We're back

Internet is up again, and here is what you've all missed.

- Upshernish of Dan Berkun. It was fun and lively.

- Start of Friday night Minyan. Last week I had 9 attendants.

- Chayale's women's club. For Tu Beshvat they made fruit platters. 9 women came.

- I started weekly visiting a senior in the community. Thanks to Levi Stiefel for that suggestion, it's been going great!

- Chayale went for a week to New York for Chavi's engagement party and the kinus (international conference for shluchos). She came back inspired, and with shalach manos for all the kids in Sunday school.

- Once again peace talks have begun in the community, and I am almost literally bending myself backwards to show I am serious about peace, though on the other hand I told the president of the community that 'I have proven that I want peace. Your actions up to now show otherwise, and therefore you must prove to me that you want peace before funding from Moscow returns.' Nonetheless for the time being, I've requested a return of the funding, and will attend shabbos afternoon gathering provided it is kosher.

The dancing in the shul...


I led a Hakafa.


The kindergarten put on a show, singing about the Torah.


Reading Hakafos with Shmuel Osik, a Krasnodar Baal Teshuva and amazing guy.



Dancing in the Shul with Refoel Khaimov. Stavropol rocked the house!

On the streets of Krasnodar

Can you see the marching band?


I also danced with the Torah! The other Torah also came out of the Shul to greet the new one.


Hillel Davidov was one of the first guys to grab the Torah outside. Apparently there was a preset order of whom Rabbi Shneor Segal was giving the Torah to, but he was so excited he kind of pushed in and grabbed the Torah and started dancing with it.

They had a marching band behind the Chuppah. It was really nice. The only hitch was that the parade took about 45 mnutes, and they only knew 3 Jewish tunes.

Try dancing to Haveinu Shalom Aleichem repeated for a half hour.

First new pictures... The Torah event in Krasnodar

That's me! Writing in the Torah!


Hillel Davidov writes a letter in the Torah.


Putting Tefillin on Refoel Khaimov as the event started.

Baby food

We're back. Internet is working.
And the above picture was taken in Moscow's Vnukovo airport bathroom.

Todays topic, before I upload a thousand more photos: baby food.

I never thought it would be this big of a deal. When your 7 month old baby needs food, you just whip over to the local supermarket and buy a couple of cans of mushed bananas.

Not in rush.

No sir. Mushed bananas in a can in Russia are not totally kosher. In Moscow they have a bunch of kosher food, but way out in the windy city of Stavropol (which has been experiencing wonderful summery weather for a month already... take THAT Los Cabos) you gotta MAKE all the food for your baby.

I never thought it was so difficult, but it is a while situation.

First you gotta find the mixture of stuff you want to mush. Then you gotta cook it. After that is done, you must zhuzh it for a while to make sure there are no chunks of whatever it is, and finally you gotta cool it down (or if it was in the fridge from last use, heat it up).

Chaim eats SO much!!!!

Quick updates

- Chavi is engaged. Woooooo! I danced around the house in my pyjamas when I heard. (Chavi is chayale's sister).

- To Dovid Russ! (he's a buddy). For that I will now perform a split.

Ouch.

- We received money from our Or Avner organization to do some work. Most of it goes to pay salaries, but we are closer to standing on our feet.

- We have taken over sunday school. It's now full of Yiddishkeit, and how we want it. We also are making it one of the best Sunday schools in the city (where else can kids learn English in stavropol from a NATIVE SPEAKER)?

- chayale's womens class has been rocking. It's popular, and for the past 3 weeks she has averaged around 10 women a week. (it's in our apartment. She teaches lessons on prayer, and then teaches them how to cook something else each week).

- She also made a womens club for Tu Bishvat in which they turned fruits into swans and stuff. 10 people came (several cancelled at the last moment).

- Friday night Minyan in our apartment is growing and is really nice. We just sing the entire time, talk about a different prayer each week, and then sit down to eat.

- We bought a dryer. The ones here aren't like the ones in America. You don't need a plastic pipe poking out the window, rather the dirt magically disappears.

- Our kitchen is still missing some essentials. We have no office to speak of yet, but we are happy.

- I went to Krasnodar for their Torah celebration last week and it was absolutely stunning. I brought two Jews from stavropol, and they got pumped about it. I'll post pictures when we get internet at home. The party went from a classy theatre through the streets of Krasnodar with a marching band to the beautiful shul where we made Hakafos. Both Stavropol guys got to write a letter in the Torah, and I showed them where we 'will be in 3 years.' They were particularly impressed with the kindergarten.

My time is running out in the internet cafe. I gotta go.

And here.

http://shturem.net/index.php?section=news&id=33554

This is what I did last Sunday...

http://col.org.il/show_news.rtx?artID=44599

I'll write more about it soon...

A Moscow secret

Day 3 in Moscow.

I awoke early and had a Chassidish start to my day. Mikvah (amazing how much it is missed when on shlichus), I leined for the early Minyan (7:00), got an Aliyah (being the only Levi there), and FINALLY said the Hagomel blessing.

I was supposed to meet Peter Order (the other sponsor) at Minyan, and I even arranged a pair of Tefillin for him, but he went to a different shul, thinking that was where we had made up to go (or maybe I went to the wrong shul).

If anyone ever visits Moscow, put this on your list of things to do, of little Moscow secrets. Breakfast in the Marina Roscha kosher restaurant is a bargain and is delicious. For 250 rubles (about 9 bucks), you get an all-you-can eat buffet with everything you can imagine, plus good juices, tea and coffee.

As well, there are two tables on the sides, and behind each of them a woman stands. One on table there are all kinds of vegetables and salad dressings, and a woman with a knife will toss up a salad for you based on your preferences on the spot.

The other table is for eggs, and it is full of spices, cheeses, etc. You can have a lady fry an egg any way you like or get creative.

Lunch and supper, on the other hand, they need to work on.

Anyway, from there I went to buy kosher baby cereal which can only be bought in Moscow. This will relieve some pressure off Chayale, who needs to make everything from scratch in order to feed Chaim.

It was odd to realize that an ordinary store in Moscow is equivalent to Stavropol's largest food shop.

Russia is so different in many ways from the US and Canada, but one way which stands above all is how everything is sourced to Moscow. It's like every province is a slave to the main city. This means that all the best food from Stavropol winds up in Moscow. Since no one really cares about the smaller cities, especially since that's not where all the money is they wind up at the far back of the line.

Thank G-d we have Metro.

Now if only we can get a normal shopping mall and some normal stores.

Rant over.

Anyway, I then went to finish sorting out the meat, which is another problem. I have to pay for the meat, AND for the driver to drag it and bribe the busdriver to take it with him on the trip to Stavropol.

I made a huge order.

One thing really impressed me about the Bolshoi Bronnaya shul.

At the entrance after you get through security you are immediately greeted by a smiling Rabbi with a pair of Tefillin in his hands asking how he can help you.

Of course, if you don't have a Kippa, he hands one to you. And if you haven't put on Tefillin, he'll wrap some on you.

Luckily I went to Mikvah or he may have stripped me naked.

They also have an awesome Fleishig restaurant on the 5th floor. Real classy, yummy food.

Peter soon dropped by and we chatted for awhile about personal issues. I'm going to get him a pair of Tefillin, and he will be sending 3 computers fully equipped to Stavropol to help us start our office.

The I had to rush back and pack up. My cab driver didn't know the way, and what was supposed to be a half hour drive turned into an hour and a half. When I got to the apartment I was staying, the other cab was already there, impatient.

Boruch Hashem I made it to the airport, hauling my 52 kilo bag behind me (full of kosher food and books).

In an hour my plane flies. I gotta get to my gate.

Kosher meat plays hard to get

This morning I was meant to go visit Eli Ginsberg and get to see his newborn daughter Mira, but due to complications we eventually got together at the Marina Roscha Shul in the early afternoon.

There we spoke for several minutes. I told him that now that he has a family, he should start putting on Tefillin every day. We negotiated, and he decided to do it as often as he can. We also spoke about several other intelligent stuff, after which I gave him some cute gifts that Chayale put together (Jewish book, little Torah) and I bought (the Mezuza pictured above), which he weill use to make Mira's room have more of a Jewish feeling.

Then he made a nice donation, which will be used to get a ton more meat to Stavropol.

With Or Avner's office closure and gradual implosion to what it is now (due to the crisis), the way of shluchim in regional cities to get kosher meat has become harder.

Previously we could call Or Avner in Moscow, place our order, and they would pay for it and send it to us by having a driver take it to the train or bus (or plane if you live in the far east I think). All that is because no food is allowed in the post or something like that.

Anyway, the money would be taken out of our next paycheck, simple as pie.

However, now that resource has closed. And so the shluchim are trying to discover new ways to get meat. And then of course there is the problem of paying the companies for the meat too (they have no access to our salaries).

So I spent the day working out how to get meat, and placing a massive order (which I will finish tomorrow iy"h). What a pain.

Tomorrow, incidentally, I also leave back home, which means that the next time I will be posting regularly is when we have internet, which should be soon (quick hopeful glance at the sky).

By the way, the first picture is of me putting a Mezuza up in our new apartment.

She's learning

Training in our old apartment

Check out the bodyslam

Enjoy!

Birds

Every evening millions of birds fly poast our apartment. Here is a video.
Ignore Miriam's screams. She wanted to see. I always hold her by the window, and this time the camera got a turn instead.

Some photos

The jaccuzzi in all its glory:


Hallway entrance to the living room:



The hall:



Kitchen ceiling:

The view from outside our house:


As you can see I found a good computer with internet here in Moscow. Again, the pictures don't do it justice. They make the apartment seem smaller than it is. Each room is way bigger. I just had to stand in each one and couldn't find a good spot to keep it looking roomy...

And by the way, this morning after Minyan we gave Eli Ginsberg's daughter a name: Mira.

His friends came, and afterward we said Lechaims. My Lechaim was:

"May she only keep you awake in the night before she turns two."

Some more quickies to report

- I'm in Moscow... Eli Ginsberg had a baby girl, and I'm here to celebrate with him

- We started running Sunday school since the Sachnut has no more money for it, and our new ideas and style has already been applauded by the parents. The kids love it... but more on that when I get internet at home, which should be iy"h this week

- I started: learning with Yisroel Silberstein once a week shulchan aruch over the phone, organizing my Wednesday class and making it more professional, visiting an old person from the community every Monday in order to meet more people in Stavropol (and I try to go to ones with large families that are Halachically Jewish, but don't have much to do with the community). That idea credit goes to Levi Stiefel of Voronezh. And finally, my Mivtzoim route has expanded a bit on Thursdays. I'm out of the house almost the entire day. Oh, and Friday night I started a Minyan.

Last shabbos we had the first 'minyan', and it was better than I dreamed. I spent all Friday working on typing out in Russian some main songs of Davening (Yedid Nefesh, Lecha Dodi, Shema til Emes, Vayechulu, Aleinu and Al Tira), and two men came. But there was such a beautiful atmosphere. At one point, one of the men's children came in and started singing with us, holding onto his fathers hand. They also quietly read from a Siddur by Shmone Esrei and whispered their own private prayers. At Lecha Dodi I explained the history of the prayer and spoke a little about it.

I finished with a Dvar Torah on the week, then we gathered for Shalom Aleichem, Eishes Chayil and the meal.

They are learning the tunes and words. It helped that I gave them some downloaded youtube videos (gorgeous ones) with the songs on them, such as:



Search for this on youtube under שלום עליכם.

Also, Moscow cut all funding from the president of the community...

More next time.

So much to post, so little time

I am back in an internet cafe... There is so much to say, I will be brief.

Our new apartment doesn't have a phone, kicthen, or internet yet. Everything else is amazing.

The kids love it and we love it, but for now our fridge is outside the window and our oven is only our small milchig one.

The head of the community was holding the Aron Kodesh hostage since Moscow cut funding from him, but now he agreed to send it to our apartment. Yay!

It took us a day to move. Crazy day too, 4 workers shlepped from 10 AM to 9 PM. We paid 400 dollars for the work.

We still need to buy an oven and a fridge.

The jaccuzzi is amazing, as is the bathroom heated floor.

From our bedroom window you can see Lenin square, and the sort of miniature 'times square' of the city. Also, a few floors under us is the top of a small apartment building. They don't have any curtains on their windows, which isn't so bad.

What is bad is that this includes the bathroom. During the day you can't see anythihng, but at night everything is dark, and you can very clearly watch people go to the bathroom.

Only in Russia. Chayale is planning on giving them a visit (and NOT to use their bathroom).

Being in a super-classy building means you gotta deal with the super classy people. There's a building committe and stuff. This lady met me in the hall and told me the ordinances. Whatever.

No time to blog

Too much packing... We signed for our new apartment today and took the kids through the center of the city on a trip... will post pictures tomorrow. It was amazing.

Check this out

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090103/NEWS10/901030319

Benny's video

Just a little scratch from my bigger sister

Malky asked about our office.

We don't have an office, Malx. And won't be getting one probably until February. Reason: because of the crisis, and the fact that lots of our funding was cut, we had to close our old office. Since prices haven't yet fallen, Rabbi Lazar wants us to hold off getting a new office for a month, since everyone is predicting that prices will shoot down.

Anyway, we need to move house, so there's no time for that...

Packing...

Sometimes I watch them...



Sometimes Malkali watches them...



So that we can pack all our boxes.

She's nuts

Notice how poised and under control I am at the end of the video. As a normal serious-faced gentleman, I abhor her behavior.

Angela Avshalumova brings toys for the new year

As we were packing, we noticed how many things she has brought us as gifts that are now part of our household items. It's actually pretty amazing.

How very, very Russian

Inspired by my friends beautiful display of pictures of her visit to Israel, pictures which truly exeplified the Israeli spirit, I felt compelled to share some pictures of my tropical city in all its uniqueness and grandeur.



Even the coke can wants to use the beautiful and fun swing outside our house.



The park outside our house.



Selling fruits and veggies on the corner next to our house Erev New Years (and every other day).



Selling 4 old forks and a shoe-horn.



Luckily, the fire station is round the corner from us, so if we have a fire this nifty and modern firetruck will come zooming around the corner and save us.



Side view of the firetruck with all its gadgets.



We have a very clean city. No littering allowed.



Eggs for sale (the chicken is behind the table).



Rabbits for sale. Yummy yummy. I bought two home for Shabbos.



Fresh (whatever that means) seafish for sale in a glass box.



Beats the gap BIG TIME!


Posted by Chayale.

Russian New Year

Yesterday we spent all day packing. You can't buy boxes here, rather you need to either grab them from the garbage next to stores or have a friend who will give you his boxes from his stores. Luckily Oleg Bogopolsky has a friend, so we got a bunch of boxes.

New Years is crazy in Russia. Since fireworks are legal for everyone to own, there is no planned event, rather there are like 50 of them, plus all of the private people who just shoot them off at home, in the street, or out the window. So much fireworks happen at once and for over an hour that it sounds like a popcorn machine.

Last night we watched a neighbor shoot rockets from his window. One of them smashed into the building across the street. We also saw some drunk guys singing in the street beneath us, and someone lighting fireworks in the middle of the road. Also, at about 12:45, all 3 firetrucks from the fire station near us raced to center of the city, sirens wailing. I wonder what happened.

For the next couple of days it's dangerous to go out into the streets, and most shluchim in Russia stay home.

WHAT AN ACCOMPLISHING DAY!

Well today was a very good day for me and my children. And so I feel inclined to share it....

I woke up early, earlier than everyone else so I had some quiet computer time and shower time before anyone stirred. By the time Miriam woke up, I was starting to make pancakes for breakfast. We ate fruit and pancakes for breakfast and then Miriam and I davened.

Then, we made cookies. Miriam did it all. She put in the ingreidents, mixed them, rolled out the dough, cut the alef bais shapes and painted them with frosting when they were baked. She even helped me wash the dishes! IT was fantastic, took forever and when she was done, she was so exhausted, she went straight to sleep.

Then I learned a Sicha with Aliza Silverstein from Vladivostok (which we do once a week) about how we have to elevate the sparks around us and everybody is in the place they need to be to be mvarer the nitzuzos that are shayich to their Neshamah. (Like why the yidden had to go Mitzraim, davka to mvarer the nitzuzim there by taking their money for the sparks were in the money) Very inspiring except we were trying to figure out what is with our Neshamahs that they need to be in charge of all whole city in Yokelsville. We concluded that the only way to elevate all the sparks in our respective cities is to gather all the money here. But anyway...

Then I made soup, tomato vegetable. yummy... Then I took the kids on a walk to take pictures of very Russian stuff which I will post soon. As I got back, Angela Avshlomova showed up bearing gifts for the new year. Grey goose for Zvi, chocolates from Israel for me (not kosher :(), toys for the kids... we chatted, it was nice.

Supper was goulash, my mom's style with hot dogs although she wouldn't answer the phone so I had to make it from memory and soup.

Bedtime and that's it. Very very good day... May all my days copy this one.

Some final Chanukah photos

Newspaper Stuff

A children's Jewish newspaper we made it into last year that I just found on the web.



So we put an ad in the local paper: "collector looking to buy Jewish books and items. Please call... (secretary's number follows)." It came out yesterday and already 2 people called. One wanted to sell us a 'garlic presser' that is 'distinctively Jewish', and another has a library of Russian Jewish books someone sold her before he left to Israel.

Apparently they are Meforshim on the Torah, or something like that. I'm going to look at them after the 'New Year,' which in Russia lasts like 2 weeks, and is the most dangerous time of the year too, since everyone walks around drunk.

Also, the local paper 'Stavropol Vecher' made a report on the Chanuka event. It was a nice report, and well received by the community.

And finally, an interesting article made it into the biggest local paper, which can be read here:

http://a2k.org.ua/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=233&Itemid=2

or in English (badly translated) but please read:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://news.1777.ru/2008/12/23/na-krepostnojj-gore-postrojat-torgovyjj.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%25D1%2581%25D1%2582%25D0%25B0%25D0%25B2%25D1%2580%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BF%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BB%25D1%258C%2B%25D1%2581%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B0%25D0%25B3%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B3%25D0%25B0%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

In short, the square where the shul used to be is being discussed by a group of architects and artists. They want to revive the place, and modernize it. Part of the plan is to give the Synagogue back to the Jews! Interesting.



P.S. Here is a fantastically translated article about the shul:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.okavkaze.ru/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dblogcategory%26id%3D52%26Itemid%3D76&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%25D1%2581%25D1%2582%25D0%25B0%25D0%25B2%25D1%2580%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BF%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BB%25D1%258C%2B%25D1%2581%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B0%25D0%25B3%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B3%25D0%25B0%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Zvi exemplifies the Morristown community as he searches for meat in the cholent on Tuesday night

Fjc.ru

English:

http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=799686

Russian:

http://russian.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=799665

Chaim is cute