Brisk which exists today in Jerusalem was not named after this Yeshiva, rather, after the Yeshiva in Volozhin, where Rabbi Soloveitchik served as Rosh Yeshiva. The head of Yeshivas Brisk of today is Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Soloveitchik - a fourth generation descendant of Rabbi Chaim, and is currently one of the most prominent Yeshivas of our time.

Brisk was the largest Jewish community in the 'Council of the Lithuanian Countries' which was established in 1623\5383, and in the year of 1897\5657 over 30,000 Jews lived in the city, a number that represented more than 75 percent of the total population.

The Jewish community of Brisk was unfortunately wiped out during WWII (1939-1945\5699-5705) and on April 28th, 1944 – the 5th of Iyar, 5704, merely twenty Jews were found hiding in the city.

The total population of Brest-Litovsky as of today stands at 312,950 people.