4,000 Moscow Jews Fete Russia Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar on 50th Birthday

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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.