Moscow Connection: Day 1 - Monday, June 1st

Written by Eva Davis

The Next Gen group arrived in Moscow to very unprofessionally (one had an exposed belly!) dressed health officials that took each passengers temperature to ensure none of us had the swine flu! The day was gorgeous, blue skies and 75 degree weather! After experiencing some “light” traffic and meeting our guide, Alla, we headed to the one and only Holocaust/Jewish museum and attached Shul. It was noted that there are about 300,000 Jews in Moscow and close to a million in Russia, yet only one museum. This was located in a beautiful park, which was a dedication to the 50th anniversary of the Russian defeat of the Nazis. The park seemed huge and was full of Russian men, without shirts on roller blades. The shul was very modern, with marble and ornate Judaica art on the walls. This shul is only used twice a week, once for an orthodox minyan on Monday a.m. and a Reform Friday night service. There is an upstairs section of seats for women, this has never been used. The museum had Judaica pieces; they were old, very old. We were given a thorough review of the regional Jewish history. Please see Wikipedia for details. There was also a floor dedicated to the Holocaust and the story of the Russian army in WWII, with a section for the righteous gentiles. It was interesting to hear the history from the Russian perspective, with 1.4 Million “Russian” Jews (this included Ukraine, Belarus, etc) killed. This hour was sobering, but was lightened when we found Irwin’s great grandfather! I swear this guy who was pictured in one of the photographs looked exactly like Irwin. It was almost freaky how close!

As the day progressed the group decided we would have several photo albums for this trip: 1) The Mullet album (if I had a $ for ever mullet I saw I could quit my day job) 2) Real people wearing the most amazingly tacky outfits (we are convinced all Russia women don’t wear bras) 3) The beautiful sights and architecture and our group, the “real” pictures from the Jewish center we went to what I think is a typical Russian restaurant, interesting décor and delicious food. The décor included live birds (all types) in cages… on the bar, at the entrance, behind my table, etc. There was also a huge stuffed bear that could have been a rug hanging on the wall, etc. The borsht was amazing as was the salmon…. We were all pleasantly surprised.

From lunch we went back to the hotel and checked in, unpacked, and got ready for our first night out in Moscow. We started with a boat tour on the Moscow River, which was gorgeous!!! This gave a great view of a ton of different buildings, monuments, parks, etc. Alla came with us, which was extremely helpful as the loud speaker tour was in Russian. We continued loving the people watching and the very inexpensive drinks! It was still blue skies and sunny which heightened our excitement and when we realized it would be this way long past 10pm we were thrilled!

After an hour or two on the boat we went to dinner with the Jewish Professional club members at a really interesting art institute. The artist who it was named after and I think started it was one of the most famous Russian artists, Zurab Tserteli, he sculpted the famous statue in front of the Kremlin. The restaurant was full of his artwork, very colorful, religious Christian works, etc. The meal with the e-club members was really nice, getting to know them, learn about their lives and the Jewish community. They discussed the challenges they face in outreach and fundraising, their community is much different than what we as American Jews experience. The sense of community and obligation to the Jewish people was not part of their upbringing… anyways this is a longer conversation than I have time to write about! We also had our first Vodka shots (which were quite large) to get the trip really kicked off! We started with the Vodka called Russian Standard which I think is the regular here, kinda like what Absolut is to us.

I don’t know if I can continue the night… Irwin, our Mission chair, said what happens in Moscow stays in Moscow!! Speaking of Vegas, all the casinos here are currently closed due to some government intervention or something, I was disappointed. I did find a few slot machine spots but decided not to even waste the time there. Maybe it’s better that I don’t give too much money away in this economy!

Really we just ended up going to several bars, one that was old school Soviet style that served Vodka that could have made me blind and one that was newer and trendier. I’ll leave the adventures at that and pass this on to the next blog victim….