“And they Traveled to Rusland” – World’s Largest Yiddish Magazine Highlights Pesach in Russia

 “Six dramatic days including Shabbos in Siberia”- says the title on the cover of the Pesach edition that was delivered to hundreds of thousands loyal readers, telling all about the special journey on which the young and talented journalist Reb Ari Weiser set out.

Several months before Pesach, “Moment”- the well known Yiddish newspaper, decided to bring the contemporary story of Russian Jewry to its readers, most of whom regularly read newspapers in Yiddish only, and were now exposed for the first time to the atmosphere of Yiddishkeit in the world’s largest country and its Chabad Shluchim.

The highlight of the trip was an exclusive fascinating conversation in the office of Russia’s Chief Rabbi Hagaon Rabbi Berel Lazar Shlit”a. The conversation spans about fifteen pages, in which the Rabbi recounts the early days of his Shlichus when he was sent by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, about the establishment of the many Jewish institutions, and gives eye opening answers regarding chinuch, kiruv, leadership, connections, and more. 

The author dedicates a special chapter with beautiful descriptions to his visit in Siberia, where he spent Shabbos with the Shliach to Omsk Rabbi Naftali Wilhelm, and then continued on to Novosibirsk, the capital of Siberia, where he was hosted by the Shliach Rabbi Shneur Zalman Zaklos, who showed him the city’s Jewish infrastructure.

In between, the author also toured Moscow, the capital, where he interviewed various individuals, photographed, questioned, researchd and shared emotionally with his readers who had a fascinating read over Pesach, opening before them a new world of the holy work that the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Shluchim do in Russia.