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JTA
Rabbi Ari Edelkopf affixes a mezuzah at one of the two temporary Chabad Houses strategically placed near the 2014 Olympic Games.

Sochi Ready for Jewish Arrivals

Soft sand and turquoise beaches make Sochi a lovely holiday destination, but this coastal Russian city is less than ideal for providing religious services to large numbers of Jewish visitors.

With few native Jews and only one resident rabbi, the Black Sea resort of 400,000 residents would seem ill-equipped to handle the tens of thousands of Jewish visitors expected to arrive here for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Nonetheless, as the 2014 winter games open, the city boasts five Jewish information centers, three synagogues and 13 rabbis.

The Jewish infrastructure in Sochi is aimed not only at serving Jewish visitors but also at advertising what the Chabad-affiliated Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia calls a Jewish revival in the former Soviet Union. Boruch Gorin, a senior Chabad rabbi in Moscow, told JTA the Jewish presence in Sochi is meant to function something like an embassy.

“At Sochi, there will be international media, politicians, top athletes,” Gorin said. “It is very important that we show that we are on the map and what is happening to Russian Jewry, its revival.”

Among the services available to Jewish visitors are daily prayer minyans, Shabbat dinners, tefillin stations and kosher food. Sochi’s Chabad rabbi, the Los Angeles-born Ari Edelkopf, says the community has prepared 7,000 meals. An English-language website, jewishsochi.com, was launched last month to provide updated information for visitors and athletes, including the five Israelis competing.

The Sochi Jewish community began preparing for the games last year, with a massive renovation of the city’s small permanent synagogue and the introduction of a new Torah scroll. The synagogue is hosting the community’s own opening ceremony with a reception to welcome Jewish athletes.

As with most things Jewish in Russia today, Jewish services in Sochi are spearheaded by Chabad, which dispatched its first emissaries to the former Soviet Union 20 years ago, after the fall of communism. In December, Berel Lazar, the Chabad-affiliated chief rabbi of Russia, announced plans for new synagogues in 12 Russian locales from Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave bordering Poland and Lithuania, to Birobidzhan in the Far East. Five new synagogues will open in Moscow alone.

Chabad’s emissaries helped breathe new life not only into established Jewish communities but also into places like Sochi which, according to Chabad, never had a permanent Jewish community before the 20th century. The growth of Chabad’s network has made large-scale efforts like Sochi possible.

“Ten years ago, the same sort of effort in Sochi would have been much more difficult and more expensive from a logistical point of view,” Gorin said.

As with the games themselves, which cities often woo in part for their long-term impact on development, Edelkopf, Sochi’s rabbi, hopes the global exposure for his small community will have an enduring effect.

“We hope the exposure and the heightened awareness of Jewish community life will increase long-term interest in Jewish life for Sochi Jews and its visitors,” he told JTA.

Just months after Rabbi Edelkopf, 36, moved to Sochi 12 years ago, a Siberia Airlines flight crashed over the Black Sea on its way to Russia from Israel. Many of the 66 passengers aboard were Russian Israelis, and Edelkopf, the only rabbi in the area, spent sleepless nights in the morgue helping to identify the victims and acting as the main contact person for families.

His performance was so impressive that Lazar mentioned it during an address at the Knesset in 2011 about the importance of the network of Chabad emissaries.

“Within hours, Rabbi Edelkopf was transformed into a combination of forensics expert and undertaker; a therapist and grief counselor and the contact person for dozens of Israeli families and with the Israeli government,” Lazar said.

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18 Comments

  • K

    Olympics are the real true tameh of the Greeks and the only remnant of them in this Golus Edom..I cannot imagine anyone who appreciates kedusha to come and participate in this event even as a spectator. It would be like watching Mass in the Vatican.

    Many Yidden visit the Vatican but I wonder if someone should open a Chabad House there?!

    • yy

      your comparison is excellent with great knowledge of when and where to open a chabad house.
      I guess you are not the one to decide on this matter.
      what a shame!

    • Ezra

      …אפילו גמרא לא גמר

      See Megillah 6a: אלו תראטריות וקרקסיות שבאדום שעתידין שרי יהודה ללמד בהן תורה ברבים: “these are the theaters and circuses in Edom, in which the leaders of Yehudah will in the future teach Torah publicly.” (See also Tosafos there, that one explanation of תראטריות is “houses of idol worship,” and their preferred explanation that both תראטריות and קרקסיות are “places where idolaters gather.”)

    • K

      Do you think we are now at the era of שעתידין ? True, compared to the time of the Gemarah, we are now in a future time, but unless I am proven wrong, the Gemarah refers to a future time, after the Geulah Ha’Asidah.

      To say that the Gemarah refers to our times, as an excuse to place a Chabad House in a place of Tumah, is simply beyond absurd.

    • Ezra

      So there’s not allowed to be a Chabad House, or synagogue, in any city that hosts the Olympics, even if (as in this case) it’s not at the actual venue. Gotcha.

      I presume, then, that you have previously called for the demolition of all shuls in places of tum’ah such as London, Montreal and Los Angeles?

    • K

      I am not talking about forbidding a mokom Torah in “any city that hosts the Olympics”, just AT the Olympics.

      You “claim” that the Chabad House is not “at” the venue (I wonder if it is it outside of daled amos, or tchum shabbos?!), but certainly you will admit that it is being established l’kovod the Olympics! This is no differentthan a Chabad House to service the Vatican.

      I assume a shaylah was asked and a heter was given by prominent Chabad Rabbonim, but can you share their names?

      No? I didn’t think so!

    • Ezra

      Do you even read the articles before you comment?

      “Just months after Rabbi Edelkopf, 36, moved to Sochi 12 years ago…”

      So the Chabad House long predates the Olympics. You’re saying, then, that they should close up shop and stop serving the local community. Shomu shamayim!

  • Pinchos Woolstone

    Chabad is not giving credence to the Olympics per se.
    The Chabad House is not in the official village.
    Chabad is providing Jewish services to the Jewish visitors who are traveling to Sochi.
    A kosher meal, a warm Shabbos atmosphere and a Shul in which to daven.
    All positive things

    • K

      Be real! “Chabad is providing Jewish services to the Jewish visitors who are travelling to…Sochi”, no, be real, not to Sochi by travelling to the Olympics!

      It is like providing Jewish services to Jews visiting the Vatican. Some might not have a problem with that. But at least get a heter from reliable Rabbonim!

    • Ezra

      K, perhaps you can tell us what reliable rabbonim – not your own boich sevaras – say that going to the (modern) Olympics is beyond the pale, akin to avodah zarah. (That the ancient Olympics were such – is neither here nor there.) Then we can talk about whether Rabbi Edelkopf needs any kind of heter to do what he’s doing.

    • K

      Most frum yidden (kal v’chomer bnei Torah) ask a shaylah to get da’as Torah before embarking on a venture ESPECIALLY if there is a svora (boich or otherwise) that raises concern.

      But just because YOU don’t hold of the need to ask a shaylah, does not mean that no shaylah was asked.

      I am dan l’kaf zchus that a heter was given and this was done al pi daas Torah, while you presume that this was done al daas atzmo.

      I think I give the shaliach more credit than you do!

    • K

      In reply to your comment: Do you even read the articles before you comment? “Just months after Rabbi Edelkopf, 36, moved to Sochi 12 years ago…”

      I don’t think the shaliach started wearing his Olympics “necklace” and ID 12 years ago – see photo with article (I may not read well, but I can see well).

      This necklace and tag is a tachsheet clearly associated with the tumah of the Olympics. I think it is like wearing a tachsheet associated with avoda zarah (like a crucifix). It may be a tachsheet for Hilchos SHabbos but the one who wears it is no tachsheet.

    • K

      I cannot ignore the words you wrote, “perhaps you can tell us what reliable rabbonim – not your own boich sevaras – say that going to the (modern) Olympics is beyond the pale, akin to avodah zarah”

      Not to beat a dead horse, but recent outcry against COTS as being “akin to avodah zarah” – you agree and accept, but the Olympics which is mamash sourced in Greek avoda zarah, you find that “kosher”. Don’t you think it is backwards?!

  • Ezra

    Again, I’d like to ask who died and made you posek hador, to decide – on no evidence whatsoever – that the Olympics logo is “like a tachsheet associated with avoda zarah.” Bring some halachic evidence for that assertion, then we’ll talk.

  • K

    Finally, you wrote …אפילו גמרא לא גמר

    I wonder out loud about your ability to pasken shaylas straight from the Gemarah and Rishonim, even from Agadetah. That is incredible but reflects poorly on those who taught you basic halacha standards.

    Is this how you decide issues of kashrus, shabbos and tahara? Nebech.