Until last Sunday afternoon, Tzvi Hirsh and Binyamin were still known as Grigori Gorelik and Victor Kurgaleev . Inspired by a weeklong trip to New York to celebrate Jewish unity in the Hakhel year, they also wound up having their brit milahs there.
Some 30 Jewish students from 15 cities across Russia participated in the trip organized by Yachad, a national study program run by Rabbi Mendy Wilansky, youth director of the Marina Roscha Synagogue and Jewish Community Center in Moscow.
Based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., the group visited a number of Jewish communities and gained insight from local Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries. They did some sightseeing and outdoor activities. Highlights of the experience included prayer at Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, particularly in the study and house of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—and at the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe in Queens, N.Y. The students were so moved that they returned to the Ohel prior to their flight home.
During Shabbat in Crown Heights, the group studied with Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar, who held an uplifting farbrengen (informal Chassidic gathering) during which many participants made resolutions to increase their study of Torah and mitzvah observance. Rabbi Avi Cassel, regional director of the worldwide organization Olami, participated in the davening and farbrengen as well, leading an inspiring Havdalah ceremony at the conclusion of Shabbat.
Lazar said: “I am not just a chief rabbi, but primarily, a shaliach of the Rebbe. When you return to your home cities, you will also be shluchim, ready to help fellow Jews in your respective cities.”
The trip made possible by grants from the Meromim Foundation (through the Merkos 302 global Jewish-youth initiative) and the Horn Family Foundation.
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