Mobile Synagogues to Travel Across Russia

Russian Jews have decided to modify a popular quotation. “Earlier, Jews had to come to the synagogue, but now, synagogue will come to Jews,” they affirm.

The residents of various Russian cities are now meeting mitzvah-mobiles in their streets. On Monday, mobile-synagogues equipped with everything needed to conduct an educational mission left Moscow along three directions, south, north-west and east. The move is aimed at awakening the interest of Russian Jews in their religion’s history and traditions.

The routes of mobile-synagogues will pass through cities where Jewish communities exist. The organizers of the project plan to visit about 50 big cities and towns. Young rabbis and students of Jewish spiritual establishments from the U.S., Europe and Israel are on board these vehicles. They will share their knowledge with Russians and answer their questions.

Russia’s Federation of Jewish Communities has organized this mission. “Our sacred responsibility is to share our knowledge with those who have lost this possibility under certain conditions. In fact, we are a united people”, said spokesman for the federation, Andrei Glotser in an interview with the Voice of Russia.

“At present, many Jews, who have separated from their roots, live in Russian regions. I believe that this act is very important not only to Jews. We have long been isolated from our religion and faith. The cultural and spiritual situation in the country has significantly improved in the past 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but we have to do a lot more and we will resume our educational mission,” Andrei Glotser said.

The mission of mobile-synagogues across Russia is also known as a large-scale Jewish ethnographic expedition. The organizers of the expedition introduce Jewish traditions to those who wish to learn about them and at the same time, they themselves get acquainted with the customs of local Jewish communities. “Our ethnographic expedition is destined to be the icebreaker in the cold of ignorance and timidness,” said coordinator of the project Rabbi Iosef Khersonsky sharing his impression on travelling.

“We arrive in a city and make two stopovers. The first one is with the Jewish community where we meet with those who have realized the importance of Jewish traditions to their life. The second one is held in an open secular place in the city, and we are talking to those who have responded to our call to meet us regardless of their faith or ethnicity. This is an open discussion on Torah, our history, traditions and commandments as well as what it means to be Jewish,” Iosef Khersonsky said.

The first unusual mitzvah-mobiles appeared in New York streets in 1974. At the time, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson launched a campaign in the U.S. for observing Ten Commandments in the sacred book of Torah by the Jews in the country. The word “mitzvah” literally means commandment in Hebrew, while mobile synagogues became one of the tools in the fight against spiritual assimilation of Jews who live far away from their historical motherland.

At present, these actions can be seen in many countries. However, mitzvah-mobiles can be seen now only in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The current mission of visiting Russian regions was launched for the first time. However, the Federation of Jewish Communities believes that this is only a new page in the history of Russian Judaism.