Holiday Highlights: Festive Purim Celebrations Brighten up Moscow’s Winter
Thousands of people took part in more than a hundred different events that were held in Moscow over Purim this year, including events and Megillah readings held in synagogues,Jewish community centers, educational institutions, and various prisons around Moscow. Major programs were held at the Jewish Center and the Central Synagogue Marina Roscha, headed by Russia’s […]
FSU Children’s ‘Mega Purim’ Raises Money for Charity
Over a thousand dollars were collected by FSU Jewish children and teenagers as part of FJC’s Mega Purim fundraiser conducted over the holiday in the region. The money, $1,290 in total, is being donated to the LifeChanger FSU project, where it will go towards medicine and rehabilitation for 11-year old Ilareon, one of LifeChanger’s participants, […]
New Jewish College Club Opens in Moscow
A new college Jewish club opened at Moscow’s prestigious School of Economics university last week. Over 250 students registered for the club that will host cultural and social events, organize lectures and classes. The newly opened Jewish club joined the family of other ethnic organizations at the university that include clubs for students of various […]
Purim in Sumy – Under The Sea!
Continuing their yearly tradition, the Jewish community in Sumy, Ukraine – headed by Rabbi Yechiel S. and Mrs. Rochi Levitansky, transformed their Synagogue building into an ‘Under the sea’ Purim celebration. In an uplifting atmosphere 150 community members from all ages, participated and fulfilled the four special commandments of Purim. As the guests entered the building, they were […]
Vladivostok Jews Remember Communist Oppression in Purim Celebrations
The Jewish community of Vladivostok, Russian furthest South-East port city on the Pacific ocean, chose a Soviet theme for the holiday’s masquerade on Sunday, to underline Purim’s miracle of turning the darkest of times into a period of light and hope. “Soviet symbolism may seem as a strange choice for the holiday’s celebration to some […]
Israeli Opposition Leader Visits Jewish Moscow
Israeli Opposition Leader and head of the Zionist Union party, Mr. Isaac (Bougie) Herzog was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Parliament to visit Moscow. During his visit he toured the Jewish Museum and Tolerance center, the Jewish ‘Chesed’ Center and other Jewish institutions. He was greeted by the Chief Rabbi […]
Hundreds of Purim Activities Planned in the FSU
Ahead of the Purim holiday celebrations, taking place next Sunday and Monday this year, FJC Jewish communities and organizations are planning hundreds of festive meals and charity events, as well as youth projects, traditional carnivals and celebrations throughout the entire FSU. Every community, whether big or small, will have a reading of the scroll of […]
EnerJew Teens Join Worldwide Jewish Youth Event
A group of 21 Jewish Russian teenagers from the EnerJew youth movement, joined a global Jewish youth gathering in New York last week and returned home infused with energy. This was the first time teenagers from Russia participated in the event, called C-Teen, which took place for 9th consecutive year. The three-day gathering brought together […]
Discovering Roots and History is Fun in Rostov’s Or Avner
FJC’s Or Avner school in Rostov-on-Don, in the south of Russia, together with the city’s Jewish community presented its students with a cool research project recently, asking them to take a close look at the Jewish history and culture of the region, which counts as one of most influential centers of Jewish life in Russia […]
Searching For Kosher Food Where The Soviets Made A Jewish State
By Daniel J. Solomon | forward.com Observant Jews in far-flung locales face difficulty in getting kosher food, but perhaps nowhere is the challenge more acute than in Siberia’s Birobidzhan region, where a community of a few thousand — the remnant of a failed Soviet experiment in creating a Jewish mini-state – is trying to procure […]