MOSCOW (JTA) – Years after Russian immigration to Israel dipped and then plateaued, the global economic downturn appears to be sending it higher again.
Submitted by Jonathan Mark on Wed, 06/02/2010 - 19:01
"Any dispute that is for the sake of Heaven (l'shaim Shamayim) will have a constructive outcome, but one that is not for the sake of Heaven will not have a constructive outcome" [Pirkei Avot 5:20].
Limmud Moscow drew more than 550 young Jews from the Russian capital and other cities earlier this month for three days of intensive Jewish learning, discussing and socializing. One conference theme was Jewish Nobel Prize winners from Russia and Israel, and among those represented were Yitzchak Rabin (by his daughter, Dalia), Shimon Peres (by his daughter, Tsvia Walden) and Menachem Begin (by Herzl Makov, director of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center). Limmud FSU was founded four years ago by Chaim Chesler of Israel, Michael Chlenov of Russia and Sandy Cahn of New York.
Submitted by Jonathan Mark on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 14:32
Something Vicious: This is the ultimate extention of British Mandate-Obama Mandate logic. The UK has banned an ad for Israeli tourism because it shows the Western Wall. The Kotel, of course, was always part of Israel. Where else would the Temple have been built?
MOSCOW (JTA) – As the capital of Kyrgyzstan erupted in violence Wednesday, members of the Central Asian nation’s small Jewish community held their breath and sat tight.
The ORT school in the capital, Bishkek, shuttered its doors, sending students home just as they were returning from their Passover break. With public transportation suspended and the city in disarray, only three people made it to morning services at the local synagogue. Meanwhile, Jewish community leaders exchanged frantic phone calls, updating each other about the situation on the street.
Yanukovich’s victory welcomed cautiously by community.
02/25/2010
Anna Rudnitskaya
JTA
Moscow — In a country where anxieties about anti-Semitism are never far from the surface, Viktor Yanukovich’s victory in Ukraine’s presidential election is being welcomed with caution by Ukrainian Jews.
Yanukovich, who has close ties to the Kremlin, replaces Viktor Yushchenko, his West-leaning rival who won five years ago in a second runoff election between the candidates. Widespread protests claiming fraud in favor of Yanukovich in the original runoff spurred the rematch. The pro-democracy protests became known as the Orange Revolution.
Vitaly Komar, clad in all black, huffed up the stairs of the Center for Jewish History with a reporter in tow. “I like this place,” said the one half of an internationally known Russian artist team. “It’s like a club house, not white and antiseptic like most museums that can feel like a hospital.”
Charles Rosen’s story begins like that of a typical son of Jewish immigrants. His mother and father came to the States as children, “my father from Moscow, my mother from near Odessa, a place that’s now part of Romania,” he says. He remembers that his maternal grandmother didn’t speak any English, “only Yiddish when I was around. She kept kosher and she wouldn’t eat with us except a hard-boiled egg.”
The buzzword in business circles is synergy. That’s what JDub Records was looking for when the not-for-profit label began to think about its third annual Chanukah event. And when Rabbi Daniel Brenner, the vice president for education at the Birthright Israel Foundation, told JDub heads Aaron Bisman and Jacob Harris that he was interested in doing a project with them, the buzz of synergy filled the air.
Olga Glebova identifies herself as part of a distinguished and highly regarded class in Russia, hailing, she says, from “a very old, noble Russian family.” Like much of the country, she’s also Russian Orthodox, a faith whose leaders have often been at odds with Russian Jewry.
But Glebova, an English teacher in Moscow, tries to discuss the Holocaust as much as possible at the high school in which she works.
