Russian Speaking Jews: Finding Community Through Culture — By Elyse Kimball
Formed by students, for students, the Russian Speaking Jews group at the Bronfman Center can be summed up by one word: community. Formed in the Spring of 2021, RSJ is more of a group than an official club. Made up of students from all sects of Judaism, RSJ connects Russian culture with Judaism while remaining open to all walks of life. The group has grown over the course of this semester, mainly through their WhatsApp chat. At the start of the semester, the group had only ten members, but it has since grown to 33.
Nicole Beremovica (NYU 22’ CAS) has become one of the group’s leaders this semester. Beremovica was always involved at the Bronfman Center, and she jumped at the opportunity to be a part of RSJ when it formed earlier this year. Not only has she found community, but she has discovered key connections between Russian speakers and Judaism along the way.
“When I came into the Bronfman Center, I was like, I know I’m Jewish, like my mom, my whole family is Jewish, but none of us are practicing or religious at all… to an extent even the holidays, we kind of just send each other pictures or something on Instagram, or on WhatsApp, rather than actually celebrating it properly. Like, you just have apples and honey…. So I feel like that’s like something that connects a lot of us,” said Beremovica.
RSJ offers Russian Jewish students of all backgrounds the opportunity to explore their histories and cultures without focusing on religion. According to Beremovica, the secular nature of the group is one of the most meaningful elements of it.
“We all know we have this identity. But a lot of us don’t have the same religious connection to it. So it’s hard when people maybe don’t want to come to Shabbat, but they still identify as Jewish. So, I think it’s meaningful to create the space where we culturally have this identity, but our religious practices are on a spectrum from nothing to very religious,” said Beremovica.
Besides the Jewish aspects, the group is also broadly referred to as a Russian group, something Beremovica tries to use sparingly. In actuality, the members of RSJ are more than just Russian.
“It’s weird that we call ourselves like the Russian group. I always try to put it in quotation marks because most of us are not Russian. My family’s from Latvia. And Sarrah’s family is from Belarus and Ukraine. And Ilona’s family is from Ukraine. There are so many people from Uzbekistan as well,” said Beremovica.
RSJ has held a few events over the past year, including a Noviy God (Russian New Year) celebration at the end of November. In February, they are hosting a lecture about Soviet history with Gennady Estraikh, a professor from NYU’s Hebrew and Judaic Studies department.
Beremovica hopes to explore the connections between Judaism and Russia with the club more in the future through bringing together more students with events. If you are interested in joining RSJ, you can reach out to Nicole Beremovica (nb2699@nyu.edu) or Sarrah Livson (sel9380@nyu.edu).
