The Jewish Museum And Tolerance Center in Moscow (Photo credit: Vimeo screen capture)
Approximately 4,000 people attended Moscow’s first “Festival of Judaism,” a celebration of the 50th birthday of Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar.
The festival was held on June 8, two days after Lazar’s birthday, at the Jewish Museum And Tolerance Center in Moscow and featured 50 stations where staff and volunteers presented visitors with explanations about elements of the Jewish faith including tefillin, kashrut and the Hebrew Bible, Museum Chairman Rabbi Boruch Gorin told JTA.
“This was the first time we organized an event of this sort, which we planned as a way to celebrate Rabbi Lazar’s 50th birthday, but we hope to make it an annual event,” he said.
Gorin, a Chabad rabbi, added that Moscow has few Jewish events of the scale seen at the museum during the festival, with the exception of the Jewish Agency’s Jerusalem Day celebrations and Lag B’Omer events.
Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar and Israeli President Shimon Peres read from a Torah scroll at an opening ceremony of Russia’s Jewish Museum in Moscow, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012. (photo credit: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The event was advertised on Russian Jewish media, social media and news sites, “and this obviously generated a large turnout and a predominantly Jewish crowd,” Gorin said.
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