Cultural day in Stavropol

When I was back in Russia, I used to chat on the phone all the time with Yossi Marozov, the incredible (and American) Shliach in Ulyanovsk. I loved our talks, since we bounced ideas off one another very good. He's also a doer, and has accomplished an incredible amount in the 3 years he's been out there.

He dreamed about making a personal calendar for the Jews of Ulyanovsk, with their classes and birthdays listed in there, pictures from the community... something people would proudly display in their homes... He imagined being able to publicly honor donors in the calendar, and not having to go to the back of the calendar to find local Shabbos times.

Well, he accomplished it, and even better and more impressive than I could have thought. Please go visit his blog (linked on the left) and tell him what an awesome job he did and is doing. Check out the calendar, it is spectacular.

This is a page from the calendar. I think it is beautiful. He also has complete pages devoted to: Sunday school, Mommy and me, Mezuza campaign, a chuppah he arranged, youth clubs, his overnight camp, his kosher store, his classes titled 'Judaism in the 21'st century', women's club, and their shul.
I recently received an email from a member of our community with some pictures from a recent Stavropol cultural festival. The community rallied together (avoiding Yefim's people) and put on something beautiful. Here is some public Klezmer...
The Jewish table at the fair. Aaaaaaaah, I miss them all!
A picture of just the kids...
And this is their Rosh Hashana experience, with cameras, and if you look closely on the left of the picture, apparently television too. Looks like they rented somewhere nice. they could use some guidance on what Rosh Hashana is all about.
And leading the services (at least without a mike) is Hillel Davidov with 13 year old Gavriel Zizov. Two people who were my friends and whom I greatly miss.

:(