From Russia with Love

What a whirlwind past 10 days it's been! Russia was amazing. Tiring, as we traveled to 3 cities in 7 days and took 4 planes, one 14-hour overnight train and traveled at all hours of the day and night. But what an experience! We traveled with 2 other HUC students: Eli (who coincidentally went to Brandeis with us) and Carole (a second-career student who coincidentally is from Park Slope), and the 4 of us had a great time together. We learned a lot about different communities and were fascinated to learn more about life during the Communist period, referred to as "Soviet times." Every time we saw a hammer and sickle we would get really excited and fascinated to see the many leftover relics of Communism. Please see our pictures for many more (on the left-hand side of the blog) where it says Russia pictures.

Here are some highlights of our trip:

Our First City: Chelyabinsk, Russia in the Ural Mountains (a 2 hour plane ride from Moscow)
We loved the Chelyabinsk Jewish community - we met many of the madrichim (counselors/youth group leaders, many of whom were in university). They were an incredible bunch and ran both the Friday night Shabbat service and the seder. They were creative, musical, talented and very dedicated. We learned that in Russia it's often the older generation (grandparents) and the younger generation (people in their late teens, early 20s) who are most involved. This is a leftover from Soviet times, when religion was prohibited - and thus, many young adults are teaching their parents about Judaism and are most active in their communities. We had the best translator, Masha, who helped us immensely during our week in Russia- we didnt realize the importance of the translator, but as most people didn't speak English (except for some of the younger people), Masha was literaly our lifeline. It was definitely a different experience for Evan and I - as much traveling as we've done, we've never had a translator, which was wonderful in decoding menus and helping us commnicate but it's a completely different way of traveling and seeing the world, when everthing is filtered through another person. We also spent a lot of time with Vovo (his nickname), who was the rabbinic figure in Chelyabinsk. We visited the synagogue and saw Chabad - another interesting story about how pervasive Chabad is in the Former Soviet Union. The community center - home to the Progressive Movement (i.e. Reform Judaism) was an impressive building, built by mostly American support and by the Joint- the JDC (the organization we worked for in Turkey). I never cease to be impressed by the amazing work the JDC does all around the world.

Chelyabinsk is a city of 2-3 milion people and its symbol is the camel because it was directly on the ancient silk road and many caravans used to pass through the town. Another thing Chelyabinsk is famous for- although not very well-known outside of Russia was a huge nuclear explosion bigger than Chernobyl. Although most of the outside world didnt know about it because it was deep inside Russia and not picked up on like Chernobyl was by the Swedes. Despite this, it was a lovely city and we walked around the arbat (a pedestrian street), enjoyed live music and had a great seder that was very creative with the community. (This is a picture of Evan rockin' out at the seder!)

Tyumen, Siberia
How many people can claim they've been to the Cultural Capital of Western Siberia? We can now, after visiting Tyumen! We took at 14 hour overnight train to Tyumen which was actually a lot of fun, despite being in the smallest little room with 4 beds. The adventure began when Masha (our amazing translator) made a mistake with our train tickets- and after running out of the seder and saying many quick goodbyes to our new friends in Chelyabinsk, we arrived at the train station with just a few minutes to spare - until she realized that she read our tickets wrong. Even though it said 10:08 (pm) departure, it was on Moscow time, which was 2 hours earlier. All the trains in Russia run on Moscow time! It was the strangest thing- the fact that trains all run on Moscow time, despite there being 11 time zones in Russia! That's like leaving taking a plane from CA to Texas but the plane leaving not on CA or TX time but on Washington DC time. Crazy. So we had 2 hours at the train station to wait - before our long train ride. The train station was a riot. Most of the travellers were all men and when Masha and I went to go use the toilet (err..not real toilet, one of those in the ground) which we had to pay to use, the lady working at the toliet told us it was a smoking break and the toliet was closed! Only in Russia! Smoking breaks were a frequent occurrence, even in the middle of one of our seders!

We all had a great time on the train though, singing "Back in the USSR" and "Midnight train to Georgia, which we replaced with the words, Midnight train to Tyumen"...So we arrived in Siberia, set for freezing cold temperatures, only to find out that it was quite warm (in the 40s and 50s) but the buildings are all heated so much that we were practically sweating everywhere we went!

We met a very different Jewish community in Tyumen- about 700 Jews, compared with 10,000 in Chelyabinsk and there was no Chabad. The synagogue was beautiful and we quickly learned that most of the Jews in Tyumen had been "resettled" from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Some of them told us how they had seen their families shot in WWII, others said it was just part of the war to be moved; and Siberia was actually a good place for them! I dont think we were near the Gulag, and the infamous work camps, but rather, Tyumen, we learned was a city where a lot of people had been sent - Jews, Poles and others and it was a peaceful place where many groups co-existed. The Jewish community here was older although we led a youth seder (meaning young adults) which was fun, attended the Sunday School, led a Beit Midrash for young adults and visited the art studio, where elderly women gather weekly to do art projects.

We went out a bunch in Tyumen, including to a most bizarre nightclub with some people from the community. We also ate a lot of sushi - sushi is really big in Russia these days! and had our best meal of the trip - which was Georgian food (as in Georgia, the country). It was some of most delicious chicken I've ever had and Carole and I went to town on it (even though we were normally the pickier eaters). Let's just say those Russians sure do love their potatoes and mayonnaise and weird smoked meats in everything. Food wasn't my favorite part of the trip!

In both communities, we helped with seders and Shabbat and other things- but in neither place -did we fully lead anything. I know some students were disappointed, but Evan and I were really happy to see self-sustatining communities with strong leadership. Rather, we felt like guests which was a wonderful feeling, albeit a little strange because the para-rabbi in Tyumen (he worked as a rabbi and was an educator but not ordained as a rabbi) sent us mixed signals about our visit. Our visits were coordinated in Moscow and it was uncelar to us if he really wanted us..which was slightly uncomfortable although we still had a great visit.

We said goodbye to Masha in Tyumen and were really sad to leave her - she was such an important part of our Russian experience!

Moscow

We arrived in Moscow, exhausted after only sleeping 3 hours but were all rock stars and did it up that day walking around the city and meeting up with our friends Brian and Elana, who had been in other cities in Russia and with Michael and Hannah who had also arrived in Moscow that day. We went to Red Square, where we saw Lenin's mauseoulm, and St. Basel's Cathedral, which is amazing and looks straight out of "It's a Small World" from Disneyworld. We explored the Moscow Metro, which is very big and also beautiful- the stations are so majestic, complete with chandeliers and statues. It was strange to be in bustling metropolis after being in quaint Tyumen and walking everywhere. In Moscow we took taxis, subways and shared taxis and walked a lot. We went to the famous arbat (pedestrian street) and had a delicious dinner of not-so-kosher for Passover pancakes! It was really hard to resist and given all the meat options I was quite limited... this picture is from St. Basel's Cathedral in Red Square

Our day in Moscow ended with Evan and the gang throwing a surprise party for me in our hotel room for my 29th birthday! It was a lot of fun and our Russian friends taught us a Russian tradition - which they made me do..vodka shots..with a chaser of salmon (lox!). It was um, kinda nasty but fun. It was a great way to celebrate a wonderful trip!

Our last day in Moscow we saw an amazing cathedral and a synagogue which was quite impressive and had fun in a Russian supermarket. We also had an extremely long day of traveling which included: 2 long taxi rides, many subway rides, a 4 hour flight and 3 sherut rides (shared taxis) in Moscow and in Israel. Whew!

A few things about Russia that stood out: the bureacracy! So many ridiculous things we had to do with paperwork, felt like a leftover from Soviet times, the zillions of women who wear high heels and are very fashionable and the men who were never as good-looking as the women.
This picture is from the majestic Moscow Metro (subway)

On another note, walking through Russia in the footsteps of so much history, I also felt the presence of my friend Hannah Engle, of blessed memory. Hannah led the FSU trip back when she was a student at UCLA in 2002 with my friend Shauna. I knew it was something she was really passionate about - and she also led seders and got many students involved in the project. I thought of Hannah often - and felt she was with me during the trip. I think she would have been impressed to see Jewish life growing and flourishing in Russia - and to have seen strong Jewish communities all around the world. I even had some dreams with her in them and felt so grateful to have had her in my life - and to have had this unbelievable experience in Russia...