Back in the (Former) USSR!

As many of you know, my Pesach (or Passover, or whatever you want to call it) this year was very different from normal. First of all, for those of you who are not familiar with Pesach, it is one of the most important Jewish holidays. It commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. We spend the first two nights having a special ceremony/dinner called a seder (literally, order), and then the holiday lasts seven days if you are in Israel, and eight days everywhere else. During this time, one may not eat anything leavened. There are five specific forbidden grains: wheat, barley, oats, rye, and spelt. One may only eat these grains if they are baked into this terrible pseudo bread stuff called matzah that Jews love to hate.

This year, I spent Pesach in the Former Soviet Union, specifically Belarus, helping some of the Jewish communities there celebrate. This was part of an effort of the World Union for Progressive Judaism called the FSU Pesach project. It's something that HUC students have been participating in for the past ten years.

Before heading to Belarus, all twenty of us who were participating in the project flew to Berlin for a conference. We got there sort of late at night, and unfortunately, our bus driver couldn't find the hostel, so we had to drive around for a while. The good news? We totally missed Obama's visit to Jerusalem and didn't have to deal with road closures or anything. Our first full day in Berlin consisted of a walking tour around Berlin where we saw some of the sites that were connected to either Jewish or communist history. One of these sites was a square where Jews were hung for treason.

But not all of the sites were negative. We got to see the New Synagogue, the synagogue where Louis Lewandowski composed all of his music. If you are Jewish, you probably know some of Lewandowski's music. He is a Classical Reform composer, and wrote a lot of choral things, though today many of his pieces are done as congregational melodies. His most famous piece? The Friday night kiddush. You know that one you learned as a kid? Yup, that's Lewandowski. He also composed a very popular Tzadik Katamar. The synagogue was really cool. It was sort of destroyed on Kristallnacht, and was subsequently reconstructed after the war. Today, it is a museum, and part of it is used for prayer by a traditional egalitarian minyan on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.

Another cool thing we got to see was the Siegessaule (pronounced zigazoila), which a late nineteenth century victory memorial. It was originally located in front of the Reichstag, but the Nazis decided to move it in 1939. Now, you may be asking yourself, "What is the Reichstag?" Well, the Reichstag is a German parliamentary building. It was first used during the Weimar Republic and was later used by the Nazis. After World War II, the building fell into disuse, and East and West Germany each had their own respective parliaments in different locations. After the reunification of Germany, once it was decided that Berlin would definitely be the capital, the Reichstag was renovated.

The second day was spent seeing a few different Jewish cites. One of these cites was the largest and most important Jewish cemetery in Berlin. This cemetery even managed to survive World War II. There are many prominent Jews buried here, including Lewandowski. There were also many regular Jews buried here, including my classmate's great grandfather. After that, we visited the building where the Final Solution was drafted. For those not familiar with the history of the Holocaust, the Final Solution consisted of putting the Jews in death camps and killing them all. The most interesting thing in this now-museum was seeing the actual text of the meeting where the Final Solution was decided upon. It was very unemotional and didn't contain anything relating to morals. It was actually rather practical: "We tried deporting all the Jews, but that doesn't seem to be working, so we're going to put them in death camps instead. Here is who gets to live, and here is who gets to go to the death camps." Scary. Even scarier? It was in a gorgeous neighborhood far outside the center of Berlin. Not somewhere you'd think a genocide would be planned. After that, we went to a deportation site. Most of the Jews at this deportation site were deported to either Auschwitz or Theriesenstadt. On the side of the platform, it listed the date of each deportation, along with the number of Jews deported and the location to which they were deported. After we walked around, we gathered together. I sang El Maleh Rachamim (a traditional prayer to lay the dead to rest), and then we said the mourner's kaddish. Full disclosure: My family came to the United States long before the Holocaust. However, as a part of the Jewish people, I still feel a very strong connection to those were in Europe at that time. In the afternoon, things lightened up a bit. Among other things, we got to see the Volksbuhne Theater, which was where Bertolt Brecht staged many of his plays. The theater geek in me was excited.

That evening, we split off for Shabbat services. Many of us decided to attend a 19th century-style Classical Reform synagogue. It was a total culture shock for me. Most of the music was Lewandowski, and almost all of it was choral. The choir was up in the rafters, not on the bima, and there was an organist. The men and women sat separately, but the women were allowed to sit downstairs, just off to the side. The cantor faced the ark, not the congregation, which is something that I am used to from having prayed in Orthodox synagogues here in Israel. However, I was certainly not used to seeing a cantor in an actual cantor hat (I don't know what it's actually called, anyone else know?). The rabbi gave a sermon having to do with Pesach, but I couldn't really understand it because it was in German. He did explain it to us afterwards: He was comparing a Reform haggadah to a Zionist haggadah. I know that some of my classmates felt that they were really able to pray, but I honestly wasn't for most of it. It almost felt like a concert, except I couldn't see the performers. I wasn't totally surprised by this fact, as I am very much not a Classical Reform Jew, but I'm also not a Modern Orthodox Jew and I'm still feel like I'm praying in places like Shira Hadasha. I wonder if it would have felt more like praying had the choir been on the bima, as I would have been able to see who was praying for me. But I did like the music. One of my favorite parts of the service was when they called the kids up to do kiddush, because it just felt really warm. Yes, they did the Lewandowski one. The rabbi was also really nice and spoke to us afterwards. While this wouldn't be my ideal method of prayer, it was certainly a great experience.

Saturday was mostly spent visiting various Holocaust memorial sites. There were some cool ones. My favorite one was a museum with photo albums submitted by various survivors and the families of those who may not have survived. We also went to the Jewish Museum, which was kind of cool. The one non-Holocaust site that we saw was the Brandenburg Gate. It is a major German monument built in the late eighteenth century. During the partition period, it was next to the Berlin Wall and was therefore practically inaccessible, and it was featured prominently in images of the tearing down of the wall. Other than that, I don't remember much, except that it was extraordinarily cold.

The next day was a travel day, but beforehand, I woke up early to go see the one thing that I really wanted to see that we hadn't yet seen: a large still-standing section of the Berlin Wall. I took the train to a place called the Eastern Gallery, which is a 1.5km stretch of the Berlin Wall that has not been torn down and has been painted with murals. Cool stuff. It was also nice just being by myself. Those who know me well know that I am very much a lone traveler. Travel buddies are fun, but I often like going off and doing my own thing. This has been very easy for me in the past, considering that most of the countries where I have done this have been Spanish-speaking. . . some English and Hebrew-speaking countries too. This is the first country I've traveled to where I didn't speak the local language, but I was fine for the morning, and there are enough similarities between English and German that I would probably be fine if I were to come back here alone.

After that, it was off to Minsk with Alli and Jordan. We were greeted in the airport by Rabbi Grisha, who is the only rabbi in the entire country of Belarus. We were taken to the hotel, where we were introduced to the Educational Director at the WUPJ office, Irina, and our translator, Marina.

Before I go on, a little bit of background information on Belarus. Belarus is not a free country the way Americans would think of a free country. The first president of Belarus was elected in 1994 after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and he has been the president ever since. There have been three elections since then. Every one of these subsequent elections was rigged, and the candidates of the opposition party were jailed. People really don't like the president, but if they speak out against him to the wrong person, they might get jailed. Every government building must have a picture of the president hanging on the wall, whether those who work there like it or not. There are also many laws in place to keep people from protesting. The strangest of these laws is that more than three people cannot walk down the street together. It's also illegal to clap in public. Of course, these laws are not enforceable. The president of Belarus really likes sports, so he invests a lot of time and money into it and builds many sports palaces. Ice palaces are also popular, and there is one in every city. When I say ice palace, I mean something like a skating/hockey rink that is also an arena. It is also illegal to teach religion, and one is technically not allowed to choose a religion until one is eighteen. Therefore, we were told that should anyone ask what we were doing there, we had to say that we were tourists and relate whatever we were doing to culture and tradition, not religion. Despite all of this, Belarus does have modern technology. Smart phones and other gadgets are popular, and people do have access to the outside world and news, though the government does block certain websites. Also, there is a certain degree of respect for the Jewish community, which I will talk about later.

On Monday, Erev Pesach, we took a tour around Jewish Minsk. Most of Minsk was flattened by the Nazis, but there are some interesting memorials to the Jews who were killed. There was also a Jewish WWII-era "hospital." I say this in quotations because they didn't have any sort of tools or equipment to do anything hospital-y, so while in name it was a hospital, in practice it wasn't really. However, it did serve to hide members of the communist resistance. We also saw a lot of the structures that the Soviets put in place. We also saw some structures that used to be Jewish but were taken away from the Jews either by the Nazis or the Soviets, and the Jews did not succeed in getting them back. One of those places was a yeshiva. In the days when this yeshiva existed, those who attended the yeshiva were not allowed to study Chumash (basically synonymous with Torah, but not a scroll), because they were already supposed to know it all. Also, if they did something wrong, their punishment was that they couldn't study past 9pm. Why? Well, all the cool stuff was studied at that time.

After the tour, we helped around the WUPJ office for a bit, which was cool because we got to see the inner workings of the WUPJ. One of the things they are doing is writing a grant for funding for a B'nei Mitzvah program in Gomel. They do not already have a program in place, as they do not have the funding, and a program like this would really help them create strong Jewish leadership for the future.

Then, we led a seder for the Sheket (Hebrew for quiet or silent) community, a community of deaf and hard of hearing people. We lead the second half of the seder. Everything we said had to first be translated into Russian and then into sign language, so we had to be very conscious of this. We still did a lot of singing, as there were some hearing people there. They were so warm and welcoming. One of the things this community focuses on is Jewish artwork, and they gave us some beautiful paper cutouts that had been made by members of the community. This was the first time HUC students had led a seder for this community, so they were excited to have us. To explain the background of the picture: This thing was originally a chupa (marriage booth thingy), but now it is used as a sukkah, and also a stage for the Purim shpiel. After the seder, we met with some of the Netzer youth. Netzer is a group for Jewish teenagers and young adults in Russian-speaking countries. So, it's kind of like a combination between NFTY and Hillel. I found them to be highly entertaining.

The next day, we woke up early and hopped onto a train to Baranovichi. I had never seen a train like this before. It didn't remind me of the high-speed train I took to Barcelona from Madrid, or the modern-looking one I took from Santiago to Temuco with air conditioning and a dining car. This one had steep steps to get onto the train. . . annoying with suitcases. . . would also be impossible for someone in a wheelchair. Once in the train, we went to these compartments that had leather seats and beds on top. I can't explain why, but it looked kind of old school. When we got to Baranovichi, we went to our hotel. Our hotel was from the Stalin era and had not been renovated since (though it did have wifi). Our hotel rooms had living rooms, complete with a china cabinet. After settling in and eating lunch (with a very limited option of breadless veggie stuff. . . I miss LA), we went to a museum that told the history of Baranovichi. Baranovichi is a relatively new city, and it was founded because of the railway. We learned lots of interesting things, such as how Belarus used to be one big country combined with Poland and Lithuania. There was also a small part of the museum that talked about the Pale of Settlement (the place where they made all the Jews go so they wouldn't have to live with them, think shtetls and Fiddler on the Roof). There was a lot commemorating the Great Patriotic War, which was the German-Soviet war at the end of the Nazi occupation. There was also a section on modern Baranovichi. They are very proud of their university, and as it turns out, they're the wind music capital of Belarus. Also, their bird is the stork.

That evening, we led a seder in the Jewish community center. This was the most warm and welcoming community I have ever seen. We were able to get many members of the community involved in the seder. We had some people read some parts in Russian. We also got some kids to read the Four Questions and the Four Sons. We also did a lot of singing. There was a guy with an accordion, and every time we sang something he knew, he played along with us. At one point, we were singing Dayenu, and we noticed a table of people singing something different from us. So, we stopped singing, and it turned out they were singing Dayenu in Russian. AMAZING. I did get to lead kiddush, which made me happy because I've been leading kiddush at my family seder basically since I learned the festival kiddush like 18 years ago, long before I was ever in charge of our seder music, and long before being a cantor was ever on my radar (one of my friends commented that I lead a very good kiddush, and this is why), so it was like being at home. Kheel family seder attendees take note: This crowd not only completed the entire seder (rather than wandering off and making me and Aunt Leslie collect everyone and tie them to the table), they enjoyed it! AND, they stayed around and sang for a while afterwards. In fact, the guy with the accordion and the people at his table led something of a song session. It was cool because a lot of the songs they did were Israeli or Hebrew, and so I was able to sing along. I actually kinda wish I could come back here every year.

The next day, we visited the Baranovichi local council building (like a city hall). It was really interesting because they kept showing us that they have the latest technology and talking about how anyone who wanted could come in and get all of their questions answered. It all seemed so, err, sterile. We also found out that they are very nice to the Jewish community, and that Sofia, the leader of the Reform community, even gets invited to city councils. In the afternoon, Sofia gave us a tour around Jewish Baranovichi. Lots of Holocaust-related sites, things like the entrance to the Baranovichi ghetto and a place where a bunch of Jews were taken out of a train and shot. Also a building that was once a yeshiva and is now a gym. Very uplifting stuff. There was a building commemorating a Polish woman who was a righteous gentile, and it seems like the Jewish cemetery is still in tact, so it is not all bleak. In fact, like I said, the Jewish community seems to be doing okay. Later, we met with some of the Jewish youth of Baranovichi. I think the youngest was around ten and the oldest was around twenty-one. They don't quite have enough people of the right age to start a Netzer branch, but they're getting there. They were all very sweet. Hopefully, I will keep in touch with some of them.

The next day, we headed back to Minsk. First, we went to a Jewish school for a concert. It was really interesting because it was like a school within a school. That is, it was something of a Jewish section within a public school. Fascinating. We each sang two songs for them. We mostly stuck with fun Pesach and camp-style songs so that they could sing along. Then, the students sang and played music for us. They were also so talented. I was quite impressed with their knowledge of Jewish and especially Israeli music. There was this one first grader named Liara who sang a medley of "S'vivon" (a Chanukah song), "Chag Purim" (a Purim song), and "Dayenu" (a Pesach song). Cutest thing EVER. There were also a couple of students who played the balalaika. It was my first time ever seeing a balalaika. For those of you who have also never seen one, it looks like the picture on the left. So, kind of like a guitar, but not. For the grand finale, they sang one of my favorite Israeli songs, "Halleluyah," in both Hebrew and Russian. Ben Z, if you happen to be reading this, there were like four modulations, and I totally thought of you.

In the evening, we sang in a cantorial concert. It was awesome. They streamed it. You can watch it here (I had trouble getting it to embed). If you are pressed for time, I sing around 0:43, 1:13, and then we do a trio toward the end. However, you really should listen to all the songs. There were some Netzer youth who sang, and they were AMAZING. Also, Liara, my favorite Belarusian first-grader, sang her medley at the beginning.

Then, we evaluated the trip, and early the next morning, we got on an airplane to go back to Israel. We were originally supposed to have a two-hour layover in Russia. However, whoever the travel agent was forgot to tell us that we needed Russian transit visas. We really didn't want to get stuck in Russia, so they rerouted us through Vienna, which meant a 6am flight and a four hour layover. Either way, it was nice to be back in Israel. At the end of the seder, there's a line, "L'shanah haba'ah birushalayim," which means, "Next year in Jerusalem." I'm glad I got to fulfill this for at least part of the holiday. Pesach food in Israel is nuts. They have, I kid you not, kosher for Pesach BREAD. Huh? It didn't taste like real bread, but I almost felt like it defeated the purpose. At least it was easy to eat out, which was good because I came home to no food. I mean, it's also easy to eat out in LA because they're big on salad and some restaurants serve matzah. . . It wasn't quite as easy to find kosher for Pesach vegetarian food in Belarus, but I managed just fine. The bread thing is still cracking me up. Not that I tried it, but my friends told me the also found kosher for Passover pasta in a few restaurants. Wow. Also, as I mentioned, Pesach is only seven days in Israel, so I got to break it a day earlier than normal. Woohoo!

Anyway, my holiday experience was wonderful, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. L'shanah haba'ah b'Los Angeles!