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New Jewish Russian Learning Center on Staten Island

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Rabbi Zeev and Esther Kushnirsky

A young rabbi and his wife are starting the Jewish Russian Learning Center of South Beach, located in Rosebank in Staten Island, NY. While open to all, the center is hoping to attract members of the Russian Jewish community, especially young families and professionals who currently aren’t affiliated with a synagogue.

The JRLC center opened last December in the home of Orthodox Rabbi Zeev Kushnirsky and his wife of five years, Esther, who are both in their 20s and the parents of three young children. The co-directors hope to relocate to a separate facility as attendance and finances grow.

The center is overseen by Rabbi Eli Kogan, who now is the executive director of the Jewish Russian Learning Center and rabbi of Congregation Shaarei Teshuvah in Great Kills.

Rabbi Kushnirsky follows the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn.

Because they, their parents and perhaps even grandparents weren’t allowed to practice their faith in Communist Russia, Jews who have immigrated to New York City mostly “don’t know what it means to be Jewish” and may have “bad connotations” due to the religious oppression in their native country, the couple said.

“I want them to know that their Jewish heritage is beautiful and to learn about their religion and pass it along to their kids,” said Rabbi Kushnirsky.

He speaks from personal experience, since he lived in Russia until age 8, when he moved in 1990 with his family to Israel.

At age 15, he immigrated to Philadelphia and then two years later returned to Israel to study at a yeshiva. In 2004, he moved to the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, where he completed rabbinical studies at Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim-Lubavitch.

“I grew up in a family that was unaffiliated,” Rabbi Kushnirsky said. “I discovered Judaism by myself.”

The new Chabad House offers Shabbat services, adult education classes and free mezuzahs for any member family that doesn’t have one.

Other services include wedding, funeral, bar/bat mitzvah, one-on-one study, marriage preparation, mezuzah and tefillin checking, Jewish holiday services, circumcision and Sunday school for children.

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