Chabad Opened A New Yeshiva In The Most Muslim Part Of Russia
Chabad has opened a new religious school in Tatarstan. Image by Facebook
By Sam Kestenbaum November 8, 2017
A new Jewish religious school opened today in the city of Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan — Russia’s largest Muslim republic.
The November 8 opening of school, a branch of Chabad’s Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim, was lauded as a “major breakthrough” for Kazan’s Jewish community by the website Chabad.org. The inauguration was timed to mark the birthday of one of the revered patriarchs in the Chabad Hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn.
The new building sits next to a 100-year-old synagogue, which Chabad also recently restored. The opening ceremony was attended by a batch of local Jewish and community leaders, including the chief rabbi of Russia, the president of Tatarstan and the mayor of Kazan. The Jewish community of Kazan reportedly numbers in the tens of thousands, the Chabad center acting as a core organization offering religious support.
Contact Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] or on Twitter, @skestenbaum
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
