Representatives of our center in New York give lectures and workshops on the history and present-day Jewish life in Russia. The lectures are conducted in English and may be accompanied by live violin music and slide shows. If you are interested in arranging a lecture, please contact our representative in New York at (718) 236 6037.
If you are interested, please choose lecture topics for your community from this list:
REVIVAL OF JEWISH LIFE IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION – FROM PERESTROIKA TILL TODAY
1. Our Russian Cousins, Present day Jewish life in Russia: Revival and Trial
When after the Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire your grandparents headed for the New World, some of their sisters and brothers stayed put. During seventy years of the Soviet regime American Jews struggled for the freedom of their Russian brethren. And now the light of the menorah has been lit there once again. Russian Jews are returning to their roots. This process is a real challenge, however, not everything is so easy as it may seem. At present Russian Jews face both perspectives and problems.
2. Jewish education in present day Russia.
The sages said that the world is hold on the breath of the children studying the Torah. That is why the education has become the first preoccupation of the restored community. But because of specific reasons, Jewish education in Russia differs greatly from that in the United States. The generations of Russian Jews which grew up under the Soviet regime did not receive any Jewish education and several links in the chain of transmission of Jewish values have been missing. Now we can witness a completely new process when the kids, studying in Jewish schools, transmit the traditions to their parents and great parents.
3. History and Present of Jewish charitable organizations in Russia.
The solidarity has always been a cornerstone of the Jewish life. But it had a special significance in the tsarist Russia. The generosity of the Jewish bankers, merchants, and industrialists towards their poor fellows in the Pale of Settlement helped to preserve the feeling of Jewish unity. In the dark period of pogroms and persecutions in Russia there were founded charitable organizations which became later known throughout the world. At present they have returned to Russia.
Pages of History
1. 120 anniversary of the ORT: history of foundation.
You would never suspect the history of this organization which at present is known all over the world began in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1880. We will tell you about the reasons of its foundation and about the people who cherished the idea of vocational education of Jews and about their efforts in making this dream true.
2. History of the Jewish community in Russia
pages of the history of the Russian Jewry, which will make those of you whose ancestors were from Russia proud of your bubbes and zeides.The life of Jews in tsarist Russia is mostly associated with pogroms and discrimination. Not denying it, we would like to share with you some less known
3. History of the Jewish community of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, founded in 1703, soon became a capital of the Russian Empire. Certainly, such an enterprise as the construction of a new capital could not be realized without the participation of the Jews. Despite all the discriminatory laws Jews lived in the city since the moment of its foundation and these were mostly not common people but the cultural and financial elite of the Russian Jewry.
4. Jewish collections in St. Petersburg
Foreign tourists coming to admire the museums of Saint Petersburg usually do not suspect about the existence of hidden treasures of Jewish heritage. The National Library of Russia possesses one of the biggest collection of the Jewish manuscripts in the world (more than 15,000 items). Its greater part is formed by the private collection of Abraham Firkovich who traveled throughout the world collecting Hebrew, Aramaic, Samaritan and other Jewish manuscripts, stones and rings with inscriptions. The Library of the Academy of Sciences possesses another valuable collection of Jewish manuscripts and rare books which had belonged to the Jewish mecenas Leib Friedland. In the funds of the Museum of Ethnography there is a greater part of the materials collected by S. An-sky during his expeditions to the Pale of Settlement.
5. Jews in the War of 1812
When Napoleon’s army was triumphantly moving to the depth of Russia the leader of Chabad Lubavich R. Shneur Zalman called Russian Jews for helping Russian troops. In his proclamation, written in Yiddish, he declared: "After the destruction of our ancient kingdom, we look to this land where our ancestors established themselves, and call it our motherland. "
6. The world of our bubbes and zeides
The poetical world of Tevieh milkman immortalized in the stories by Sholom-Aleichem and Bashevis Singer and in the pictures by Mark Chagall. This world did not disappear. It does exist and a new generation of Jews strolls along the streets where your ancestors had walked.
SEPHARDIC HERITAGE
1. Peter I Great of Russia and Sephardim
St. Petersburg – an unexpected parallel with the Jewish history of New York City: the first Jews that appeared in both cities were Sephardim from the Netherlands.
The most interesting thing is that they were invited by the Russian Czar.
2. A Jew who saved the life of Catherine II the Great.
was woken by a sudden call at the door, He opened the door and saw a figure of a court guard. "Service of Her Majesty," roared the soldier. "You are summoned to the palace. Do not forget to take your instruments. The carriage is waiting. The case of utmost urgency and secrecy." Sanches silently packed his medical sac voyage and stepped into the darkness...In a frosty winter night Ribeira Sanches, the second physician of the Russian court,
3. Sephardic Manuscripts in Russian Collections
A fascinating history of manuscript collectors in the nineteenth century and how the genizah documents ended in the Imperial Library of Russia.
4. R. Moshe Almosnino of Salonica, community leader and scholar
Jewish leadership in the sixteenth century Salonica, as told by Almosnino himself (based on just published Cronica de los reyes Otomanes and on not yet published Treatise on Astrolabe).
5. Return to Sepharad
Centuries have passed since the Expulsion. It seemed that not only the Jews as people, but even the memory of their long history in Spain was doomed to exile. Still, those who want to see the remnants of the Jewish past and have keen eyes, will discover the vestiges of the former glory. The most inspiring for a Jewish traveler in Spain will be the growing interest of Spaniards in Jewish heritage. This feeling is best of all expressed by the vice-mayor of Barcelona Ms. Pilar Rahola:
We want the Jews to know that they had the Spanish past, and the Spaniards, to know that they had the Jewish past.
Lectures can be conducted both separately or as a course.
On special request we also organize exhibitions of the photos of shtetlach made by our photographer Mikhail Kheifets. Lectures may be accompanied by live violin music, both Klezmer and classical.