TEL AVIV — During a week when Israel faced multiple ballistic missile attacks from Yemen and renewed rocket fire out of Gaza, the 500 or so Israelis with Soviet roots who gathered in Tel Aviv on Dec. 29 for a full-day festival of Jewish learning didn’t seem much perturbed.
“Even in these hard and complicated times, we’re still together,” said Ukraine native Liza Kats, 25, who was attending Limmud FSU’s Israel event for the fourth year in a row. Last year, she showed up in uniform, after having been called up for Israel Defense Forces reserve duty after the Oct. 7 attack. This year, Kats, now a civilian again, served as a member of the event’s volunteer organizing committee.
“One of the reasons I began working with this community is because I wanted somewhere to celebrate the holidays,” said Kats, who studies political science at Tel Aviv University. “I’ve since made a lot of friends and connections so now I don’t feel lonely anymore.”
Limmud FSU aims to help Jews with roots from the former Soviet republics preserve their religious identity and unique traditions. The annual Israel conference, which took place in Russian and Hebrew, focused mainly on Israel’s immediate security needs and political future as well as the alarming increase in antisemitism worldwide in the wake of Oct. 7.
Raheli Baratz, head of the World Zionist Organization’s Department for Combating Antisemitism and Enhancing Resilience, talked at the event about how social media has helped fuel hate speech and antisemitic violence — including vandalism of Hanukkah menorahs around the world.
“All countries must be called upon to legislate laws protecting Jewish communities,” she said, so “that the words ‘never again’ are translated into practical policy.”
Baratz also hailed the unprecedented support for Israel of Diaspora Jews who, she said, “donated, mobilized and remained steadfast in the face of an unprecedented wave of hatred.”
Raheli Baratz, head of the World Zionist Organization’s Department for Combating Antisemitism and Enhancing Resilience, at the Limmud FSU conference in Tel Aviv, Dec. 29, 2024. (Alexander Khanin)
Added Limmud FSU Founder Chaim Chesler: “The fact that we managed to get so many people to attend a festival dedicated to Jewish learning and commitment in these troubling times is amazing. We showed we can survive as an apolitical organization, which is a rare phenomenon.”
One of the day’s keynote speakers was veteran diplomat Alexander Ben Zvi, who retired last year after serving as Israel’s ambassador to Russia from 2020 to 2023, and now is part of Limmud FSU’s leadership.
“Now at least we have embassies there and here,” Ben Zvi said in an interview on the diplomatic climate between Israel and Russia. “This is because we have special interests — issues involving Syria and the Jewish community of Russia — that other countries do not have.”
If the Russia-Ukraine war intensifies, another wave of Ukrainian refugees will flood Europe, warned Ben Zvi, who also has represented Israel in Poland, Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru and Slovakia.
Other notable speakers included Knesset member Avigdor Liberman (a native of the former Soviet republic of Moldova); Major General Eliezer Shkedi, former commander of the Israeli Air Force, renowned Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea; Brigadier General (Res.) Ephraim Lapid, a former IDF spokesperson; and Soviet-born actor Anatoliy Beliy, who relocated to Israel after publicly opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In addition to weighty subjects, participants also enjoyed lighter fare such as handicrafts, Hanukkah jelly doughnuts, and a master class on artificial intelligence. For the kiddies, there was also a clown performance by Fyodor Makarov and Vitaly Azarin of the local Davai theater group.
Anna Levitin, 36, came to Israel in early 2017 on Masa — a clearinghouse for long-term Israel programs for Diaspora Jews — and then stayed. Originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, she now works in the marketing department of DoorLoop, a Tel Aviv startup specializing in property management software.
Limmud FSU founder Chaim Chesler, left, and Knesset member Avigdor Liberman, at the Limmud FSU event in Tel Aviv, Dec. 29, 2024. (Alexander Khanin)
“For me, Limmud is a great example of how to build a startup in a few days,” said Levitin, who was marking her fifth Limmud festival as a volunteer. “From zero, you create everything. No one gets paid here.” She added: “For those who make aliyah without their families, it’s very important to feel a sense of belonging. There are people just like me here, and that gives me a lot of support.”
Since Limmud FSU’s founding nearly 20 years ago, the organization has hosted at least 90 events worldwide with over 80,000 participants. Key supporters of Limmud FSU include the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, the Jewish National Fund (KKL), World Zionist Organization, and philanthropists Diane Wohl and Bill Hess, among others. Besides Chesler and co-founder Sandra Cahn, the organization’s leaders include such notable Jewish figures as Matthew Bronfman, Malcolm Hoenlein and Israeli judge Elyakim Rubinstein.
In the tradition of Limmud, the event was organized through the dedicated efforts of dozens of local leaders and volunteers of diverse ages and backgrounds. They worked on the event for months, led by Limmud FSU Executive Director Natasha Chechik and Director of Operations Gabi Farberov.
Gilad Kariv, an Israeli lawmaker from the Labor Party, noted that one-fifth of Israel’s 10 million inhabitants today is either a Russian speaker or the child of one.
“They are now part of the Israeli mainstream,” he said, “Any bloc that doesn’t address this community will lose the next election.”
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