In first, female prisoners in Russia get Jewish prayer space
House of worship opened by Saint Petersberg chief rabbi and deputy head of federal prisons service
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Rabbis in Saint Petersburg have opened Russia’s first prison Jewish prayer space for women.
Inaugurated on Tuesday, the Jewish place of worship in the Number 2 Penal Colony of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia has a capacity of 20 worshipers, the Russian news website www.jewish.ru reported.
Services in the space will be led by Rabbi Ifrah Abramov from Saint Petersburg.
“Convicts of Jewish faith received with joy at the news about the opening of a prayer room in the colony,” he said.
The opening ceremony was attended by the deputy head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Valery Nikolaev, and the chief rabbi of Saint Petersburg, Menachem Mendel Pevzner, as well as Rabbi Aaron Gurevich, who works with prisoners across Russia.
Elsewhere in Russia, many prisons for men have prayer spaces and synagogues.
Berel Lazar, a chief rabbi of Russia affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, visited the synagogue at eastern Moscow’s Butyrka Prison in December — previously a notorious penitentiary for dissidents of Russia’s Communist governments. The synagogue opened there two years ago and services 15 men, most of whom were jailed for nonviolent crimes.
“Giving attention and religious services to people behind bars can have a much more profound effect on them than on other populations because these are people facing what is often the most difficult moments in their lives,” Lazar said after lighting Hanukkah candles there with prisoners.
The Times of Israel Community.