Lag Baomer in Kharkov – Despite all odds
Kharkov, Ukraine – Hundreds joined in a celebration of unity and pride in honor of Lag Baomer, with a bigger crowd than ever before despite the political uncertainty in the country.The parade began on the Belgorodskiy Highway where the Mayor Of Kharkov Gennadiy Kernes was shot just three weeks earlier. Thousands of people watched in […]
Under tight security, Odessa Jews celebrate Lag Ba’omer
By JTA The participants gathered near the city’s FJC ‘Or Avner’ Jewish school on Saturday evening for a bonfire accompanied by song and dances while a dozen guards secured the perimeter. Hundreds of Odessa Jews celebrated Lag Ba’omer under guard in the city’s first large Jewish gathering since deadly riots there two weeks ago. The […]
Jewish Revival Gains Ground With Russia’s University Students
by Rena Greenberg – Bratislava, Slovakia Mikhail Runkin, a 26 year old university student from Yekaterinburg Russia, was nervous. He hadn’t imagined that he’d share one of life’s intimate milestones in a public setting. But on a recent Friday night, as he celebrated Shabbat dinner with 300 students, rabbis and lecturers, including the Chief Rabbi of Russia, […]
Siberian contestants achieve first place
Alina and Tatiana, both from the city of Omsk, are the grand winners of the first historic annual ‘Darkeinu Olympic’ Jewish Heritage Quiz, which took place earlier this month at the JCC of Moscow and was attended by representatives from 36 different Jewish schools from seven different FSU states. More than 550 pupils from 36 of the […]
FJC presents: How to say the Traveler’s Prayer?
New: the FJC is proud to present its new special Video production, sponsored by the Leviev foundation, explaining and visualizing in spoken Russian how easy and simple it is to recite the Traveler’s Prayer. The Video is the seventh out of a series of productions soon to become available, which will assist the FJC in […]
Turbulence in Odessa Leaves Dozens Dead; Jewish Community Stays Put
By Dovid Margolin Chabad.org The thick smell of fire and smoke enveloped Rabbi Avraham Wolff and his congregants as they stepped out of the synagogue in Odessa, Ukraine, last Friday evening. Violence had suddenly broken out earlier in the afternoon, but few could have foreseen the kind of destruction that rained down upon the famed Black Sea port city […]
Odessa Jewish community mulls emergency evacuation
‘Future looking very violent,’ fears local rabbi; Jewish community hunkers down, tries to ride out the storm. Odessa’s Jews are prepared to evacuate should the violence in the western Ukrainian city get significantly worse, several community leaders told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. Odessa’s Jewish community numbers some 30,000, down from nearly 40 percent of […]
Kharkov Mayor Wakes, Speaks and Begins Recovery at Israeli Hospital
The Jewish mayor of Kharkov, Ukraine, is conscious and recovering at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, confirmed Kharkov’s chief rabbi and Chabad emissary, Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz. Gennady Kernes, who has served as mayor of the second-largest city in Ukraine since 2010, was shot by an unknown assailant last week while on his regular […]
Emergency Defense Plan: Ukrainian Jewry must be protected
The horrific rapid development of violence on the streets of Ukraine’s cities is threatening to instantly explode into a bitter civil war, placing the lives of innocent civilians and the vulnerable Jewish communities at extremely high risk. The FJC has instructed its representatives to immediately implement its emergency defense plan, despite the high cost, and […]
Rostov Remembers Holocaust Victims as Jews
In Rostov-on-Don, as many as 300—both Jews and non-Jews—were present when a plaque at the Zmievskaya Balka memorial site was finally replaced. In a compromise between the Jewish community and local government, the plaque now identifies Zmievskaya Balka as the site of the largest mass killing of Jews by Nazis in Russian territory. In August […]