New
York, April 16, 2012
-- Over 500 young Russian-American Jews from across the country will come
together at Princeton University, May 11-13, for the first-ever three-day
Limmud FSU (former Soviet Union) Conference in the United States. Limmud FSU is
a festival of Jewish learning featuring a packed program of lectures,
to be presented in three different languages – Russian, English and Hebrew.
The inaugural
three-day conference is being held in the U.S. in light of the continued
disconnect between the Russian-American Jewish community and the greater
American Jewish community, reflecting the participants’ desire to maintain
their Russian Jewish culture while living in the U.S. There is an estimated
750,000 to 1 million Russian-American Jews in the U.S., with about half living
in New York and New Jersey. The entire conference and its content are organized
by the young participants from the Russian community.
“Limmud
FSU is a unique opportunity for the Russian-speaking Jewish community to create
something new, educational, thought provoking, and most importantly - our own,”
said Alina Bitel, a participant from New York. “The program inspires
pluralistic approach to Jewish engagement and fills a void that has been
created for those who don't find a place for themselves in traditional Jewish
institutions.
Among
the presenters at the conference are leading academics, politicians, writers
and artists hailing from the U.S., Israel, Russia and elsewhere. Some of the
presenters include: Yossi Bachar, chairman of Israel Discount Bank, who
will speak about the Israeli economy as it relates to the global economic
crisis, Ronen Plot, director general of Israel’s Ministry for Public Diplomacy and the Diaspora, and
Micah Levinson, an actor in the Oscar-nominated Israeli film ‘Footnote.’
Other topics at the conference will be: Jewish philanthropy, Israel and the
Iranian threat, the Arab Spring and the future of Israel, Russian media in the U.S.,
and numerous other topics.
The
conference will include a special panel that will examine both sides of the disconnection
and attempt to find ways to bridge the two communities. Panelists at the
session will represent both the Russian-American Jewish community and also the
greater American Jewish community and will feature participant engagement within
the dialogue.
An
emphasis at the conference will also be placed on the accomplishments of Prof.
Albert Einstein, who lived and taught at Princeton University. Keynote lectures
on Einstein will be given by Prof. Menachem Ben-Sasson, president of the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Prof. Hanoch Gutfreund, former
President of Hebrew U and the academic director of the Einstein Archives at Hebrew
U and its copyrights. In his will, Albert Einstein left the Hebrew University
his personal papers and the intellectual copyright to them, as well as the
right to use his image. The Einstein Archives recently became one of the first scientific
archives in the world to be accessible online. There will also be an exclusive
guided tour of historical Einstein sites on Princeton’s campus.
“Limmud FSU has revolutionized pluralistic Jewish engagement
of Russian-speaking Jews and is making a great impact in strengthening Jewish
identity through a unique educational experience of Jewish history and
culture,” said Matthew Bronfman, chairman of the International Committee
of Limmud FSU, who will also deliver a session at Limmud. “This initiative also
helps to strengthen Jewish communal life among Russian-American Jews by
inspiring our participants to be more active in their communities through
volunteering.”
The Limmud phenomenon began in Britain nearly 32 years ago
and is now a world-famous educational movement. Limmud FSU, founded six years
ago by Chaim Chesler, former head of JAFI’s delegation in the FSU, and Sandra
Cahn, a philanthropist from New York, supports and reinforces Jewish
education and identity to Jews from the FSU, the U.S. and Israel. This unique
conference, like all Limmud events, is organized and run entirely by
volunteers.
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