Simchat Torah on Archipova Street
Aron, Bill
AND OTHER HIGH HOLY DAY IMAGES FROM THE SOVIET UNION SIMCHAT TORAHON ARCHIPOVA STREET Bill ARON In the fall of 1981,1 visited three cities in the Soviet Union: Leningrad, Minsk and Moscow. My...
...We pushed our way into the synagogue with some difficulty, and remained there for the first part of the service...
...The Leningrad Synagogue It's hard to believe that in all of Leningrad, with its 200,000 Jews, this is the only synagogue and its rabbi is the city's only rabbi...
...I felt compelled to tell the story of the Jews I met...
...Later that evening, the meaning of this mass experience became clear to me...
...From the notes of Ahavia Scheindlin, who travelled with me: "Simchat Torah was an unforgettable experience...
...When we made our way back outside, we found about 20,000 Jews packed into Archipova Street, lining it from one end to the other...
...Our eyes met in recognition...
...I proceeded to run, trip, lunge and somehow or other propel myself across the room—as fast as possible—to get close enough for the photograph...
...I was on the other side of the room when I spotted these gentlemen huddled over their siddurim...
...The production of a travelling exhibit featuring Bill Awn's photographs of Jews in the Soviet Union was funded by a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles to the Commission on Soviet Jewry of the Community Relations Committee, Jewish Federation Council, Greater Los Angeles...
...T have been secretly coming to Archipova Street on Simchat Torah for the last five years,' said Boris, a middle-aged man we met...
...About five years ago, he was called into KGB headquarters for questioning...
...He has secretly been coming to Archipova Street on Simchat Torah for the last three years...
...It has been the one public way I have allowed myself to identify with the Jewish people...
...Jews in the USSR, June 15, 1982: "For the past few weeks, pressure has been put on Reb Avraham to ban five younger men from his regular Gomorrah study circle...
...My encounter with Jews there overwhelmed me with admiration and helplessness, outrage and compassion...
...He returned several days later, visibly shaken, and has not taught a single Hebrew class since...
...because I am a photographer, I tell this story with my camera.—B.A...
...I wanted no harm to befall them...
...This evening, as I made my way through the crowd, I came face to face with my 18-year-old son...
...This week we have learned that the Chief Rabbi of Moscow intervened with a direct order to stop the classes...
...As I prayed in the synagogues, as I sipped tea in the living rooms of my new friends, as I got to know the Jews of the USSR, one thought kept running through my head: Had not my own father emigrated when he did, I, too, would be a Jew in the Soviet Union today...
...Reb Avraham has resisted...
...For information, contact the Commission on Soviet Jewry, Los Angeles, or PuckerlSafrai Gallery, Boston...
...In this case...
...His photos are regularly featured in these pages...
...Pages 32-33) Sukkot Service, Minsk Although I try to cause a minimum of disruption while photographing, I do believe in doing whatever is necessary to get the photograph...
...Bill Aron, a Los Angeles-based photographer, is a mo ment contributing editor...
...We arrived early and already there were some 5,000 people in the street...
...Yom Kippur Service, Leningrad (Page 36) Simchat Torah, Moscow A young refusenik I visited spoke of the need for more Hebrew teachers and texts: "Reb Avraham, one of the elders of our community, used to teach us Hebrew...
...I never told the other members of my family where I was going or what I was doing...
Vol. 8 • December 1982 • No. 1
