Limmud with a Strong Moscow Accent
“Limmud Moscow is the educational flagship of the FSU; it is a bright and glowing event for Moscow Jewry with its special local atmosphere and its enormous number of presenters and participants and its varied content.”
Rabbi Boruch Gorin
by Larisa Popovskaya
Education, volunteering and fun … that in a nutshell sums up Limmud FSU Moscow, 2014, a festival of great lectures and amazing people especially for Russian speakers.
Limmud FSU is a part of the global Limmud which started in the United Kingdom 35 years ago. Limmud FSU has been roaming the globe already for the past eight years. Limmud FSU Moscow is the largest of these and it sets the tone for the other conferences, wherever they take place – in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, the United States and Israel of course, with more to come (Canada later this year and Australia next for example.)
For the first time, Limmud FSU Moscow provided kosher food for all the participants, which this time included Rabbi Boruch Gorin of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia who attended Limmud as a presenter with all his family. He said, “Limmud Moscow is the educational flagship of the FSU; it is a bright and glowing event for Moscow Jewry with its special local atmosphere and its enormous number of presenters and participants and its varied content. Limmud Moscow is young and its atmosphere is also young.” He would like to see it meeting more often than once a year, “so as to retain the wonderful atmosphere of volunteering, education and family.”
Many different types of people came to Limmud Moscow this year, including young couples with children and even toddlers. The children’s program was on a very high level and parents could easily visit lectures and workshops while their children were under the supervision of experienced counselors. There were many Russian-speakers from other cities of Russia as well as from Germany, the USA and even Australia. We spoke to Avital Chizhik, a young Russian-speaking journalist from New York. She is an Orthodox woman, who was born in the US in a family of immigrants from Kiev, Ukraine, and is now a columnist for Haaretz daily newspaper. This was her fourth Limmud: the first two were in New Jersey and the third in Vitebsk, Belarus: “I can see a difference between Limmud FSU in New Jersey and in Moscow – in the US the focus is on getting together socially and here it is more academic and I love it.”
Together with Limmud old-timers there were newcomers and people who are not actively involved in Moscow Jewish life. Elena Andreeva found out about Limmud FSU from her friend who went on the Birthright program. “It is my second Limmud. I have many friends here and we arranged to come here in advance, I even asked my husband for a three-day leave,” she smiles. “What I like at Limmud is meeting new people of different ages and being able to share a table at meals with lecturers.”
Photos courtesy Limmud FSU, Nathan Roi and Olga Lavie