A man in Kishinev, Moldova, receives honey from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. (Courtesy of the JDC)
NEW YORK (JTA) — In business, an effective planning process is essential for success. During the High Holidays, Jews are urged to engage in this sort of process for our own lives. We reflect on the past year, seeking lessons to help us in the coming year.… Read more »
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, greets his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres in Moscow, 2012. (Office of the President of Russia)
(JTA) — While American politicians and pundits fumed at President Donald Trump’s performance at his much-anticipated meeting last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, lost in the clamor was one small but crucial moment: Israel emerged from Helsinki a winner. Trump said that he and Putin had reached a “really good conclusion” for… Read more »
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, left, and Alexander Boroda, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities, during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Dec. 28, 2016. (Alexei Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — When Boruch Gorin, a well-known rabbi in Moscow, traveled for the first time from Russia to the United States, a U.S. Customs officer asked him whether he was Russian. “I said, ‘No, I’m not Russian — I’m Jewish,’” Gorin recalled Monday, 27 years after the exchange at… Read more »
Professor Maxim Shrayer, Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures photographed in his office in Lyons Hall for a future issue of Chronicle.
BROOKLINE, Mass. (JTA) — When Maxim Shrayer traveled to Moscow for a five-day visit at the end of October 2016, his itinerary included a trip to the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. Shrayer, who emigrated from Russia to the U.S. with his refusenik activist parents 30 years ago, is… Read more »
Afim and Emma A. are clients in need of assistance from the Hesed social welfare in Rustavi, Georgia. (Sarah Levin of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee)
(JTA) — We Americans use the phrase “the greatest generation” to describe those who grew up during the Depression, prevailed in World War II and contributed to America’s postwar prosperity and influence. But on a visit last week to Jewish communities in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Belarus’ Minsk and… Read more »
Boris Smolkin, left, and his co-stars on the Moscow set of the hit television series "My Fair Nanny" in 2006. (STS Television) ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (JTA) — In the basement of one of Europe’s largest synagogues, 100 Jews are waiting to meet local film star Boris Smolkin. The crowd applauds enthusiastically as the 66-year-old funnyman, who gave his voice to Master Yoda in the Russian-language version of the “Star Wars” trilogy,… Read more »
Maksim Kats, shown in Moscow in 2012, says the campaign of Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny is about making big changes in the political life of Russia. (Maksim Kats) MOSCOW (JTA) — On the rooftop of a Soviet-era apartment block, a young man straps into climbing gear and rappels down the side as a small gathering of city workers and police officers watch from below. On the way down, the climber stops at a balcony and tears loose… Read more »
Demonstrators in Moscow protest Vladimir Putin's re-election, including one carrying a sign reading "We are not an opposition, we are your employers!" with the word "fired" over a drawing of Putin's face, March 5, 2012. (Freedom House via CC) (JTA) — With Vladimir Putin’s re-election as president of Russia pretty much a foregone conclusion, the question facing Russia was never what would result from last weekend’s election but what would happen after the vote. Thousands of protesters turned out Monday in a Moscow saturated with police and soldiers… Read more »
