A video of Diesel

For those of you who have been to Yeka, I am now back in contact regularly with Diesel, and he sent me this video he just made. I think it might be nice if we got together some Yekazoids and raise money to get him a trip to America.

Who is in?

I am serious, by the way.

The guy is very depressed, has given up on Yiddishkeit, and it would be nice to bring him into the USA, at least for a tour.

Come on, we all raised money to go to Yeka, let's together raise money to bring him here!


For those of you who don't know about Diesel, he was a hit in the Ukraine summer of Dnepropetrovsk (to see videos form the camp which inspired me to go to Russia, search Yekatrinoslav on google video). A talented and funny Ukrainian boy, which is a rarity.

Would love to see him live his dream for a few moments being in New York, and getting to look at some skyscrapers.

He currently works in a department store as a salesman in Denpropetrovsk, making 250 dollars a month.

Hashgacha Protis in Montreal

Hashgacha Protis is a great Hebrew word which most people translate as 'divine providence' which is like translating Tefillin as 'phylacteries' when in reality people should just call them by their more commonly used synonym: Jew-straps.

Similarly, Hashgacha Protis in plain English means: 'G-d makes cool coincidences' which according to Judaism, aren't coincidences.

Since I have returned to the land of wide roads, I have searched for Jews from Stavropol in every city I've been to. For example, in Toronto I stopped by Rabbi Zaltsman (translation: salty man), who is in charge of Russian Jews and runs the JRCC of Ontario, and I asked him if he knew any Jews from Stavropol.

His answer: No.

Bet you weren't expecting that. Well, neither was I. I also asked Rabbi Sirota in Montreal, and other Rabbis in other places.

Anyway, so in Montreal they had this bone marrow drive to help several people in the community. I went to get the inside of cheek swabbed by Q-tips, and it was held in the Montreal 'Y', where they have a woman in charge of all Russians living in Montreal, Olga Freiman.

I tried to meet hger but she was away, so I gave up.

Then on Monday on a whim I decided to call again. She answered and I explained that I live in a city in Russia, and I am looking for Jewish people from that city in Montreal so I can contact their relatives in Russia, and maybe they have a database where everyone is from blah blah blah blah.

So she asked, "Which city?"

And I said, "Stavropol!"

So she says, "I'm from Stavropol!"

See? a classic case of Hasgacha Protis!

Anyway, we met today and had a long chat, where it turned out that I know her relative in Stavropol, who is one of the sweetest men in the community. He's the guy who when he sees me trying to walk into a room or entering the building, he immediately rushes over to open the door for the Rabbi. He's the guy who on his second time meeting me gave me a piece of paper on which he drew by hand a map of Stavropol, so that I wouldn't ever get lost. He's the one who smiles every time I call him by his Jewish name, Yitzchak.

And I think it will be nice returning to Stavropol, and showing him pictures of his relatives in Montreal, and telling him all about how I met his cousin, and what she is like, and giving him a letter she wrote to him.

I hope it warms up his heart like he warms up mine.

Purimshpiel

The children from the Sunday school put on a Purimshpiel for the entire Stavropol Jewish community. Anna Datsyuk (of no relation to Pavel, unfortunately) mouths the words she has sung 2,000,000 times. It's cute.

Purim in Stavropol

While looking back at some pictures, I cam across this video of our event in a restaurant in Stavropol, attended by 120 people. The childrens table cannot be seen, and would anyway not have been seen, since they were practising for their production. The performers were (older man) Ilya Levinbuk, one of the most famous Jewish Russian comedians, who worked for 'Radio Nana' during Soviet times, and another young performer who did most of the singing. I was on the side waiting to start my speech. (There is also a video of me giving the speech in horrible Russian).

A day at the park

Today we took Miriam and Chaim Shimshon to the park. Here are some pictures.

And the babys name is:

CHAIM SHIMSHON (HALEVI)!!!

Miriams first cute story

Over the past week, Miriam has officially learnt what the word 'no' means.

This morning, she crawled over and opened the breakfast drawer where my parents keep the cereal. This is something she usually does, and then scatters all the rice krispies all over the floor, or something to that effect. Ta (my father), seeing her, said "No!"

Obediently, she shut the drawer.

About a minute later, my sister Esty walks in and opens the drawer to get some cereal.

Miriam looks at her, points to the drawer and shouts, "No!"

One more picture

He looks like a blob.

First Photos

Here you go.

Mazel tov

We have a baby boy! Chayale gave birth Motzei Shabbos at 3:43 AM to a healthy, 8.3 pound fish.

I mean boy.

Pictures to follow.

The Ultimate Honor

I just received a post from someone in our community. An amazing woman who wants to learn more about Yiddishkeit, and has been dreaming of getting a Jewish name for herself and her daughter.

Anyway, this past week she was in Rostov, and went to the Shul and got a Jewish name. Her daughter, an 11-year-old also wanted a Jewish name, and she asked her which one.

Without hesitating, she answered, "Chaya Mushka", like our Rabbanit.

So Chayale has someone named after her already.

Boxes

Sometimes the Rebbe wants you to know that you are where he sent you for life.

About a month before we left for Russia, back when we were young and innocent, we sent half our boxes of clothes and food by ship through a guy named 'Bill', expecting to receive them about 48 minutes after we arrived.

We landed in Russia, and found out that they had closed their borders to anything shipped, which meant we were stuck with what we had brought.

This lasted for months and months, and we had in a sense given up, though occassionally we would call Bill to ask him the latest update ("they are in storage in Poland").

About 2 weeks before we left, he told us that Russia had just opened its borders.

Anyway, THE NIGHT BEFORE WE LEFT, as though to say, "don't think you guys can stay in Canada forever," our boxes arrived. 20 of them.

Now we have to send the rest of them. Most are Sefarim which we can't get there otherwise.

No posting for a while

Sorry about the lack of posts, but what is there to write about when you are in Canada?

Aside from the fact that we have been astounded at the amount of kosher food available, and have definitely gained a few pounds each eating at pizza pita or Ernie's and Ellies, there is not much to write about.

I did just return from Toronto, where I went on a small fundraising trip, which turned out OK. I didn't raise much, but I did get to reconnect with some friends and relatives.

A funny fundraising story: I visited someone, showed him our pictures and what we do, and spoke to him for an hour. It was alot of fun, but at the end he told me he was retired and could only afford to give me a post-dated 18 dollar check.

I found it very funny. I thanked him, and the truth is, he DID give it with all his heart.

Anyway, we opened a paypal account, and also figured out that if someone would like to donate 18 dollars a month or something like that, it can now be done. We can even organize American receipts. Just contact me at rabbizvi44@yahoo.com

Also, we are still looking for the following sponsorships:

Tefillin for Igor Lerner - $100 (Tefillin bank covers the rest)
Box of Sefarim shipped to Stavropol - $180
Paroches for Aron Kodesh - (don't know yet exactly how much)

A week and a half to D-day.