A week-long youth seminar just ended in Kazan. Approximately 100 Jewish boys and girls from the Volga region are participated in the seminar.
Hosted in a comfortable hotel complex on the outskirts of town, the youth listened to a series of lectures with great interest, as well as participating in discussions and workshops. Rabbi Dov Ber Beitman of Dnepropetrovsk delivered a fascinating lecture on Jewish family life and its moral values.
Chief Rabbi of Tatarstan Yitzhak Gorelik explained to the participants that they have a special mission – to help Russian Jews become better acquainted with their religion and traditions. “You have come to this seminar and have eagerly listened to lectures about what the Torah teaches us. Hundreds of thousands of Jews in this country are still not involved in community activities and your challenge is to convey to them the light that illuminates our path in life through knowledge of the Torah.”
Chief Rabbi of Nizhny Novgorod Shimon Bergman held a panel discussion on “The Internet and the Laws of Judaism.” As this Chabad-Lubavitch emissary explained: “Today on popular Russian social networks and Jewish forums, more than 100,000 people have been registered, but most of them know nearly nothing about Judaism. They need to be drawn into the life of Jewish communities, and more work needs to be done with Jewish youth.”
The week-long seminar included tours of Kazan and the vicinity, as well as meetings with members of the Jewish community. The youth dined at the kosher restaurant recently opened in Kazan, in addition to visiting the local water park and bowling alley, where teams battled for victory. Upon leaving Kazan, the participants spoke very warmly about the seminar, which they unanimously considered as extremely useful.