Five Historic Circumcisions in the Former Soviet Union

An alumnus of the STARS Jewish educational program in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, holds her newborn son soon after his ritual circumcision.

The Jewish community of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, celebrated a rare double circumcision when the babies of friends Ida Beila Drigovskaya and Alexandra Ryabushevaya entered the Covenant of Abraham together.

The women, both graduates of the STARS Jewish youth education program in the city, reported that their Jewish educations infused a new pride in their heritage.

Israeli mohel Chaim Tzvi Rubin of the Brit Ohel Yosef Yitzchak organization performed the circumcisions. Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Dovid Gurevitch, chief rabbi of Uzbekistan, and Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi David Avraham Kolton held each baby for the ceremony, which was followed by a festive community meal.

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"This occasion brings double joy to our community," said Kolton, an emissary in Tashkent, which is home to the largest Jewish community in Uzbekistan. "It shows that the STARS program is being effective in its message to today's youth: Uphold the ways of your ancestors, for they will help you in finding the path ahead."

Communal activities in Tashkent receive the backing of the Ohr Avner Foundation and philanthropists George and Sami Rohr. The STARS program is funded by philanthropists Lev Leviev and Elio Horn.

Elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, the Jewish community of Krasnodar, Russia, celebrated the ritual circumcisions of three of its members last week. Representing three different generations, World War II veteran Ilya Shoichet, businessman Mikhail Furman, and Stanislav Ashurov all decided as adults to have their bris.

At the invitation of Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Shneor Segal, chief rabbi of Krasnodar, Russian chief mohel Yeshaya Shafit visited the southern city to perform the delicate operations.

At a communal feast following the circumcisions, the three took on Jewish names. Shoichet adopted the name Eliyahu, Furman took on the name Barukh, and Ashurov took on the name Levi in honor of Leviev, the president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the former Soviet Union whose Ohr Avner Foundation supports Jewish communities across Russia and its former republics. At his bris last year, Ashurov's father adopted the name Avner in honor of Leviev's father.