A three-day Limmud FSU conference will be held in Vitebsk, Belarus, in late May to early June, followed by the launch in Brest, Belarus, of celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of former prime minister Menachem Begin in the latter city. For more info:http://www.limmud.by/en/ LEARN MORE
My great-grandfather was an unbearable man, but he was a true Zionist 20 years before Herzl,’ says Gil Hovav.
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MOSCOW – Just 40 km. outside the Russian capital at a hotel in a forested suburb, over 1,200 young Russian-Jewish professionals gathered Thursday to attend the latest Limmud FSU conference and learn more about their shared history and to socialize with fellow Jews.
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What happened to former Soviet Jews who immigrated to US 25 years ago? Ynet correspondent attends Limmud FSU conference in Princeton, tries to find out why despite looking for ways to connect to Jewish identity, they have distinguished themselves from Jewish American society
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Last weekend, some 800 Russian-American Jews from across the country came together in Princeton for a conference of Jewish learning that spoke their language.
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Princeton, NJ, March 18, 2013 – Limmud FSU, a festival of Jewish learning, has just released the results of a new survey on the views of Russian-speaking Jews living in North America. The 10-question survey was sent out last week to over 2,000 of Limmud FSU’s members who reside across the United States and Canada. The vast majority of members are between the ages of 21 and 35, 60% are females and 40% are males, and 20% are married. 218 members took the survey.
Welcome to Limmud FSU’s annual USA conference in Princeton, NJ, one of the largest gatherings for American Russian-speaking Jews in the United States, with over 750 in attendance this year. Walking the halls and conference rooms of this hotel is a fascinating social phenomenon, where the vast majority of participants is between the ages of 21-35, and where the languages are an unconscious mix of Russian, English, Hebrew and a smattering of Yiddish and Bukhari.
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Fifty-seven percent of Russian Jews living in the United States do not feel that they are part of the American Jewish community, according to a poll released by Limmud FSU on Tuesday, while 40% said they feel “very much” connected to the community.
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“He’s eager to talk directly to the people of Israel. He wants to address the issues of the special relationship between the US and Israel,” said Hoenlein, speaking to The Jerusalem Post at the Limmud FSU conference in Princeton after receiving an award for his contribution to the struggle for Soviet Jewry at a gala session attended by 750 participants.
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During a recent Limmud FSU conference in Princeton, the organizers did well to dedicate a special session to the memory of Ed Koch and his contribution to to the absorption of so many Russian Jews in the United States. As one who will be participating in the forthcoming Limmud FSU festival, also to be held in Princeton, I am convinced that the hundreds of young Russian speaking Jews from New Jersey and surrounding areas, will appreciate the actions of the son of Russian immigrants who reached prominence in his newly adopted country and yet never forgot that he was Jewish.
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Over 600 young Russian-American Jews from across the country will come together at Princeton Marriott Hotel, March 15-17, 2013 for the Limmud FSU (former Soviet Union) Summit. Limmud FSU is a festival of Jewish learning featuring a packed program of lectures, workshops, round-table discussions, music and a wide-range of cultural events to be presented in three different languages – Russian, English and Hebrew.
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In every place, Limmud is bound to have its own distinctive character but must be bound by Limmud’s values and principles. No one would expect Limmud New Orleans to feel the same as Limmud China, but the common values matter, not least because of Limmud tourism. A lovely phenomenon has developed in which more and more people are visiting other Limmuds elsewhere when they happen to find themselves in the area on the right day. Indeed, I’ve been told that some people have even organised their holidays around it.
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A three-day Limmud FSU conference will be held in Vitebsk, Belarus, in late May to early June, followed by the launch in Brest, Belarus, of celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of former prime minister Menachem Begin in the latter city
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At Limmud conference in city of Uzhgorod, one can listen to lecture about God during Holocaust or search for Jewish bride in lobby. What brings young Ukrainians, who have suddenly found Jewish roots, study Torah as part of Limmud FSU program?
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The Limmud FSU Conference in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod may very well be the intellectual Jewish Woodstock of the former Soviet Union.
Attracting over 600 Jews from all walks of life across the country, as well as from surrounding nations, it is a four-day meeting of the minds with one important commonality: devotion to, and curiosity about, a shared and endangered history.
The conference, now in its sixth incarnation in countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU), began on November 1 and was dedicated to the themes of tolerance and pluralism – two concepts that are becoming increasingly endangered in Ukraine amid growing displays of anti- Semitism within the economically challenged nation.
Limmud FSU has set itself a goal of intensifying the intellectual dialogue between Russian- speaking Jews throughout the world. With this aim in mind, a tour took place recently “In the Footsteps of the Russians” – those people of Russian origin who settled in the vicinity of Jerusalem’s Russian Compound and Haneviim Street (“Street of the Prophets”), from the second half of the 19th century and into the early 20th century
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The Limmud FSU project, in which I have become a regular participant, came into being to provide an answer to those many years of estrangement from Jewish values, and to provide a taste of a Jewish path as well as a basic knowledge of the State of Israel that had undergone a process of deep demonization over decades – that country to whose enemies the Stalinist authorities provided unlimited funds and weapons. Limmud tries to overcome all that by its pluralistic, free and nonconventional approach that is undoubtedly the source of its power and attraction.
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We are happy to announce that the next Limmud FSU in Ukraine will be held in Uzhgorod from Novemer 01-04, 2012.
For more information and registration to the Uzhgorod Limmud 2012 http://en.limmud.org.ua/index.php/registratsiya
Limmud FSU Team
Limmud FSU imported the English Limmud model and adapted it for Russian- speaking Jewish communities around the world. This project, which addresses educational and cultural issues, seeks to strengthen the identity and the connection of its participants to Judaism.
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A guest of honor at a recent Limmud FSU “Olympics” Festival for Russian-speaking Jews held in Nazareth Illit was a diminutive 82 year-old figure with piercing blue eyes.
On a recent Friday morning, as dawn broke, hundreds of young participants hit the pool, concluding a marathon all-day and White Night Limmud FSU program in Nazareth Illit.
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Over 500 young Jewish adults from the former Soviet Union participated in Limmud FSU.
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At the beginning of the festival, when Mayor Gafsou presented a commemorative medal to Ben Helfgott, the Holocaust survivor from Buchenwald, who was born and grew up in Piotrkow in Poland, I stood at one side and wiped away a tear.
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Some 3,000 people attended the concert, among them Limmud families, participants in the Jewish Agency’s Masa program.
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Educational organization to team up with Israel Olympic Committee to celebrate the achievements of Jews in sports.
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“During my service in the Claims Conference I visited many communities in Eastern Europe and FSU teaching about the Holocaust,” Rabbi Hacohen told me.
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On a recent Friday evening, Nadya Chelnokova, a twentysomething native of the former Soviet Union who now lives in San Francisco, joined a handful of fellow émigrés at a conference center near the Princeton University campus for a worship service titled Kabbalat Shabbat for “chainiki,” a slang Russian expression for beginners.
Over the next three days Chelnokova and some 600 other people, mostly from the New York area, with roots in the former Soviet Union, attended a series of lectures and workshops and social events during Limmud FSU, part of the international network of intensive, pluralistic Jewish learning retreats around the world.
Matthew Bronfman is currently visiting Moldova in conjunction with the first-ever Limmud FSU Moldova Conference, in which Matthew Bronfman is the chair of the International Steering Committee for Limmud FSU. The conference is taking place today, where over 400 young Jews from Moldova and the southern region of Ukraine are coming together in the city of Chisinau.
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Ten years ago Hillels were mostly teaching Judaism 101 – now they are finding and supporting students to run programs for their peers. Ten years ago, going on a free trip to Israel felt like winning a lottery – now it is a rite of passage. Ten years ago living a Jewish life meant going to large community events – now young people are also able to create vibrant home-based communities through Moishe House. And finally, 10 years ago, the possibility of hosting a Moscow Limmud was not even on our radar – this year, more than 1,000 participants of every age and walk of life paid $200 per person to attend this multi-day educational festival. »
