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Forum -> Chinuch, Education & Schooling
DD needs to interview someone who lived in communist russia
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1091




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 6:46 pm
Any imamothers who would be willing to answer some questions? Basic questions about what Jewish life was like (or not) in Russia.

Thanks!
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amother
Ecru


 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 7:28 pm
I can try. I left Russia in 1994. I lived in Uzbekistan which was at that time under Russian communist. Now in 2017 it's not. I was 10 years old when we immigrated to NY. So ask please
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WhatFor




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 7:32 pm
Give it some time, and she'll be able to interview anyone in the US. Wink
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1091




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 7:33 pm
Thank you!!

Can I reach out to you next week? This week our goal was to find someone to ask.

Would I be able to PM or email you or to you prefer to be anonomous.
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simba




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 7:46 pm
Both my parents. I am sure my mom wouldn't mind if she called her. You can pm me.
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1091




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 7:55 pm
Thank you!
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amother
Ecru


 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 9:20 pm
I prefer to remain anonymous since I already disclosed my age in public. The only email I have contains my last name so I can't post it here.
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L K




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 9:34 pm
I'm from Ukraine. Just ftr, the circumstances and Jewish life in Uzbekistan or say Georgia were very different from those in Russian or Ukrainian parts of the country.
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amother
Honeydew


 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 9:58 pm
I think Sequoia? Pm her and ask in case she doesn't see this.
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sequoia




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 19 2017, 10:55 pm
I’m from Ukraine, not Russia, and I was very young when we left (4 and a half).
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crbc




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Oct 20 2017, 2:51 am
I left Russian part of USSR in 1989, I was almost 14 at the time. Feel free to PM me.
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1091




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 22 2017, 7:08 pm
Thank you all for the offer to help. I figured I'd post the questions and if you were still open to answering them, can you post or PM me.

Thanks again



1. Where did you live in Russia?
2. Were you able to find kosher food? What type?
3. Did you experience any anti semitism?
4. Were there any מצוות you where able to keep while you were in Russia?
5. Did you have a shul near you? Did you or your family go?
6. What did your parents do for a living?
7. Did you know you where jewish?
8. How many people are in your family? Where they all born in russia?
9. Where did you go to school? Did you have to go on shabbos?
10. How old where you when you left Russia? What year did you leave?
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chestnut




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 22 2017, 7:18 pm
1091 wrote:
Thank you all for the offer to help. I figured I'd post the questions and if you were still open to answering them, can you post or PM me.

Thanks again



1. Where did you live in Russia?
2. Were you able to find kosher food? What type?
3. Did you experience any anti semitism?
4. Were there any מצוות you where able to keep while you were in Russia?
5. Did you have a shul near you? Did you or your family go?
6. What did your parents do for a living?
7. Did you know you where jewish?
8. How many people are in your family? Where they all born in russia?
9. Where did you go to school? Did you have to go on shabbos?
10. How old where you when you left Russia? What year did you leave?


The vast majority of teen/young jews who left kept basically nothing for at least 2 generations . Mine is a different experience than most cause I became frum in Ukraine after the USSR fell apart (first half of 90s), I was in my late teens then. Lmk if you'd like me to answer
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1091




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 22 2017, 7:24 pm
The project is to find out what Jewish life was like in communist Russia. The teacher described this as a parent participation project.

Are the questions you think should be replaced? Any suggestions on what types of questions would make sense to ask would be beyond helpful.
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amother
Teal


 

Post Sun, Oct 22 2017, 10:43 pm
1091 wrote:




1. Where did you live in Russia?
2. Were you able to find kosher food? What type?
3. Did you experience any anti semitism?
4. Were there any מצוות you where able to keep while you were in Russia?
5. Did you have a shul near you? Did you or your family go?
6. What did your parents do for a living?
7. Did you know you where jewish?
8. How many people are in your family? Where they all born in russia?
9. Where did you go to school? Did you have to go on shabbos?
10. How old where you when you left Russia? What year did you leave?


Hey, so I’m going to be amother for this megillah, as anyone who knows me irl will probably recognize me.

We lived in Moscow. My parents became baalei teshuva in the 70’s, a few years before I was born. There were a few small overlapping groups of people who were shomrei mitzvos. About once every two years or so, there would be a kosher chicken (a shochet would do several, privately). Israeli and american visitors would sometimes smuggle in salami and processed cheese triangles, usually for Pesach. Otherwise, we ate grains, vegetables, fruit, fish. There was a list people passed around of canned stuff that was ok - the way people knew was by somehow getting to inspect the process, ingredients, etc. My mom did this by going to a local bakery and going on about her kids’ allergies.

In my school, I did not encounter antisemitism. The queen bees were all Jewish (does not mean they were nice to me at all tho). I was obviously aware of institutional antisemitism as I knew I couldnt tell anyone about being frum.

We kept pretty much the full range of mitzvos, although there may have been stuff we got wrong at some point due to not having complete information.

Everyone in Russia went to public school in the 80’s - there were no other options at that time and homeschooling was not legal. When I started school, there was class on Shabbos. At first my parents wrote me sick notes; after a few weeks the school said I had to come or bring a real doctor’s note. I went for a few weeks, until my parents found a nice Jewish child psychologist to write a note saying I get overtired and need an extra day at home. When I was in 3rd grade, the school switched to a 5-day week.

My parents got fired from their jobs when they applied for an exit visa in 1978. My father supported us (actually really well) by tutoring people for university entrance exams. We left in late 1991.
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sequoia




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 22 2017, 10:49 pm
Very cool.

We left in 1989. We weren’t refuseniks.

I’d really love to know more about your experiences. Did you know Sharansky?
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amother
Ecru


 

Post Sun, Oct 22 2017, 11:00 pm
1091 wrote:
Thank you all for the offer to help. I figured I'd post the questions and if you were still open to answering them, can you post or PM me.

Thanks again



1. Where did you live in Russia?
2. Were you able to find kosher food? What type?
3. Did you experience any anti semitism?
4. Were there any מצוות you where able to keep while you were in Russia?
5. Did you have a shul near you? Did you or your family go?
6. What did your parents do for a living?
7. Did you know you where jewish?
8. How many people are in your family? Where they all born in russia?
9. Where did you go to school? Did you have to go on shabbos?
10. How old where you when you left Russia? What year did you leave?


1 I lived in buchara, Uzbekistan At that time in 1980-1990 plus ( really not sure when communism ended) Uzbekistan although filled majority by Muslim Uzbeks was under leadership of USSR I remember having to learn about Stalin, Gorbachev, and Lenin in school.
2. There was absolutely no kosher labeling of food. My grandparent had their own build in rooms like a farm on second floor of their house filled with live life stock including goats, chickens, turkey, roosters. We only housed chickens in our yard My grandparents provided kosher meat to rest of us. Fruits and vegetables were in abundance easily grown in the country due to nice warm weather. Winter was very short and not as cold as in USA or Moscow. Everything else was made at home from scratch
3 I did not experience any anti Semitism but my parents and grandparents did
4. There were no sinagogues until late 1980/ early 1990. Jews were not allowed to practice their religion
5 the Shuls which I remember were opened one in 1989 were my brother had his Brit and another one in 1993.
6 my mom was seamstress and dad was photographer
7. No I didn't know I was Jewish until 6 years old when I started school and a girl confronted me saying hey you are yid I whent home and asked my mom if that's true she agreed and asked me to keep it a secret
8. We all born in Russia
9. I went to Russian public school even on shabbos
10. I left Russia in 1994 at age of 10.5

Would you like to know how kids were treated in Russian schools? Torah learning came about in 1993 that's were my parents send me to learn alef bias every Sunday. And more about Judaism. I loved it to pieces
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cnc




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 22 2017, 11:03 pm
I'm finding this thread fascinating.
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chestnut




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Oct 23 2017, 12:03 am
1091 wrote:
Thank you all for the offer to help. I figured I'd post the questions and if you were still open to answering them, can you post or PM me.

Thanks again



1. Where did you live in Russia?
Kiev, capital of Ukraine

2. Were you able to find kosher food? What type?
Didn't know about kosher until went to a Jewish camp in 1993.

3. Did you experience any anti semitism?
Was called zhidovka (female version of zhid) by a few girls in older grades, but literally a few times.

4. Were there any מצוות you where able to keep while you were in Russia?
Didn't know about any until the Jewish camp.

5. Did you have a shul near you? Did you or your family go?

There was a shul about 15-20 mins away by public transportation. We never knew where it was until I had to get there to go to camp, so our relatives explained how to get there

6. What did your parents do for a living?
Mother was a teacher, father - engineer

7. Did you know you where jewish?
Yep, always. Trying to remember if my birth certificate states Jewish, pretty sure it does. My nationality in my passport read Jewish. Some tried to change that, but both of my parents were Jewish.
My grandma often said "vei iz mir" (not sure if writing it accurately) and "Gotenyu" (my God in Yiddish?). She was also vocal about me dating and getting married to a jew (not all parents were, there was a lot of assimilation).

8. How many people are in your family? Where they all born in russia?
Me, my mom, and grandma (parents divorced). Mom was born in Kiev right after the WW2, but grandma - in some shteitel (at that time Jews weren't allowed to live in big cities). Grandma passed away before we immigrated.

9. Where did you go to school? Did you have to go on shabbos?
Kiev, Ukraine. Yes, had school on Shabbos until a certain grade when it canceled across the country.

10. How old where you when you left Russia? What year did you leave?
21, 1996


See the answers inside the quote
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abound




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Oct 23 2017, 2:40 am
This is very interesting. Thank your daughters teacher from me. Smile
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