4
THE CHRONICLE
Tambov
Lipetsk
Orel
Kaluga
MOSCOW
Tula
Ryazan
Tver'
Kaliningrad
Novgorod
St. Petersburg
Black
Sea
Baltic Sea
FINLAND
SWEDEN
NY
NIA
ESTONIA
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
POLAND
BELARUS
UKRAINE
RUSSIA
Mogilev
Gomel
Polotsk
Vitebsk
Lida
Baranovichi
Grondo
Bobruisk
Simferapol
Vinnitsa Poltava
hough estimates vary on the total
Jewish population in the FSU, the
American Joint Distribution Committee
estimates that 1.5 million Jews live there.
Of that number, 78% live in Russia
(600,000),
the Ukraine (500,000), and
Belarus (75,000). Over the past 15 years,
the World Union for Progressive Judaism
(
WUPJ) has established almost 100
Progressive Jewish congregations in these
countries. However, only 3 Progressive rab-
bis serve the entire Jewish community of
the FSU. Lay leaders, some of whom train
in Moscow at the WUPJ’s Machon Institute
for training of Jewish community leaders,
lead the majority of the congregations.
With the great need for trained Jewish
Progressive leadership in mind, a group of
first-year HUC-JIR students realized their
dream: to celebrate Passover with 22 FSU
Reform/Progressive communities. The idea
for this trip was sparked months earlier,
during orientation to the Year-in-Israel pro-
gram, when the students were inspired by a
presentation made by Rabbi Grigory
Kotlyar (J ’01), who serves as a Progressive
rabbi in Moscow. Two first-year rabbinical
students, Ari Poster and Stacey Nolish, con-
ceptualized this project, approached the
WUPJ, and interested and organized fellow
students to join them. Their one-week trip
made a significant contribution to the
Jewish communities and left a lasting
impact on all involved. The students toured
towns that had once been centers of Jewish
learning and culture before the destruction
of the Holocaust and years of Soviet repres-
sion. They found Jewish life beginning to
thrive once again.
Sixteen first-year rabbinical, cantorial, and
education students at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem,
two of their spouses, and an Israeli HUC-
JIR rabbinical student led
seders
and
Shabbat
services, taught in Progressive kindergartens
and led children’s activities, and met with
congregational leaders, a
b’nai mitzvah
class,
and youth groups. This extraordinary pro-
gram was a true partnership with the WUPJ,
facilitated by Rabbi Joel Oseran, who is one
of the prime builders of the Progressive
Movement in the FSU.
Divided into groups of two or three, and
traveling by bus, car, and train up to 20
hours to reach towns spanning across
Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, each group
visited three cities on average and assisted
the Jewish communities with all aspects of
their religious and communal lives.
In Polotsk, Belarus, rabbinical students
Stacey Nolish, Mike Satz, and Jessica Oleon
participated in a
Chesed
program for the
elderly held in a building formerly the local
Communist headquarters, with its sign still
on the door. The students were moved by
this opportunity to celebrate the holiday of
liberation in the face of this symbol of a
regime that had denied Jews of their reli-
gious freedom.
In Baronovichi, Belarus, rabbinical student
Ari Poster and her husband, David Bigham,
visited a religious school in a former Jewish
shtetl
that had enrolled 200 students before
the Shoah. Today, 15 students are enrolled.
According to their tour guide, “These fif-
teen students’ families are reclaiming our
Celebrating Passover in
the Former Soviet Union:
The HUC-JIR Year-
in-Israel
Pesach
Partnership
by Ruth Friedman
Making a tablecloth for Jewish holidays
Seder in Chernovtsy
T