This is Lonya. He has been the president of local Jewish obshina (community) for the past 5 years.

He is really dedicated to the community and anything that has to do with it. He also takes care of the cemetery. Apparently he does a very good job—so we heard from everyone in town.

The minyan (prayer group) at the synagogue is one of his daily highlights. Three PM in the winter and seven PM in the summer, a bunch of elderly gentlemen gather and pray together—all in Russian. Truly uplifting prayers!

We came there every day of our visit and put on tefillin with everyone in attendance. Afterwards, if someone is observing yahrtzeit (anniversary of a passing) for a loved one, they will raise a glass of shnapps and drink to the memory of the departed.

We gave the obshina a pair of tefillin on the last day, and we taught Lonya how to put them on. He promised to put them on with the other fellows every day.

Mogilev, Ukraine, is a small city with a population of 35,000, a third of which had once been Jews. Most of the Jews are long gone, but Mogilev still boasts a small community of 250 Jews, some of whom have a decent vocabulary of Yiddish expressions. When two rabbinical students turned up this summer to visit, they were more than overjoyed.

We took three weeks this summer going ’round the city visiting, inspiring and listening to each and every Jew we came across. The climax of our visit was the beautiful Shabbat meal we shared with the locals, showing everyone how a real “nastayashe” (Russion for "genuine")Shabbat meal is supposed to be.

Before Shabbat commenced, all men strapped on tefillin (it was the first time for at least one man), and all the women lit Shabbat candles. One woman exclaimed emotionally, “I’m sixty years old and this was my first time lighting candles in honor of Shabbat!”

After the Shabbat prayer services, the traditional Shalom Aleichem hymn, kiddush over wine, and the breaking of the challah bread, it was finally time for the full-on kosher Shabbat cuisine.

Our kitchen help put together a fantastic Kosher Jewish-Ukrainian Shabbat feast.

For us it was a double celebration, as it was also Yaakov’s Jewish birthday. So as everyone tucked in to the fabulous food, all present filled their cups and charged their glasses in toast to the birthday boy, wishing him success in his coming year, and thanked us both for visiting and uplifting their congregation. They appreciated the fact that in the USA they are not forgotten.

The meal lasted late into the night, with singing, dancing, and a great time shared by all.

For the housebound who couldn’t make it to the meal, we even did a “kiddush on the spot for people on the go” in their own homes.

Friday afternoon, the tables are set and our 30 Shabbat guests are about to arrive.