PARSIPPANY, New Jersey (Press Release)– Limmud FSU (former Soviet Union) and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (the Fellowship) have announced a new global and long-term partnership designed to enhance and develop the activities of Limmud FSU and expand the organization worldwide.
As part of the collaboration, the Fellowship will be a key partner in the project and provide funding that will allow Limmud FSU to hold conferences around the world, among other activities, and engage more participants, most of whom are young Russian-speaking Jews. President of the Fellowship Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein will join Limmud FSU’s leadership as dean and member of the executive committee, alongside Matthew Bronfman, chairman of the International Steering Committee, and Aaron Frenkel, Limmud FSU president.
Bronfman and Rabbi Eckstein made the official announcement Saturday evening, March 29, during the Limmud FSU conference, currently taking place in Parsippany, N.J. The conference is the largest gathering of Russian-speaking Jews in North America, attracting over 800 young participants from the U.S. and Canada. There are an estimated 750,000 to 1 million Russian-American Jews in the U.S., half of whom are living in New York and New Jersey. The entire conference is organized by young volunteer participants from the Russian-Jewish community.
Within the framework of the new partnership agreement, which was signed for an initial three years, and thanks to the generous financial assistance from the Fellowship, Limmud FSU has already begun to build an infrastructure for activities among Russian-speaking communities in Australia and the West Coast of the United States. The first Limmud FSU conferences will take place in those locations in 2015. The new partnership will also allow the organizations to hold eight conferences over the course of 2014 (an increase of 25% over last year), including the first Canadian conference, to be held this October in Toronto.
Limmud FSU was established to offer young Russian Jews around the world a unique and independent community, an educational and cultural framework that helps strengthen Jewish identity and connection to Israel, deepen involvement in Jewish communal life and empower activists to build the next generation of Russian-speaking Jewish leadership in the Diaspora and in Israel. Limmud FSU has revolutionized pluralistic Jewish engagement of Russian-speaking Jews, who are often described as marginally engaged in Jewish life, and is making a great impact in strengthening Jewish identity through a unique educational experience of Jewish history and culture.
The organization seeks to renew the tradition of Jewish learning with conferences and festivals of Jewish and Israeli study, arranged and produced by volunteers. All conferences and festivals offer diverse and multi-disciplinary programs including lectures, workshops, master classes, musical performances and cultural events in three languages: Russian, English and Hebrew.
“We are proud of the new strategic partnership with the Fellowship, and hope that it will allow us to grow and expand our important activities among Russian-speaking Jewish communities around the world,” said Matthew Bronfman, of Limmud FSU. “It’s no accident that we have announced this at the Limmud FSU conference in the U.S., which is one of our most successful and longest-running programs, and we are sure that having Rabbi Eckstein join our leadership will contribute significantly to our success and development of Jewish thought and discourse.”
“The Fellowship chose to partner with Limmud FSU because of the leadership, the values, and the impact of the organization,” said Rabbi Eckstein. “Matthew Bronfman and Aaron Frenkel are not just business people and great philanthropists; they are also people with great vision and spirit that give their soul and energy to thousands of youngsters across the world who are on a journey to find their Jewish roots.”
Eckstein added: “The fact that every year thousands of young adults are coming to Limmud FSU conferences to explore and get connected to their Jewish culture and heritage cannot be taken for granted, and it is a badge of honor to represent the incredible work Limmud FSU is doing worldwide under Chaim Chesler’s leadership. The Fellowship, which has helped hundreds of thousands of Jews across the Soviet Union for many years, is joining today an outstanding organization with the aim of strengthening it and allowing many more participants to come and join its conferences and to prove that Judaism has many faces and remains relevant to young Jews.”
Limmud FSU is a nonprofit founded eight years ago by Chaim Chesler, former treasurer of the Jewish Agency; Sandra Cahn, philanthropist from New York; and Professor Michael Chlenov of Moscow, to serve young Russian-speaking Jews around the world. The organization operates in seven countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, USA, Canada and Israel. Some 250,000 participants have taken part in its conferences, projects and festivals. Key partners include the Claims Conference, JDC, philanthropist Matthew Bronfman, Aaron Frankel, Diane Wohl, UJA-Federation of New York, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, Ministry of Education, the Jewish Agency and others. For additional information on the organization: www.limmudfsu.org.
The Fellowship was founded in 1983 by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein to promote understanding between Jews and Christians and build broad support for Israel and other shared concerns. “Our ministry’s vision is that Jews and Christians will reverse their 2,000-year history of discord and replace it with a relationship marked by dialogue, respect, and cooperation,” says Eckstein. For more information, please visit: www.thefellowship.org.
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