For more than 30 years the WUPJ has supported communities in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus by translating many of Judaism’s sacred texts into Russian – texts that were left behind as people had to flee their homes and communities.
In the light of the recent conflict on the Ukrainian border, the World Union for Progressive Judaism launches the Ukraine Crisis Fund. We ask people from all over the world to make donations towards the support of the Jewish community in Ukraine.
Earlier in March, one of the oldest and most respected members of the Beit Simha congregation in Minsk, Yakov Kravchinsky, received a prestigious state award from the Federal Republic of Germany for his dedication to Holocaust education among youth and young adults in Minsk.
On the evening of March 21, Rabbi Grisha Abramovich, representing Progressive Judaism, had the special honor tof being invited to participate in an interfaith prayer session against the Coronovirus along with spiritual leaders and representatives of the Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Greek Catholic, Evangelical and Muslim communities.
During Sukkot celebration in October, the Sandra Breslauer Beit Simha Center in Minsk hosted its annual “Readings in the Sukkah” where guests took part in reading from Ecclesiastes (“Kohelet”) and prayers for peace in eight languages, as by Irina Belskia, Beit Simha’s Jewish educator. Festival participants developed the initiative to create an interfaith text for reflection to read at various memorial services after a peace prayer.
Jerusalem-born Mika Arad, a descendant of the Koschers – one of three Jewish families who settled in Ivye in 1600 – held her Bat Mitzvah ceremony in the Museum of National Cultures, in the gallery on the history and traditions of the Jewish people.
Netzer camp Ivriya, run by the World Union’s reform youth movement branch in Ukraine, concluded their tenth year annual summer camp in the city of Odessa. The day camp in Odessa’s Progressive community of Shirat a Yam brought together 25 youth, ages 7-13, to explore the history of Zionism, the State of Israel, the Hebrew […]
Marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from Nazi occupation during World War II, the capitol city of Minsk, as well as Novogudok, located 150 km southwest, hosted commemorative events for the ‘Memorial Days’ festivities. The anniversary celebration also displayed the resilience of the Jewish community in Belarus that is again robust 75 years later.
Participants of the World Union for Progressive Judaism’s annual Masa Russian-language program, “Reformism as your personal and professional future,” recently celebrated the completion of their four month Israel program in Jerusalem. The Russian Masa program has been running for more than 14 years as an integral part of the work of the World Union of Progressive Judaism efforts for Russian-speaking Jews across Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. NextGEN GalleryEditDelete
he Meodomik Integration program operates year round activities for children with special needs and their families, integrating social, cultural and recreational programs based in the Moscow Jewish Community Center, MEOD.