Moscow Connections: Thursday

Written by Phyllis Liebman

Today was a productive day. The day officially began at 730 am and ended around 10:15 pm when we were returned to the hotel to change for dinner. We were given autonomy by our fearless leaders to do what we wanted after that – well deserved. To summarize, we first went to the Lipmann School, one of 7 Jewish Day Schools in Moscow. The school receives funding from both JAFI and JDC to run various programs. It was great seeing the kids from the Lipmann School who had recently visited DC. Similar to our meeting with them in DC, we were divided into small groups of Muscovites and DC-ites to learn about one another. We started with the basic questions, what’s your name and what to do you do, or in case of the students, what are your hobbies and worked up to discussions on the Holocaust and Jewish life in our prospective countries. It was interesting to note that the 10th graders we spoke to were not aware that the previous generation in Russia had not been taught about the Holocaust in school. We were curious about their knowledge of Soviet Russia and were told they would be studying Russian history next year. A couple of students then led us on a tour of the Jewish Historical Museum in the downstairs part of the school. The space was divided into many smaller rooms. The first one we entered celebrated Jewish marriages. There were black and white photos on the wall of numerous wedding couples on their wedding day. And, a couple of pictures were of some students parents. Another room housed artwork made by the students representing the Jewish calendar. The pictures they made of the Jewish Holidays were hung as lanyards throughout the small area. Other rooms depicted what life was like for the Jews living in shtetls and during the pogroms. Several additional rooms were devoted to the Holocaust. The most memorable was the full length broken mirror on the right wall and the black and white mural of the concentration camp on the opposing wall with the cobblestone flooring beneath us and the student’s remarks: We stand before the broken mirror and can see our reflection with the image of the concentration camp behind us. Any one of us could have been there. Black and white photos hung in another area showing what life was like for the Jews right before the Holocaust and opposite them were photos of the Holocaust. Another interesting area was the room exhibiting the four “definitions” of a Jew. The first was the Russian passport. Jewish people were identified as Jews in their passport. The government didn’t recognize their nationality as Russians, but as Jews. The second was the definition according to the Germans during the Holocaust, the third was Israel’s recognition of who is defined as a Jew, and the last was Halachic law.

Following the tour, we heard a little bit about the JDC-JAFI Integration Program for Children with Special Needs at the Lipmann School and had the opportunity to meet some of the children. We played a game with them called Kippah, Torah, Menorah. We all stood in a circle with one person in the middle. That person closed his eyes and spun around, when he stopped and pointed he had to say one of three things – Kippah, Torah or Menorah. If he said Kippah, the two people on either side of the person who was picked had to take their hands and cover that person’s head like a Kippah. For Torah, the two people on either side of the person picked had to spin around like a torah scroll and for Menorah, the two people on either side had to bend their arms to form the shape of a menorah. In any case, the person from the middle would then take the person’s place that he had picked and that person would then spin around and pick someone else. It was a lot of fun playing with the kids. They really seemed to enjoy it.

After our visit to the Lipman School we continued on to one of the five JDC-funded Hesed programs that provide social services to low income families with children with special needs and to low income elderly people in need. For those of us who do not know Hebrew, we learned that Hesed means kindness. The agency we visited is called Hesed Chama, (Chama they explained means “help to many”). Hesed Chama was created to serve the Jewish Community in Moscow in three ways: Supporting children and families at risk, Supporting the elderly in need and to help and support the Jewish Community, working with all of the different Jewish organizations. The Center houses the welfare center and the daycare center. We learned that this agency currently has 600 elderly clients. 62% live alone and have no family. 23% are couples, 8% are single with a child living far away and 8% are couples with a child who lives far away. Hesed Chama provides these people with various services. Some need help bathing or cleaning their apartment, others need someone to cook for them, or to help them manage their bills. Many are sick and need help during their recuperation. The agency loans medical equipment and provides food and medicine. They have 140 home care workers who are paid 97 rubles an hour (about $3). For some services there are waiting lists because there are so many more people who need help then the agency has money to support.

We broke into three groups later in the day and visited three different clients. Anna, the woman my group visited was 84 years old and had been an Ears, Nose and Throat doctor for over 50 years. She recently became ill and has clearly benefited by Hesed Chama’s services. With tears in her eyes, she named various people at the agency who have helped her and was very emotional as she thought about them. In her case, she lives alone and is bed ridden. A nurse visits her daily to help her. She was very grateful for our visit and it felt good knowing we were able to brighten up her day. As we left, the social worker told us that our visit would make Anna happy for several weeks as her memories are really all that she has left.

As mentioned, Hesed Chama also provides services to families in need. The family my group visited consisted of a mother with three children ages 19, 13 and 6. We did not meet the 19 year old but spent some time with the others. Both children were very shy. The mother had been divorced twice and was diagnosed with depression. They lived in a 2 room apartment that was unbelievably small. The foyer was so tight we could barely get into the apartment. We were led into the kitchen for our meeting. The space was probably no more than 8’x10’ and served as a cooking area, laundry area, dining area and relaxation area – the appliances and furniture took up the entire space so that it was difficult to get from one end of the room to the other. In the bedroom were three beds pushed together on one side of the room, a piano opposite the beds and two desks along the window wall opposite the door. Again, there was only room for one person to walk through the room at a time. The mother explained that the services she receives are for Jewish Culture – the family attends educational and entertainment activities once a month through the Family Room project.

We ended our day at the circus with some of the children.

As you can tell from reading the earlier blogs our days our filled with programming, leaving little free time to blog. I therefore plan to write a more substantive blog next week to better describe the astounding appreciation of al recipients of Federation funding.