{"id":31327,"date":"2019-01-11T03:51:12","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T11:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31327"},"modified":"2019-01-09T14:42:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T22:42:23","slug":"a-rewarding-trip-to-siberia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/01\/11\/a-rewarding-trip-to-siberia\/","title":{"rendered":"A rewarding trip to Siberia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Several Vancouverites traveled to Siberia to see members of the Jewish community, which the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver helps support. (photo from Michael Moscovich)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last September, a group of seven travelers\nrepresenting the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver set off on an\nexpedition to the far east of Siberia. Jews going to Siberia? Had to be a very\ngood reason. And there was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than a decade, the Jewish Federation,\nin partnership with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), has\nbeen contributing to the support of Jews in need, wherever they may live in the\nworld. Federation\u2019s Israel and overseas committee chose to help the closest\nJewish communities in abject poverty and those are in Siberia\u2019s far east.\nKhabarovsk is the main city in the area and Birobidzhan is the capital of the\nJewish republic, or oblast<\/em>, of Russia. Jewish republic! Long story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
The Russian city of Khabarovsk. (photo from Michael Moscovich)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Khabarovsk is about the size of Winnipeg and\nthe winters are about the same, only a little colder \u2013 when we were there in\nthe fall, it was generally above 20\u00b0C. Birobidzhan has a population of only\nabout 75,000 and both cities are located by very large rivers. Each has a new\nsynagogue\/community centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
The synagogue in Birobidzhan. (photo from Michael Moscovich)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In Siberia, the younger people have jobs and\nseem to do well, but the pensioners are lost. Their pensions may have been\nadequate 20 years ago but the ruble has fallen to two cents. Their income is\nmaybe $20 to $40 a month. Their choice is to feed themselves, heat their home\nor buy their medicines. Through the JDC, Federation makes it possible to do all\nthree by supplementing their monthly income. It also supports people with\ndisabilities who are unable to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2008am a founding member of Federation and its\nIsrael and overseas committee, and have visited Jewish communities in Poland,\nwestern Russia, Austria, Morocco and Cuba. No Vancouver representative had\nvisited our Siberian partners before to see what we\u2019re helping to accomplish.\nThe trip was very rewarding. We saw signs of the rebirth of Siberian Jewish\nlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Russian city of Khabarovsk. (photo from Michael Moscovich)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"photo
Biribojan, in Yiddish. (photo from Michael Moscovich)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Most of the people we met were not English\nspeakers, but we had enough interpreters that language was never a problem. We\nwere also bonded by Yiddishkeit, though the community had had no Jewish\neducation or ceremonies for decades, since Stalin decided to ban the Jewish\npart of the Jewish republic. No one even spoke a word of Yiddish \u2013 this in a\nplace where there was a thriving Yiddish-based culture until the 1950s. But the\nstreet signs in Birobidzhan are still written in Yiddish and there are other\nsymbols of Jewish life, such as a menorah on the monument at the train station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During our visit, we joined in baking challot\nand delivered them to elderly widows. Upon entering one home, our hostess\nstaggered and almost collapsed. Subsequently, whenever she looked at me she\nblanched and teared up. I asked what was the matter and she said I looked so\nmuch like her father it was like seeing a ghost. She showed me pictures of him\nand, indeed, he was a handsome devil and doppelg\u00e4nger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are maybe 15,000 Jews left in the area.\nAll have the option of relocating to Israel and most have. However, one guy\nreturned, as there was no ice fishing in Israel. Another returned as a Chabad\nrabbi to lead the Birobidzhan congregation. A young woman came back to be with\nher grandmother. So many stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elderly spoke to us of the war and\nsurvival. I asked what happens to the non-Jewish people in similar\ncircumstances with no outside support. They just died, was the reply. We are\ntruly saving lives. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several Vancouverites traveled to Siberia to see members of the Jewish community, which the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver helps support. (photo from Michael Moscovich) Last September, a group of seven travelers representing the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver set off on an expedition to the far east of Siberia. Jews going to Siberia? Had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5334,5335,2398,3649,2397,2763,8617,1959],"class_list":["post-31327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-former-soviet-union","tag-fsu","tag-jdc","tag-jewish-federation","tag-joint-distribution-committee","tag-philanthropy","tag-siberia","tag-tikkun-olam"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}