All-Russian Union of Jewish Students (RUJS)

Young volunteers of the All-Russian Union of Jewish Students delivered grocery sets to elderly members of the Samara community in Moscow. The Representative Office of the Samara Region supported the charity action initiated and held by the Representative Office of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress in Russia.

The All-Russian Union of Jewish Students continues a series of online meetings, organized jointly with the Jewish Agency for Israel (Sokhnut).

The representatives of Sokhnut, Yuri Shakhar and Roman Polonsky informed the students about the internship and study opportunities in Israel, the Israeli medical insurance system, and the history of the 1990s post-Soviet aliyah. The managing partner of the Israeli investment platform JSCapital, chief editor of the IT Business Week magazine, Roman Gold told the participants about Israel’s unique innovation ecosystem.

Hillel Russia

With the beginning of the self-isolation regime, Hillel Russia continues to support Jewish youth by organizing educational activities, coordinating volunteer activities and targeted assistance programs while involving activists as project leaders.

Online Hebrew study groups have started in Moscow and St. Petersburg preserving the dynamics of traditional classroom learning. In Moscow, the Alpha+ program brought together newcomers and those continuing the fall course. In St. Petersburg, online Hebrew lessons for beginners have started.

Hillel Russia supports World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors while also engaging students in commemorative events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazism.

In Khabarovsk and Yekaterinburg, volunteers delivered flowers and food packages to 58 veterans. In Yekaterinburg, young people gathered at ZOOM to sing their favorite songs from the World War II years together.

The World Shabbat, dedicated to the victory over Nazism, gathered 220 Russian-speaking students from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Azerbaijan. 

In Moscow, Hillel Russia gathered volunteers to decrypt documents, diaries, and letters collected by the Holocaust Foundation. In Yekaterinburg, the evening in memory of the Holocaust victims and heroes of the resistance concluded with a minute of silence.

Hillel CASE

As part of the Hillel Art Labs project, dozens of students took part in the workshops on creative thinking by the actress and director Julia Savina.

The regional Quiz Box games continue gaining popularity among the youth of Hillel. During this difficult period, the Quiz Box project, which combines fun and Jewish education, became the flagship and inspiration for other Jewish projects in the region. Dozens of teams from different countries take part in Quiz Box games.

Students of the CASE region took part in the World Shabbat initiative, which brought together Jewish youth from Khabarovsk to Baku. Over 170 connections in Zoom, over 100 views on FB.

The Limmud Brain Labs project attracted 35 teams and more than 150 participants to its traditional game.

The Be-in-Touch volunteer project has started helping single elderly members of the Jewish community, World War II veterans, and children with disabilities. The project operates in Minsk, Kiev, Dnieper, Kharkov, Odessa, and Lviv. Over the course of three months, students will deliver grocery packages as well as maintain regular communication with people who need support during this difficult period.

In total, over a thousand students take part in Hillel’s programs, including English and Hebrew study groups, educational and entertainment projects, quizzes, and flashmobs.

Representative office of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress in Central Asia (Mitsva Association)

The Torah study project “On the Road” continues its popular classes online. For more than 20 years, representatives of different generations have gathered to learn the wisdom of the Torah, and they didn’t stop now.

People from Kazakhstan, who had previously attended the classes at the Rimon Jewish Community Center, these days, resumed their participation online. Natalia Rynkovskaya, the longtime teacher of the project, notes that although classroom teaching is more effective, the recent online experience can be useful for conducting classes with an international audience.

The youngsters of the Pavlodar Jewish community were among the winners of the competition dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. The young leaders of the Merkaz ethnocultural association were the best in the creative contest “In Memory of the War Heroes”.

Ten young activists of the Jewish community of Almaty took part in the international flashmob honoring the Jerusalem Day. 200 peers from the CIS countries confessed their love to the capital of Israel, the spiritual center of the Jewish people.

During a series of lessons about Ashkenazi Jewish culture, young community leaders acquainted the traditions of Eastern European Jews as well as the atmosphere of Jewish shtetls. In August, the School of Madrichs’s students will conduct community classes dedicated to the unique culture of the Eastern European Jewry.

For two months now, the Shaat Hebrew Club is holding its lessons online. The audience of the Club has expanded significantly, including not only Almaty residents but also representatives of other Kazakhstan Jewish communities.

Dear friends, your perseverance and professional attitude make a difficult time much easier. Together, we can be stronger for those who need us.

All-Russian Union of Jewish Students

The All-Russian Union of Jewish Students (RUJS) hosted an online meeting with a deputy of the Russian Duma, a member of the State Duma Committee on Health, Boris Mendelevich.

Professor of Tel Aviv University, Director General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Dr. Haim Ben Yaakov, discussed with students the relationship between Jews and Judaism, nationality and religion.

In cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel (Sokhnut), RUJS held a webinar on internships and studies in Israel. The new online project for spoken Hebrew study is well underway.

Hillel CASE

Hillel Kharkov launched a new regional project “Hillel is everywhere”. Participants share excerpts from their favorite books, quotes, nigunim, and Jewish wisdom on the project’s Telegram channel. Each week, the coordinator of educational programs presents a weekly Torah portion. The number of project participants is growing every day.

More than 400 students took part in an online lecture and conversation with the renowned psychologist Igor Geller. The Hillel Talks project also hosted online meeting with Nathan Sharansky.

The Quiz Box intellectual marathon attracted 85 Jewish teams from seven countries. Congratulations go to Nathan and his team (Kiev) on their victory!

The Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony brought together students from the CASE region: 10 online broadcasts, 5 countries, and more than 450 participants! Every Saturday, people share hundreds of photos of their Shabbat celebration, and the Minsk Hillel members even recorded a special Shabbat song.

48 new teams took part in the new and extremely successful Limmud Brain Labs project, which gathered about 300 participants.

Проект Кешер

Project Kesher, an international women’s organization with representation in five countries, has switched to distance learning and communication with its participants. Now, the L’Dor v’Dor webinars bring together Jewish mothers and daughters from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Online classes, training, and masterclasses are aimed at strengthening family relations, Jewish learning, and community activism in local Jewish communities. The number of participants is growing from meeting to meeting.

Еврейская община Грузии 

The Jewish Cultural and Educational Foundation (JCC Tbilisi) twice a week offers online lessons for kids by the Shalom Sesame program and the Mishpakha family club meetings, including Jewish learning and Hebrew lessons. The Jewish University classes have moved online and continued as scheduled.

The Jewish Youth Club arranges regular Zoom-meetings, and the School of Madrihim offers online lectures weekly. Sunday school and sports training also continue online.

Еврейская община Молдовы

The Jewish community of Moldova launched a new Telegram channel reporting about the communal social and charitable activities during the coronavirus shutdown. Here you can also find special safety instructions, addresses from Jewish leaders, community information, and world Jewish news.

Еврейская община Казахстана 

The Jewish community of Kazakhstan holds competitive intellectual games attracting Jewish teams from five countries. The Shalom Family Club continues studying Jewish tradition online while the Rimon community center theater project is already rehearsing a mini-performance for the Shavuot celebration. 

A young volunteer and entomologist, Innokenty Treskunov introduced his rich and unusual collection of insects to virtual visitors from Kazakhstan, Israel, Russia, Moldova, and Germany.

A virtual bakery, organized at the initiative of Almaty and Karaganda synagogues, gathered dozens of the Kazakhstan Jewish communities’ activists. As a sign of hope and solidarity during the coronavirus pandemic, each woman at her kitchen performed a mitzvah of separating challah from the dough. This beautiful ritual symbolizes victory over impurity. 

Activists of the Youth club and the Young family club of the Rimon Jewish community center shared the secrets of cooking traditional Hamantaschen cookies. The culinary evening concluded with a festive tea party.

Young volunteers of the Almaty Jewish community presented the audience with real Purimshpils staged as part of the Theater on Wheels project. The characters of the festive mini-performances are the immortal heroes of the Purim story.

On the eve of the performance, members of the community fulfilled the Purim mitzvah of mishloach manot gathering and then presenting gift baskets for the elderly of the Almaty Jewish community.

Young children and their teachers at the Jewish community kindergarten watched and discussed an animated film presenting the Purim story. Afterward, everybody enjoyed the traditional Purim dessert – Hamantaschen.

Reading the Book of Esther became the culmination of the Purim celebration in the small Jewish community of Shymkent. All generations of the community came together to listen to the amazing Jewish story and participate in the Purim carnival.

During the meeting, the Ambassador assured the EAJC leaders in a consistent position of the Kazakhstan state authorities regarding the condemnation of antisemitism and support of the Jewish community of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

In turn, the EAJC leaders expressed their readiness to help in bringing about the most advanced Israeli technologies to serve the friendly people of Kazakhstan. The EAJC is also ready to take an active part in the preparation and organization of future visits by Kazakh President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Askar Mamin, to Israel.

EAJC President Dr. Michael Mirilashvili emphasized the importance of Kazakhstan’s supportive stance towards Israel when voting within international organizations.

“Kazakhstan is one of the ten countries with Islam as the state or the most commonly practiced religion that have established diplomatic relations with the State Israel, and the Jewish community of Kazakhstan is thriving.” said EAJC President, Dr. Michael Mirilashvili.