FSU Pesach Project

The following is taken from a letter that many of you will receive in the coming weeks on behalf of the FSU Pesach Project. For the last 6 years, HUC students have traveled to the Former Solviet Union to celebrate Passover with the various Jewish communities there. We will not only be leading Passover seders (the traditional Passover meal, where we tell the story of the Jewish liberation from bondage in Egypt,) but teaching Jews about Judaism, Torah, Jewish music, etc. I am very excited to be participating in this project, which I am sure will teach me a great deal about being a Jewish leader, the Jewish history in the FSU, and the many details of Passover itself. If you are willing and able, please donate via the website or mailing address listed below (after all, donations to this project make a great Chanukkah gift...) Thank you so much in advance for your support!


Dear Friends,

This April, forty rabbinical, cantorial, and education students, as well as, friends and family from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) will be traveling to the Former Soviet Union (FSU.) In partnership with the World Union for Progressive Judaism, which unites and supports Reform congregations world-wide, we are happy to announce our sixth-annual FSU Pesach Project.

We hope that you will support this student-led initiative. We anticipate that it will cost each delegate $2,000 to participate, which includes: travel expenses, educational materials, Passover supplies for all the participants, as well as, donations to each community, which will enable them to continue observing Passover in the years to come.

The mission of our trip is to provide meaningful Passover celebrations for thousands of under-served Jews in the region. While there has been an abundance of Jewish philanthropy and development in the FSU since the 1990's, there are still only six progressive rabbis to serve over one hundred Jewish communities during Passover.

Therefore, our student delegations will be traveling to more than twenty communities throughout Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus in order to lead Passover Seders, conduct educational programming, to create relationships with Jews of all ages, and to strengthen the Jewish identity of these diverse communities.

Please consider supporting this project as a way to recognize the profound importance of celebrating the Jewish story of liberation in a place where freedom from oppression is a very real and recent experience. Tax-deductible donations can be made online at www.pesachproject.com. Additionally, contributions may be sent by mail to:

HUC-JIR
Attn: Diane Bongard
3101 Clifton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220

If you have any questions regarding this mission, please send us an email at info@pesachproject.com. On behalf of everyone at HUC-JIR, and our partners at the World Union for Progressive Judaism, we appreciate your commitment to making this project a success for us and the entire FSU Jewish community.


You are also more than welcome to email me directly with questions at tracyfishbein@gmail.com. Thanks again!