Birobidzhan, (continued)

Many of the Russian Jews in Birobidzhan will tell you there is no synagogue in the city. Some will say that there is one, but it isn't active; there is no rabbi in the city. Only when pressed do people acknowledge that twice a week, people gather in the only synagogue in the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region to worship Jesus Christ.

Every morning before the sun rises, two men come to the synagogue to sing Jewish prayers. The first is Oleg Shavulski, the synogogue's Sunday School teacher and Birobidzhan's most adamant proponent of revitalizing Jewish religious life in the city. The second is Boris Kaufman, a Jew who twice a week hosts a group of elderly women to worship Jesus Christ.

Oleg -- or Israel, as some of his Jewish friends call him -- is a handsome and charismatic young man with a neatly trimmed beard and intense, piercing eyes. Having just finished a year of study at Yeshiva in Moscow, he has taken the role of mentor for Boris, who is 16 years his senior. Oleg shows Boris how to put on the tfilin, tells him what page to turn to in his prayer book, and translates Hebrew words that Boris doesn't know. An eager student, Boris follows along and at times closes his eyes and shudders as Oleg's voice rises in prayer.

"Boris is a confused man," says Oleg of his friend's belief in Jesus Christ. "But he will come around eventually. One does not come to the truth in one day or two days. It takes many days.



[ DAILY CHRONICLES ] [ ROAD STORIES ] [ IN THEIR WORDS ]
[ SITE DIRECTORY ] [ INTRODUCTION ] [ RUSSIAN ATLAS ]
[TRIP AT A GLANCE] [ MAILBOX ]

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