A Week in Ukraine with the Moishe House Staff
By Leah Jalfon, MHWOW Program Coordinator
When people asked me why we were going to Kiev for the Moishe House All Staff Retreat, I didn’t really have an answer. I knew that the staff was really excited about recruiting new MHWOW hosts and opening new Moishe Houses in the former Soviet Union and North America, and I knew that we had a whole RSJ (Russian Speaking Jews) team on our staff. For the two months that I had been a Moishe House employee, a question existed in the back of my mind that I was too afraid to ask: why the focus on the former Soviet Union? Why not Latin America or Southeast Asia? I figured I would get the answer on this trip.
I was so excited to find out that I would be rooming with Olya Elshansky, the RSJ Director of Jewish Education and the MHWOW staffperson for hosts in the former Soviet Union. She was born in Moscow and commutes between Saint Petersburg and Kiev. Because her parents weren’t able to practice Judaism openly during the Soviet era, they were happy to be able to send Olya to a Jewish day school. She brought the first Shabbat candles home to her family.
At dinner one evening, I sat across from Masha, who started one of the only community service groups for Jewish young adults in Kiev. Masha found out she was Jewish when she was 25 years old. That’s how old I am. I thought about how different my life would be if I didn’t find out I was Jewish until now.
I went to Jewish summer camp for seven years and was active in BBYO and NFTY in high school. When I went to college, I took a break. I wanted to immerse myself in new groups of people that I had never interacted with before. I wanted there to be more to me than my Jewish identity. Looking back, I wish I had known that I didn’t have to sacrifice Judaism to develop my identity. This trip reminded me of my privilege; I knew that the Jewish community would still be there when I was ready to come back.
My conversations with the RSJ team, Masha, local Moishe House Kiev residents, and others helped me understand why it is so important to Moishe House to support Jewish life in the former Soviet Union. These young adults are leading the resurgence of Judaism. They are researching Jewish traditions and rituals and sharing this knowledge with their families and communities. They are taking care of the poor and the elderly and building memorials for Holocaust victims.
The friends I met on this trip inspired me not just to be a member, but to be a leader in the Jewish community. On this retreat, I was able to really see how deep the passion for empowering Jewish leaders runs in this organization. I left the trip feeling very proud to be Jewish, and very proud to be part of Moishe House.
— Leah Jalfon, MHWOW Program Coordinator
