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UNORTHODOX SABBATH
by Myla Arumugam

 

On the second day of Sukkoh, the eight day Jewish celebration, a congregation in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn chose to forgo traditional wine and opted to pass the Grey Goose vodka around the table instead.

“It’s a really good group of people,” said Ephraim Iliagouev a 24-year-old student at Yeshiva University from Moscow who came here six years ago. “I come down here to hang out, I feel comfortable here.” And he’s not the only one; the orthodox Shaarai Emunah congregation has hosted over 600 people since its creation, with a regular attendance of about 100 and over 200 during the High Holidays of Fall. 

A group of Russian-Jewish students founded the Shaarai Emunah synangogue five years ago because they were looking to strengthen their religious and cultural connections.  This drive was evident not only in the enthusiasm of those present at Sukkot dinner, whose faiths ranged from ultra-Orthodox to secular, but also in the unusual artwork covering the walls of the Sukkah.  These walls are not decorated with the traditional plastic fruits and children’s drawings, but instead with graffiti placed there by Fashion Institute of Technology students.

But what makes this Russian community stand apart, aside from gearing its programming to the younger members of the community, is its newly created initiative, the Russian American Jewish Experience.  The program is a group of 220 Russian Jewish adults, averaging age 25.  All of the participants come from completely secular backgrounds but choose to spend every Sunday learning Torah with top community Rabbis.  The incentives of the program are two-fold. First, the participants are able to connect with the Russian Jewish community as they find their religious identity. Second, the RAJE members are treated to a two week trip to Europe and Israel. 

The less religiously educated participants are supplemented by about 100 Torah-educated peers, called madrichot, or group leaders; Iliagouev is one of these. “It’s a great chance to learn and we get to go to Israel in the end,” he said.

This RAJE movement signifies a greater demographical trend in this community—the emergence of young immigrants. Of the more than 300 participants, the highest age is only 32, although the majority of individuals are in their early twenties. Unlike other more traditional immigrant communities, the Russian-Jewish population in Brighton Beach is only getting younger, as is illustrated by the FIT students’ graffiti on the Sukkah walls and by the Russian-speaking toddlers playing tag.

“We are a community of younger members but are open to everyone,” said Luba Kaufman, a twenty-nine-year-old coordinator of the RAJE program who immigrated to the U.S. in her toddler years. “It’s beautiful to see a group of young guys from all religious backgrounds come together and learn."

Kaufman is just one of 13 coordinators of the program.  She started getting involved three years ago by accident and continues to be actively involved by “stalking” people on Facebook and inviting them to events.

While she and the other coordinators were busy working the room and recruiting new members, a man stood silently in the corner of the Sukkah smiling at his surroundings: Rabbi Mordechai Tokarsky.
Fluent in Russian, the Rabbi is actively involved in the Russian-Jewish community not only as a religious leader, but also as the editor of the newspaper “Evreisky Mir,” Russian for “The Jewish World.”

Members of Shaarai Emunah said that Tokarsky rarely gets all the credit he deserves.  “People say, ‘Oh look what a good job this one and that one did,’” Kaufman said, “but really it’s all him.”

One reason the community is thriving and Tokarsky’s youth initiative is a success is the congregation’s willingness to accept and the Rabbis’ readiness to teach those without any Jewish background, Kaufman said.

“There are people who will come to services and then go to a bar afterwards, and that’s okay,” Kaufman said. “We had one girl come and say it was a ‘Great reform congregation,’ but we’re not, we’re orthodox—it’s because we’re normal.”   Unlike many orthodox congregations, Shaarai Emunah conducts services and Talmudic learning in a mixed-sex setting, allowing them to appeal to Jews at all levels of observance.

In this community that weaves three languages together-- Russian, Hebrew and English-- it seems that any ‘outsiders’ would be easily lost. But Levi Pine, a professor at Touro College and one of the clan’s only non-Russian members, would disagree.

“It was hard, but there are nice people that will pause and translate for you,” he said. “I don’t even notice it.”