Jews in Russia

First of all, while the US has switched to daylight savings time, Russia has not, so we are only 7 hours apart for all of those who are dying to call me. Keep that in mind.

One big thing that has happened in the past few weeks is that I have started to explore the Jewish community in St. Petersburg. Two weeks ago I found the website for the Jewish community center here and saw that there is a reform synagogue housed there. I found this about an hour before Friday night services were supposed to start, so I trekked over there (about a 45 minute walk from my school) and found the building. The YESOD center, as it’s called, is a huge, gorgeous building, which was mostly financed by the Cleveland Jewish community. I got there but couldn’t quite figure out where services were located. So, like I would do in any synagogue, I found an old man wearing a kippah, and asked him where to go. He gladly directed me into this main room in the building. As soon as I entered, a woman who works with the congregation came up to me, asked me where I was from, etc. Everyone was so excited to have a young person visiting, especially from the states.

At the beginning of services, the Rabbi announced that there was a guest and started saying everything in both Russian and English (until someone told him that I understood Russian). In general, the service was a basic reform service, full with a keyboard player and a slightly out of tune cantor. It’s not really to my tastes at all, but it was nice to be in the community. There were probably about 20-25 people there, mostly older, but everyone who was there was really into being there. It was nice to see a congregation of dedicated people, even if most of them haven’t been practicing Judaism for very long.

After services, there was a small buffet of food (really popular with the older pensioners). One woman came over with a full plate of food for me since I was a guest, which I felt bad about eating, but did so as I was very hungry. I ended up talking to an American family (well, husband is American, wife emigrated to the US in 1989) who works with the US commerce department in Russia. They have been going to this synagogue for a few years and have really enjoyed it. In conclusion, I gave my name to people at the synagogue to get on their mailing address and hopefully be involved in the future.

Then, my parents found out that a friend from our synagogue is related to the person who is in charge of the FSU portion of the JDC (an organization that works with building diaspora Jewish communities). So, through this long chain I recently hooked up with the JDC in St. Petersburg. The representative had me over to his house for this last Shabbat, which was fantastic. They are Israeli, and the wife had cooked homemade everything: challah, gefilte fish, 10 different salads, chicken, meat, a non-dairy ice cream fantasy dessert, etc. We spent the night talking about everything; they told me a lot about their past 13 years of living in the FSU, from the days when the women in stores used abacuses to calculate the price total. They welcomed me back to their house at any time, and the husband is also going to arrange meetings for me with the heads of the YESOD so I can find volunteer opportunities, etc.

It’s been really nice to find a Jewish community because it’s a very easy place to fit in. Now I feel much more comfortable with the upcoming holidays, etc. It’s also nice to be making so many connections that might be useful for my future.