An uplifting pilgrimage is happening in Russia’s frozen Siberia over Chanukah: the Jerusalem Klezmer band, headed by Chassidic singer Avraham Burshtein, will tour the region and give heartwarming concerts for FJC’s Jewish communities.

The band will start its tour on the first night of Chanukah in Irkutsk and from there will travel on to Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk and conclude the concert series in Tyumen on the 6th night of Chanukah. Overall, the band members will cross thousands of kilometers, as the cities are dispersed far and apart in the vast region of Russia’s north.

“My great-grandfather died in Siberia’s Gulag camps, when he was fleeing from Poland during WWII. And here I am, going back there, warming up the hearts of Jewish community members with Chassidic melodies,” said the band’s lead singer, Avraham Burshtein, a Jerusalem native.

This is the forth year that the Klezmer bands tour Siberia over Chanukah and bring the communities together for an evening of musical celebration.

“Throughout Siberia Jews are excited for Chanukah, and although physically they are thousands of kilometers apart, the concert brings them the feeling of spiritual unity with Jews worldwide,” said Levy Kaminetsky, chief rabbi of Tomsk.