The article examines the foundation of the Belarusian State University in the early 1920s in the context of the multi-ethnic situation of the Belarusian Soviet Republic. Besides the conflict between the university as a centre for national cultures and its instrumentalisation in the creation of socialist cadres, a major focus is placed on the role of Jewish academics and Jewish officials in the design of the Belarusian State University and where they were to be located within that conflict.