The political scene

I suppose now is the right time to explain the community situation, especially after recent occurences.

This community is split. From what I understand, about 5 years ago, a woman who led the community passed away, leaving 2 people in charge. Yefim, the president of the community, and Natasha, a strong woman who ran Chesed and Sachnut. They had good working relationship which lasted about a year.

Then Yefim started living with a Jewish woman named Yanna, and apparently she felt he wasn't getting enough Kovod. She started making Natasha's life miserable.

People began to get disgusted with the community, and many left, vowing never to return to the Jewish centre (to this day they won't come). A committee was started of people who want to overthrow Yefim and put up a new Rosh Hakahal.

Yefim himself is a sweet guy, who wants to learn Torah, and add Yiddishkeit. He is dedicated to the community, and wants things to improve. Yanna, on the other hand (the woman he lives with), is, I'm not sure how to put it nicely... She is protective of her man, and feels anything is a threat to him. She respects nobody, and hates Yiddishkeit. She orders him around, and laughs at him in front of other people.

Yanna is a very loud woman, and after a year, Natasha took the Chesed and Sachnut, and Sunday school, and left. I don't think Yefim was too happy about that, but the community more or less stood behind Natasha, because the people backing Yefim were mean to almost everyone.

When we arrived here the heat had died down, but was simmering. We were not given a warm welcome (again, I assume it was because of Yanna, who despises us, though we have never done anything to wrong her).

We asked for help to find apartments, and also requested an office, but while they made the occassional phone call, it would take us two weeks to find an apartment, and 2 months to settle into a normal one, plus a month to get a tiny office in the back of the center, followed by another month of waiting for a normal office to put a secretary into.

In short, we were not warmly welcomed, and every time they spoke to us, they demanded help, money or things immediately. When we asked them to help us out (for example, when we told them that Rabbi Lazar told us we need to write a letter to our Minister about the Shul), it took at least a month to receive an answer, if we received one at all.

The several meetings we had were not constuctive, but rather were "Rabbi-bashing" moments, where they (mainly Yanna) would shout at us for hiring non-Jewish secretary and housekeeper, making Shabbos meals in our house, etc.

Meanwhile, Natasha welcomed us with open arms. She arranged that we should meet people, offered her help (and has been there for us when we needed her help), and shows up to our classes and programs.

To illustrate an example: On our first month here we tried to organize a womens club, and asked Yefim to call women and invite them, being that we don't know many. We also made our calls, but when the day came, not only did no women show up, but even his secretary, and Yanna were no-shows. On the other hand, Natasha came over to us with a list of 12 women who want Chayale to start teaching them a class on "kosher kitchen."

Purim was extra hard for this very reason. We decided that for the first time in several years, we want Purim to be done the entire community together. Yefims group (which today is about 10% of the community) did everything they could to stop it, but Boruch Hashem it worked out.

After several small incidents, I got the feeling that Yefim feels threatened (I was asked where I got my list of Jews, from Natasha?), and decided to call a meeting.

I spoke to my Mashpia about the situation and he thought it was a good idea. First of all, we wanted to explain why we go to the Sachnut bichlal (because we are here for every Jew), and to let them know our goals and explain that we are not a threat, rather it'll be better for everyone. Also, we wanted to work out Pesach.

I'd also spoken to Eli krivchevski (president-Rabbi relations guy in Moscow), who correctly told me that Boruch Hashem we are in a good scenario. Only 10% of the community backs our Rosh Hakahal, who himself is a nice guy.

Anyway, we prepared two days for the meeting, working it out that it should be easiest for everyone to swallow, and we were sure they wouldn't have a problem, since they want to work together (or so it seems).

How wrong we were. At the meeting, while Yefim and Rosa listened, Yanna was downright rude, telling us to return to Canada... So we finally asked if they think we can work together, explaining that our standards are run by Hashem, and if we are going to raise and bring in 10,000 dollars for Pesach (compared to the 1000 they can raise, and that includes the Sachnut plus fundraising), then it should be done kosher, and after Shabbos.

Amidst Yanna's derogatory comments, Yefim and Rosa couldn't answer. So we left, assuming that this is how it is:

Before we came, they wanted a Rabbi who can bring more money to the community, and take it further. Yefim was probably excited about the Yiddishkeit aspect, but he is a weak character and answers to a board, of which Yanna is a loud voice (incidentally I am head of this board).

But once we arrived they felt threatened somehow, and instead of taking us to meet people, organizing classes etc. they just had demands.

Result: now while we will continue to "work" with them, we are shluchim, who represent Yiddishkeit, 90% of the community is excited that we are here, and since we are raising the money, we will do things our way. We would love to work together weith them, but cannot if they don't respect our ways and understand why we are here.

People have asked what it's like, working in Russia as a Shliach. This is the downside - the political stuff. Of course I think that's the downside everywhere in the world. But it's especially tough when you have no one nearby you can speak to.