4,000 Moscow Jews Fete Russia Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar on 50th Birthday
Image by nate lavey
Approximately 4,000 Jews attended Moscow’s first “Festival of Judaism” which organizers planned as a celebration of the 50th birthday of Chief Russian Rabbi Berel Lazar.
The festival was held on June 8, two days after Lazar’s birthday, at the Jewish Museum And Tolerance Center in Moscow and featured 50 stations where staff and volunteers presented visitors with explanations about elements of the Jewish faith including teffilin, kashrut and scripture, Museum Chairman Rabbi Boruch Gorin told JTA.
“This was the first time we organized an event of this sort, which we planned as a way to celebrate rabbi Lazar’s 50th birthday, but we hope to make it an annual event,” he said. Gorin, who is a Chabad rabbi, added that Moscow has few Jewish events of the scale seen at the museum during the festival, with the exception of the Jewish Agency’s Jerusalem Day celebrations and Lag B’Omer events.
The event was advertised on Russian Jewish media, social media and news sites “and this obviously generated a large turnout and a predominantly-Jewish crowd,” Gorin said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
