The Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG) is funded by four Russian Jewish billionaires. Its goal is to connect Russian-speaking Jews to Jewish values, culture and ethics. Not necessarily to religion, and not necessarily to the Jewish community.
Alas, a once pious community, the leader of world Jewry, was spiritually eviscerated by the communists (may their names be blotted out), then released into freedom 70 years later. Some of these Russian Jews found their way to Jewish religion or to integration into Israel, or to both. But hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, wander in a cultural limbo. The larger Denver Jewish community has not escaped.
As Sana Bitavsky, executive director of GPG, puts it: Russian-speaking Jewry is scattered in different countries and cultures, facing the tremendous temptations of the modern world, possessing identities largely disconnected from Jewish religious life. What Im trying to do is give them tools for life, in particular this tool called Judaism. Im looking for programs that show them all the happiness and vividness that comes with that.
Many of these Russian-speaking Jews are not even Jewish, but, severed as much from Russian culture due to anti-Semitism as from Jewish culture, they have no other community to turn to than the Jewish community. If ever there were a case of betwixt and between, this is it.
The larger Jewish community, in and out of Israel, has failed Russian-speaking Jewry. True enough, segments of Russian-speaking Jewry have degraded Israel with crime and prostitution; but the larger tragedy is played out all over the Diaspora. After a surge of pride and initial help extended to the freed Soviet Jews, the established Jewish community became indifferent, failing at least in part because of the enormous cultural and religious barriers that separated us all.
But each Jew is an infinite gift. If at first you dont succeed . . .
