A reader was kind enough to take me to the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue, in a fashionable neighborhood of central Moscow, for Friday night services. They are welcoming to strangers, even a blonde Russian and her French boyfriend who showed up out of curiosity. Everything is in Hebrew and the books are in Hebrew/Russian so if you’re casual about your Jewish observance you’ll be kind of bored during the service per se (etiquette hint: don’t pull out your smartphone and start reading on the Kindle app during Shabbat!). The Lubavitch Hasidim run this temple under the Chabad banner and they serve a community Friday night dinner after the service. There we talked to a guy who appeared to be in his 30s who’d grown up in a Russian military family in Vladivostok. His family had abandoned Judaism in the 20th century, but he was seeking to rediscover the religion of his great-grandparents. To Jews from the West who can adjust their level of observance every week if they want, it was touching to see how precious Judaism was to this man. (Contrast to “Jewish Americans, who will go to any length, short of practicing Judaism, to instill a sense of Jewish identity in their children.” (from Here I Am by Jonathan Foer))
If you’re curious about the revival of religion in Russia, or you happen to be Jewish, I would recommend spending a Friday evening at this synagogue. Dress code: most people wore suits, but I was in a T-shirt and blue jeans (if this upset anyone, I couldn’t understand enough Russian to learn about it).
This is interesting to hear. I have met several Jewish men over the last decade or so that have related to me how they fled the Ukraine because of horrible anti-semitism. (Beaten in the streets and so forth) It’s good to hear that this is not universal in the former Soviet Union.
The violence and instability of Ukraine was cited by some Russians with whom I spoke as one reason they support Putin.
I have spent a lot of time living and working in the Former Soviet Union, including Russia and Ukraine and four other Republics and these strike me as some pretty ignorant remarks. The Soviet Union has always been antisemitic. This goes back probably a thousand years or more. I spent a lot of time living and working in Ukraine over a period of about a dozen years and I never noticed it was more or less antisemitic than the rest of the FSU. I never heard of Jews getting beaten on the streets — though that could of course happen even in New York. Ukraine’s stability has been undermined by the Russians, which invaded the eastern half and Crimea in order to snatch up land. Ukraine is a weak country with lots of problems and Russia has done its best to take advantage of that weakness. Since Putin has unambiguously been a major cause of the instability in Ukraine it seems more than a little bit moronic, or should i more diplomatically say “uninformed” to favor Putin because he will promote stability in Ukraine.
Jack: Nobody in Russia said that they thought Putin was making Ukraine a better place. They cited the violence and instability of Ukraine as an example of what Russia might experience in the absence of Putin.
@Jack: I never claimed to be well informed on the matter(in fact, the opposite), but I do have some pretty rich anecdotal evidence that it can be really, really rough to be Jewish in the Ukraine. Among Americans, I know more people that have been beaten for being white than for being Jewish. (That latter number being zero)
I’m just glad to hear that there seems to be a thriving, open Jewish community in Moscow. (especially given the history)
philg #4,
As street violence is concerned, Ukraine has nothing on towns in Russian regions, i.e. most places outside Moscow and probably Saint Petersburg. Yes, some places in Ukraine are tough but Jews are not targeted on the streets and many cities have more than one synagogue as well. Maybe there is some pre-teen or teenage anti-Semitic bullying in forced central schooling system but if you remove anti-Semitism or Jews bullying remains. It was OK to fight hard in former USSR and bullying did include hard fighting. Anti-Semitism was a state policy in USSR and thus Ukraine was affected more since there were policy limiting Jewish participation at 2% or 3 % and Jews were maybe around 10-15% of population in parts of Ukraine post WWII (Soviet Jews fought hard in WWII in Soviet military and partizans, being somewhat militarized by Tsar starting Crimean campaign in mid 19th century and thus many survived Holoucast). Most places in Moscow used to have even worse discrimination against Jews, with some colleges admitting no Jews at all. There is some anti-Semitism in Ukraine, maybe somewhat higher than is some Russian regions, but it is comparable.
Anonymous: Now that Jews have been highlighted by Hillary voters as victims of the Trumpenfuhrer’s Reich I have become skeptical of claims regarding anti-Jewish sentiment elsewhere. I’m not suggesting that you’re wrong about the past, of course, or your personal experience. But without hard numbers, e.g., statistics showing how many Jews are leaving for Israel, I find it tough to accept that Place X is more anti-Jewish than Place Y. If I had believed my Hillary-supporting friends on Facebook I would have jumped on a flight to Tel Aviv on the evening of January 19, 2017.
I do not disagree with you philg. Jews who wanted to leave former USSR did it long time ago and now Jewish population there is a fraction what it used to be. Religious discrimination that included forceful closing of synagogues, prohibition to study Hebrew, closing Yidish secular schools, no kosher practices whatsoever and federal persecution that included limiting educational and career opportunity as well unofficial prohibition to enter some professions is gone in both Ukraine and Russia. But somehow bulk of immigration from former USSR to Israel is now from regions in Eastern Ukraine that were overrun by Russian forces, you can google Israel ministry of absorption statistics.
May I repeat my comment of May 26?
“Russia is a permanent tragedy, whereas the USA could probably reverse its worst aspects with a dose of “democratic socialism” (in the European/UK sense). The Soviet experiment took a huge toll. My wife was an English-language tutor for Russian refugees, mostly Jews, in the 90’s. These seniors had lived their entire lives in the Soviet system. To sum up their experience: “In Russia we were hated because we were Jews, now we’re hated because we’re Russians.” Go figure.”
Aside from the antisemitic climate, these folks lived through the meat grinder of WWII, wherein almost an entire generation of young men were killed or maimed.