The president of Orsk Jewish Cultural Center

Vadim Fridman 

 

The town Orsk is situated on the banks of the river Ural in the Orenburg region, Russia.

It was founded in 1735. It has the population of 270 thousand people, from which, as statistics of the census showed in 1989, 1500 were Jewish. It was mainly in the time of the World War II when the first Jews settled in Orsk as several large plants were evacuated from the Ukraine and Byelorussia.

Not far from Orsk there is a small town of Novotroitzk (in fact the distance between these two municipalities is no more than 10 kilometers – that’s about 6 miles). It has the population of 150 thousand people, from which 400 (by the census) are Jewish. The Jews from Novotroitzk take an active part in the life of the Jewish community.

The town is situated on the banks of the river Ural and stands on the borderline between Europe and Asia.

In the year 1992 the Center of Jewish Culture was organized. It was founded by a group of young people in Orsk. The World Council of progressive Judaism, the Jewish agency “Sochnut” helped us through the first steps.

The first town holiday took place in September 1993, we celebrated Rosh ha-Shana. Since that time such occasions became regular. They are attended by 180-220 people.

Since 1994 there were organized such institutions as ulpan, the club for teenagers and Sunday school.

As the civil institution the Center of Jewish Culture was registered by the administration of the Orenburg region on the 26th of April 1996.

A women’s club, a Jewish community library has been working since 1996.

In the year of 1999 the Family Club was organized. At present some 140 are among its members.

A charity organization “Hesed Gedalya” has been very active since 1999.

Since the same year a booklet “EMET” is issued.

In this edition we give out the material concerning the Jewish family, different news and historical facts, some glimpses on the traditions, photos. It also has the part for the children and for reports from other Jewish communities of the world.

With the assistance of JDC the Jewish group in the kindergarten №83 was organized. At the moment 15 bright children are it’ members.

In April of 2000 a health-restoring club began operating.

In June of the same year a Jewish family summer camp was organized for the first time. 100 people took part in the activity. The location for it was marvelous: it was situated in the “Ural Switzerland”.

In November 2000 the Community festival of Jewish literature was organized. Many Jewish families from Orsk and Novotroitzk participated in it. The mayor if Orsk was present at the ceremony of the opening.

The Jewish community of Orsk is in constant development; we are looking for the new forms of activities and ways of involving young people in the community.

We are open to any kind of cooperation.

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