Jewish Crowd Parties in Smolensk, Russia

Some 150 residents of Smolensk, Russia, filled a local restaurant for a kosher Purim party presided over by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Levi Mondshine, the regional chief rabbi. The festivities began with the traditional reading of the Scroll of Esther by Mondshine and continued with attendees exchanging gifts of food, one of the four Purim commandments.