dimanche 27 septembre 2009

A Jewish day in Barnaul before Yom Kippur. September 27

Mendel, the son of Rabbi Kamenetsky

This morning at 9 AM I had an appointment with Rabbi Kamenetsky, the only Rabbi of the town. 60 families in Barnaul have been repertoried. The Chabad-Lubavich community has been created 2 years 1/2 ago and they didn't celebrate any bar or bat mitzvah yet but had a brit milah.



I gave the Rabbi all the info I have about Kusel Beinessovich, my Grand uncle and he promised that he will help me.

David and I drove to the Mikhailskoe cemetery(a Christian cemetery, but there is no Jewish cemetery here. The Jews are and were buried with the Christians) but they had only the 1965 archives and Kusel died probably before 1965 ). Never mind we looked at the book.


And of course we found nothing. We could have gone to other cemeteries but the archives burnt.

Then I drove and walked in the town which is a beautiful town with many parks, old and new buildings.







And , of course some vestiges of the Soviet Union


The Rabbi invited me to diner before Yom Kippur in his house.


Rabbi Kamenetsky and his wife Liba-Masha

The "pre" Yom Kippur diner at the Rabbi

A wonderful day.

Rabbi Kamenetzky is a friend of Rabbi Gorelik, whom I met last year in Kazan. I'll stop in Kazan again on my way back home.

To morrow I'll drive back to Yekaterinburg.I know it's forbidden by the Jewish law !!!!

And , of course, I don't know when I'll have a wifi connection again....