Despite the decision by the Latvian government to cancel the neo-Nazi march last week, close to 2,000 neo-Nazis marched in the annual parade of the Latvian SS storm troopers in Riga.

The head of the Jewish Agency delegation in Riga, Ephraim Medan, reports that several members of parliament were prominent among the marchers and that the number of participants was higher than in previous years. The Jewish Agency, the Israeli Embassy in Latvia, and the local Jewish community reacted sharply to the parade in the Latvian media; nevertheless, the march took place without incident.

The SS veterans marched from Riga’s cathedral to the Freedom Monument, where they laid a wreath in memory of the 50,000 Latvian SS storm troopers who died in the battle with the Soviet forces in March 1944. The marchers carried SS flags and shouted at several dozen Latvians, who organized a counter demonstration, "Too bad we didn’t kill all the opponents of Nazi rule during the War."

Until 1998, the SS march was part of Latvia’s national holiday, when it became a source of diplomatic friction with Western countries, which sharply denounced the event. As a result of pressure from Israel and other countries, the Latvian Government canceled the holiday, but did not prohibit the storm troopers from holding their march.

Latvia is the only country in the world that tries World War II soldiers who fought against the Nazis. A trial is currently taking place against a former Russian soldier charged with killing Latvian collaborators with the Nazis during the War.

According to reports by the Jewish Agency’s Former Soviet Union Department, the national revival in the Baltic Republics caused a burgeoning of nationalistic anti-Semitic organizations that accuse the Jews of actions against the Baltic peoples. Anti-Semitic media and literature are flourishing. In response to a complaint by one of the democratic papers, the Latvian Attorney General decided that the word "Zhid" is not derogatory and does not offend any ethnic group.

According to Jewish Agency’s estimates, some 10,000 Jews live in Latvia today, 70 percent of them in Riga. The Jewish Agency operates three Hebrew ulpanim in Latvia in which 180 people study, as well as three youth clubs. There is also a Jewish school, a synagogue, and an educational center run by Chabad that encompasses a school and a kindergarten.

The two sisters are reunited at last in Jerusalem

After a nine-year separation, Galina Studinovsky was reunited this week with her sister Maria Kolker, who was brought to Israel from Chechnya in a Jewish Agency rescue operation. In addition to Kolker, the Jewish Agency brought 28 other olim from the northern Caucasus in Russia, including Ludmilla Nisanov, another Chechen refugee who managed to escape from Grozny via the "Corridor to Life."

The story of the two sisters began in April 1991, when 46-year old Galina came to Israel with her family while 59-year old Maria remained in Grozny. When the first Chechen war broke out in 1994, letters from Maria stopped and Galina was unable to renew contact with her sister.

In recent years Galina tried everything in order to find her sister and bring her to Israel, but her efforts were unsuccessful. After two difficult wars in Chechnya, Galina feared she would never see her sister alive again. In December 1999, while watching the horrors broadcast from Chechnya on a Russian TV channel beamed to Israel, Galina spotted her sister among the thousands of Chechen refugees who had fled from the bombings to Ingushetia.

Shocked and stunned, she recorded every piece of information, which had been broadcast and rushed to contact the Jewish Agency. The Jewish Agency, in turn, transmitted all the details to the its emissary in Pyatigorsk, Abba Faigin, who began an intensive search.

A short time later, with the assistance of Ingushetia’s Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, which is responsible for absorption of the refugees, Faigin managed to locate Galina’s lost sister. He found her at a refugee camp not far from Troitskaya, suffering from shock and undernourishment. Faigin transferred Kolker to a convalescent home in Pyatigorsk where she received initial medical treatment. Jewish Agency representatives made sure that she received good food and warm clothes while Faigin obtained the necessary permits for her aliyah to Israel.

The meeting between the sisters at Ben Gurion Airport was extremely emotional. "The whole time we were separated," said Galina, wiping the tears from her eyes, "I had a terrible conscience because I had been unable to persuade Maria to come with me to Israel ten years ago. But now, I am finally happy."

Ludmilla Nisanov escaped from Grozny via a corridor which was opened by an agreement between the rebels and the Russian forces to allow civilians to leave the city before the bombings. In January of this year, at the recommendation of the Ministry of Social Welfare in Ingushetia, Nisanov made contact with the Jewish Agency who quickly facilitated her aliyah. Waiting for Ludmilla at the airport were her family, who had made aliyah in 1991 and now live in Beersheva.

"The plight of the orphans who fled Chechnya to neighboring Ingushetia has deteriorated since the bombings began in Grozny in the autumn of 1999," said Alla Levy, head of the Jewish Agency delegation in Russia. Levy hopes that the Jewish people will open its heart to help solve the plight of these children even though they are not Jewish. This week Levy visited the orphans with a team from the United Jewish Communities interested in documenting their story. The guests brought the orphans Purim food parc els in order to raise their spirits somewhat.

"On my previous visit," says Levy, "I found that the children were frightened but full of hope that they would soon return to their home in Chechnya. Now they have lost the light in their eyes, their health has detoriated, and they wander around the refugee camp without any educational framework."

Levy said, "The Jewish Agency will buy these children new clothes for the next season, but they urgently require further financial assistance for necessary medical treatment as well as to cover the cost of a period of recuperation at a suitable location. If Jewish communities respond to this publication in the ‘Agenda’, we may even be able to use the donations to refurbish their permanent home in Grozny, which was badly damaged during the bombing, as well as for quality medical treatment," she added.

The initial contact between the Jewish Agency and the orphanage was made four months ago, when Levy went looking for Natasha Suchkova, a Jewish girl who was among the orphans. Levy found them in a deserted camp, far from any settlement in Ingushetia. The children were living in flimsy wooden huts, suffering from cold and hunger and had no medical attention. As the children are considered to be refugees, the local authorities would not allow them to be removed from the area. In an effort to ease their di stress, the Jewish Agency purchased warm clothes and medicines for them.

On her visit this week, Levy was accompanied by Natasha, who has already been rescued by the Jewish Agency, and moved to a safe location in the northern Caucasus until her forthcoming aliyah.

Individuals and organizations interested in offering help are asked to apply to the Global Jewish Agenda.

• In January and February of this year 3,124 youngsters studied at Jewish Agency "limudiot" in the former Soviet Union: 1,560 in Russia, Belarus, and the Baltic States; 894 in Ukraine and Moldova; and 670 in the Asian Republics. The "limudia" program, which is usually six months long, prepares youngsters to pass the qualifying exam for the Jewish Agency Selah and Chalom post-preparatory programs for high school graduates as well as the Na’aleh program for high-school yout h. These programs are for young people who make aliyah before their parents.

• Since the beginning of March 2,486 people from around the world made aliyah: 2,208 from the former Soviet Union (FSU); one from Ethiopia; and 277 from other countries. This brings the total number of olim since the beginning of the year to 11,745: 10,127 from the FSU; 192 from Ethiopia; and 1,426 from other countries (France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, England, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, the US, Canada, and India).

• 85% of the graduates of Jewish Agency Youth Aliyah Villages complete high school and serve in the Israel Defense Forces. This is higher than the national average.

• It costs $4,000 to operate a year-round JAFI youth club in the FSU.

• The Jewish Agency is providing $3,000,000 for the 1999-2000 budget for After-School Tutorial Centers throughout Israel. Over 25,000 pupils attend these centers, which are designed to help bridge learning gaps.

• The Jewish Agency has granted the Israel AIDS task force $19,000 to conduct an educational program on AIDS prevention in Israeli high schools.

Laparascopic spinal fusion back surgery was performed in Israel for the first time this month, thanks to a team of doctors and nurses from the Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, who came to the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya, Israel. They arrived as part of the Jewish Agency - Jewish Federation of Louisville’s Partnership 2000 program with the city of Nahariya. The American medical team stayed in the northern Israeli city for one week only, during which time they performed three of these deli cate and complex operations before a theater of surgeons from all over Israel. The doctors and nurses also demonstrated the use of special equipment they brought from the United States and donated to the Nahariya Hospital.

Israel TV’s Channel 1 aired a special report on the US medical team’s working visit in Israel. The results were not long in coming. The hospital received immediate requests from patients to have this operation performed in the Nahariya hospital, on the Lebanese border, the only one in Israel with the special equipment needed.

The Louisville medical team, headed by Dr. David Roubin, an orthopedic spinal surgeon, did not meet with doctors and nurses only; they also met with the Israeli patients – all middle-aged and in constant pain -- prior to the surgery, in order to explain the procedure to them. The doctors and nurses from Louisville left time in their schedules to do detailed follow-ups prior to their departure.

"I am happy to say that all the patients are doing quite well," says Dr. Roubin. He believes that the Nahariya hospital is now fully qualified to do this type of spinal fusion back surgery.

The Jewish Federation of Louisville and the Jewish Hospital intend to invite and host the Israeli doctors and nurses from Nahariya in the near future. "We will have the pleasure of learning from each other and increasing our cooperation," said Dr. Roubin.

The main synagogue in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the Glendinningvale Synagogue, has been put up for sale and a church is interested in purchasing it. The once vibrant Jewish community numbering over 1,000 families, has shrunk to barely 350 families.

The situation is not much different in Johannesburg, where one of the few remaining homes for the elderly, "Our Parents Home," is in danger of being shut down due to lack of funds. Other Jewish old age homes are also suffering from severe financial problems.

South Africa once had a thriving Jewish community numbering 120,000 people. However, within the past generation the number of South African Jews has decreased to 70,000 and has changed the community.

During the first 80 years of its existence, South African Jewry focused on building up a strong and viable community structure – with a special emphasis on Jewish education. Today, however, priorities are directed primarily to the needs of an aging population. Community resources are limited, and it is unable to shoulder the responsibilities alone.

For most people one of the greatest difficulties of making aliyah is tearing themselves away from their family. For Joe and Phyllis Simon, it was just the opposite. When they touched down at Ben Gurion Airport from Johannesburg this past November, they were received by all four of their children, who had preceded them to Israel, plus an assortment of spouses, fiancees, and grandchildren. "It was the first time in many years that the entire family was together," says Simon. During Friday night dinner a t the Simons’ Jerusalem apartment, the children danced around the dinner table, singing "V’shavu banim l’gvulam" ("and children shall return to their boundaries.")

The words of the song, taken from Jeremiah’s prophecies of redemption are particularly appropriate for the Simon family, which is a microcosm of the ingathering of the exiles. Their eldest son, Yair, the first to come to Israel in 1991, is married to a young woman whose father is a sixth generation Jerusalemite of Syrian origin and whose mother hails from England; their daughter Michelle, who made aliyah in 1997, recently married a dentist from Copenhagen. Nahi, the youngest, who came to Israel this past J uly, is engaged to a young woman from Argentina. They met while studying at the Jewish Agency’s Ulpan Etzion and plan to be married on Lag B’Omer. Rodney and his wife made aliyah from South Africa in 1999; they just moved out of the Jewish Agency’s absorption center in Ra’anana to their new home.

While Phyllis’ family originated in Lithuania, like most South Africans, Joe is of "yekke" stock: his parents came from Frankfurt, emigrating in the 1920s.

The Simon family’s aliyah was the realization of a lifetime of Jewish and Zionist commitment on which the children were raised. The father was active in Hashomer Hadati, precursor to B’nei Akiva, as a youngster. During his engineering studies at the University of Witwatersrand, he became involved in Hapoel Hamizrachi, and later Mizrachi when the two movements merged, after which he was elected as President of the South African Zionist Federation, after having served for almost two decades on its executiv e committee.

The younger Simons were educated to follow a Jewish-Zionist lifestyle. They all attended Yeshiva College – an educational institution that goes from kindergarten to high school – and spent a year in Israel pursuing Jewish studies.

But even for committed Zionists, making aliyah later in life has its challenges. "It takes a lot to transplant yourself," says Joe, who, in order to qualify for an Israeli driver’s license, is now taking lessons after 45 years of driving! "It’s not that easy to settle down, make new friends, get used to a new culture. And whereas you were known as a big macher in another country, here you just disappear into the melting pot."

New starts are always difficult, but the Simons are spared the mixed feelings of thousands of split families separated by land and water from their loved ones.

The President and Executive Director of the Cleveland Foundation, Steve Minter, is working together with Beit Shean Mayor Pini Kabalo, and head of the Beit Shean Regional Council, Yael Shealtieli, to establish a community foundation in the Beit Shean region, to further social services, education, art, sports, and economic development. The Cleveland Foundation, which has an endowment of $1.6 billion, is the second largest community foundation in North America.

Minter and his wife, Dolly, who served as the interim director of the Lorain Foundation, were in Israel this week for a ten-day visit in response to a trip to Cleveland a year ago by young community leadership from Beit Shean. This was followed by a visit to Cleveland in July by Mayors Kabalo and Shealtieli. The relationship between the two cities, thousands of miles apart, originated within the framework of the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000.

The concept of establishing a community foundation emerged from the "Valley in Transition" plan developed by the Beit Shean Region, in conjunction with "Zionism 2000," a non-profit Israeli-based organization, and the Cleveland Jewish Federation.

The Minters visit in Beit Shean culminated at a Community Forum hosted by the Cleveland House, where the concept of a community foundation was presented to local leadership and Partnership 2000 activists. Participants included Mayors Kabalo and Shealtieli, Meir Nitzan, Director-General of the Jewish Agency’s Israel Department; Sagi Melamed, Director of the Jewish Agency’s Beit Shean Region, representatives of the Joint Distribution Committee; and others.

The Minters toured throughout Israel, and met with community leaders and activists in the non-profit world, such as Prof. Eliezer Jaffe (originally from Cleveland) of the Hebrew University, and Prof. Benny Gidron of Ben Gurion University.

The Cleveland Foundation, established in 1914, was the first community foundation in the US. Today the movement has spread globally, says Minter noting that there are more than 200 communities around the world in locations outside the United States.

"We’ve learned that getting people to give is influenced by far more than tax motivation," says Minter. "People in Beit Shean are starting to say, let’s put something in place that will be very important for many years to come. We’re now in the early stages of bringing together a number of people to work with us. Then we’ll make recommendations about what is best way to proceed."

The President of Argentina, Fernando de la Rua, promised once again at the end of last week to speed up the investigation to find those responsible for the two attacks which took place at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in March 1992 and the Jewish Community Center in July 1994. De la Rua spoke at the memorial ceremony for the victims of the Embassy attack last Friday. Israeli Ambassador Itzchak Aviran, Jewish community leaders, Zionist youth movements and the public at large attended the ceremony.

Kito Hasson, head of the Jewish Agency delegation to Latin America, also participated in the ceremony. He reported that this is not the first time that the new president, who took office two months ago, has promised to intensify the efforts to bring the perpetrators to trial.

Twenty-nine people were killed and more than 200 injured in the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires on March 8, 1992. Two years later, 86 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the attack on the Jewish Community Center.

The inability of the authorities to find those responsible has been the cause of much anger in the community. Since the attack on the Jewish Community Center, family members of the victims, as well as concerned citizens, both Jewish and non-Jewish, have demonstrated weekly opposite the Courthouse, calling for justice.

The memorial ceremony took place at the site of the destroyed Israeli Embassy building. A square was dedicated in which 29 trees were planted in memory of the victims.

An Israeli army artillery unit and new immigrants who live at the Jewish Agency’s Nurit Absorption Center in Beersheva will adopt each another.

As part of the mutual adoption, a joint sports day will be held at the absorption center for the soldiers and youngsters who live at the center in an effort to bring them closer together.

Five hundred Ethiopian olim, most of whom arrived during the recent wave of aliyah from Quara, live at the Nurit Absorption Center. Shalom Cohen, Director of the Center, said that this operation is part of the Jewish Agency’s efforts to increase community involvement in the absorption of new immigrants and bring together new and veteran olim.

Three young immigrants from Ethiopia, who live at the Jewish Agency Nurit Absorption Center in Beersheva, have been chosen to represent Israel at the Daniel Pecci cup games to be held in Italy next month.

The football games for youth up to the age of 14 have been held in Italy for 19 years. Football teams from all over Italy participate in the week-long tournament, which is held near Rimini.

This year, for the first time, non-Italian teams will also be taking part in the competition. The Israeli team will be represented by 18 youngsters from the south of Israel and Beersheva who were chosen from among a hundred candidates.

Among the young players chosen for the Israeli team are three Ethiopian olim - Adana Worko, Alex Massala and Meir Sanbato. The three are tenth graders who live at the Jewish Agency’s Nurit Absorption Center in Beersheva and are trained by the Beersheva football team.

Since these youngsters cannot afford to finance their trip to the tournament, the Absorption Center staff assisted them, raising money for the trip with the help of the Beersheva municipality, the Ethiopian Olim Association and the Dudu Topaz TV show.

There is a large number of sportsmen among Ethiopian olim. The most famous football personalities include: Baruch Dago who plays for Ironi Ashdod, the twins Ziv and David Kabeda from Hapoel Tel Aviv and Zafririm Holon, Efraim Einbrum from Maccabi Kiryat Gat, and Kfir Zukl of Maccabi Netanya.

Earlier this week, students at the Jewish Agency’s Gold Teachers Training Institute (Machon Gold) in Jerusalem spent much of their spare time purchasing basic foodstuffs for ten needy families in the city. The names of the families, who represented a cross-section of Jerusalem’s needy - new olim from the former Soviet Union, Ethiopians, ultra-Orthodox, and residents from depressed neighborhoods – were obtained from welfare organizations in the capital. After packaging and attractively decorating the mi shloach manot packages, the young women, attired in costumes and singing, delivered them to the families, to provide cheer as well as badly needed food. Hidden in each food delivery was a cash gift for the needy - matanot le'evyonim - to help the families meet their Passover needs.

Money for this project was raised by the students themselves at a Goods and Services Auction held several weeks ago at the Gold campus in the Katamon neighborhood. NIS 5,700 (about $1,400) was raised for the mishloach manot and matanot le'evyonim project. The students recruited the help of vendors and restaurateurs in Jerusalem as well as donations of services by students and staff of Machon Gold.

For over 40 years Gold has trained young women from around the world as teachers and informal educators. The special one-year program, at the end of which graduates are awarded a license to teach Jewish studies in the Diaspora by the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture, combines a study of Judaica, Hebrew, and pedagogical skills. It also provides a total Jewish lifestyle. For many of the students particularly for those from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe this is their first such opportun ity.

Students from the US, Canada, Brazil, England, Croatia, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Holland and Switzerland participated in this year’s Purim activities. "This was a truly global experience that allowed them to share their Purim cheer with Israelis as well as among themselves while enabling them to better understand the needs of Israeli society," says Shonny Solow, the school’s dean.

Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, will arrive in Israel for his first official visit as Prime Minister next month. He will be accompanied by a delegation of Jewish leadership, that includes Moshe Ronen, President of the Canadian Jewish Congress; Joe Wilder, President of the Canada-Israel Committee; David Goldstein, Chairman of the UIA-Canada, as well as members of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors, and others.

Highlights of his two-day trip will include a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak and a visit to Yad Vashem. He will also receive an honorary degree from the Hebrew University.

A trip to Israel in one of the Jewish Agency programs is the first prize in the carnival organized earlier this week by the Jewish Agency and the Israel Center for Moscow’s Jewish community.

More than 2000 people participated in the carnival and the aliyah fair that preceded it. Greetings were extended by Alla Levy, head of the Jewish Agency delegation in Russia; Boris Maftzir, Director General of the Israel Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, and Avi Ganon, Director of the Israel Center.

At the aliyah fair, the Jewish Agency presented its educational and study programs in Israel to the hundreds of youngsters who participated.

Alla Levy said that the Russian Jewish Congress, headed by Vladimir Gusinski, also held Purim celebrations at Moscow’s new municipal circus. Some 3,500 people watched trained animal performances and put on a special show for Purim.

This Sunday, the Jewish Agency will hold another carnival, especially for children, in conjunction with the JDC and the Moscow Jewish Community Center, at the Jewish theater, Shalom. The program will include singing, folk dancing and drawing competitions. The children will see a "Purimspiel" (Purim Show) and artists and clowns will also perform. Each child will receive a special Purim prize.

In addition to organizing dozens of Purim festivities all over Russia, the Jewish Agency this week sent gifts and food packages (mishloach manot) to the municipal orphanage in Moscow. Fifty orphans of elementary school age received a giant basket of candies and were invited to the main celebrations organized by the Jewish Agency and local organizations in the city.

Last year close ties were formed between the children and the Jewish Agency after the Agency responded to a request from the Moscow municipality to assist the orphans who were suffering from many difficulties. At the request of the institution staff, the Jewish Agency developed a variety of informal activities for the children, including drawing, folk dancing and theater groups. On Sunday the children were able to display their achievements and win prizes at the Jewish Agency’s Purim carnival in the Shalo m theater in Moscow.

New immigrants from all over the world celebrate Purim in the Jewish Agency Absorption Center, Beit Canada in Ashkelon. For some of the children, this was the first time they dressed up in costume and celebrated the holiday. In the photo: young immigrants from Yugoslavia, France, USA, Lithuania, Cuba and Ethiopia.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, in his weekly Saturday night sermon, made an unprecedented attack on Minister of Education Yossi Sarid, chairman of the Meretz party, calling him such epithets as "Satan," and "Haman" and saying "He should be wiped out like Amalek." The politicians united in condemning the Rabbi’s words. The Israeli State Attorney’s office considered carrying out an investigation, but after the Rabbi announced publicly that Sarid should not be harmed, there may be no legal action taken.

Just eight months after coming to Israel, 20-year old Iya Yermolivea from the city of Montsigorsk in Russia made her premier at a piano recital organized by the Jewish Agency’s Northern Region in conjunction with the Municipality of Tiberias.

Although the young woman was well on her way to a successful musical career in her native country, she chose to come to Israel as part of the Jewish Agency’s Selah program. A music seminary graduate in her hometown, she was the recipient of many awards in Russia, including the coveted Rachmaninoff Prize.

Alizka Yarden, the Cultural Coordinator at the Tiberias Absorption Center, quickly became aware of the young woman’s unusual musical talents. Since there is no piano at the Center, she arranged for Iya to go to the nearby Yad L’Banim Cultural Center for regular practice. Her performance this past Thursday, of Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and Mozart was enthusiastically received by the audience.

Iya was one of 110 youngsters from the former Soviet Union who arrived at the Tiberias Absorption Center in August as part of the Jewish Agency’s Selah and Chalom preparatory framework. Designed to bring young high school graduates to Israel in advance of their parents, the program provides residential facilities, ulpan, and help with cultural absorption. Selah is an academic program that prepares participants for acceptance at academic institutions in Israel; Chalom prepares participants for vocational frameworks.

Music, as well as dance, is important in the Tiberias Absorption Center. Yarden coordinates a choir, Kama Tov Shebanu, (meaning "how great it is that we came") that perform old-time Israeli songs. There is also a professionally choreographed Israeli dance troupe at the center.

Both groups regularly appear at Jewish Agency events and perform for visiting missions. "Wherever there’s a stage, we’re there!" says Yarden. This year, for the third year in a row, they will sing and dance at the pre-Pesach program, "Yachad Baseder," at the President’s Residence, organized by the Jewish Agency.

What do kosher wine connoisseurs, budding comedians and aspiring artists have in common with Wall Street professionals and Torah scholars looking to delve into the text of the Passover Haggadah? The desire to meet their perfect match!

Next week more than 200 single men and women in their 20s, 30s and 40s are expected to gather at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York City for the purpose of meeting that special someone.

Choosing one activity from nine interactive workshops, participants will be able to try their hand at circus-style juggling, learn how to analyze handwriting samples, create their own oil paint masterpiece or discuss the Internet. They can also pick up winning investment tips, play volleyball or experience the exodus from Egypt through a study of the Haggadah.

The Orthodox Union is now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of America and beyond. Its kosher supervision label, the OU, is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on nearly 250,000 products in 68 countries around the globe.

The ring was made of aluminum foil; the bridegroom did not recite "you are consecrated to me" under the marriage canopy, and the couple did not spend time alone to seal the marriage bond after the ceremony. Other than that, the wedding that took place last week in the Belarussian city of Gomel was "the real thing"-- from the traditional wedding canopy to the klezmer music to the circles of young men and women dancing around the "happy couple" to the tables laden with delicacies – something that could have been lifted straight out of Shalom Aleichem!

The idea for the model wedding was conceived by two young women from Ezra, who were sent by the Jewish Agency for two months to work with the local community. In January, when Efrat Goldstein and Odelia Hajaj arrived in Gomel – once a thriving Jewish city - they quickly set out to initiate activities to augment local programs. In addition to helping the local Ezra branch of about 40 youngsters, they conducted "experiential" programs in the Jewish Agency ulpanim and ran Kabbalat Shabbat services at "Chese d" –the JDC sponsored senior citizens center. They taught Hebrew at the Jewish government-run day school (grades one to four) and Sunday school. Local youngsters were able to enjoy an Israeli-style Purim fair complete with booths, contests, and prizes for the best disguises!

But their most dramatic feat was undoubtedly the traditional Jewish wedding they staged this past Sunday -- and the city hadn’t witnessed anything like it in over eighty years! "There are no Jewish weddings in Gomel," said Odelia. "They had no idea of how Jews get married."

Since they couldn’t locate, on such short notice, a couple planning to get married, the girls decided to stage a real Jewish wedding. They were helped enormously by the Chabad movement. Two young men and four young women came all the way from St. Petersburg – a 19-hour trip under ordinary circumstances -- to organize the wedding. However, since they were needed to transport the freshly prepared wedding delicacies cooked Saturday night by Chabad chefs in Minsk, they set out Thursday, and spent Shabbat in Minsk. Chabad also provided the chupah, the traditional wedding canopy.

When they heard about the plans, community members were initially skeptical. "What kind of a wedding is this?" one young man queried. However, within a short time, the "wedding" became the "hottest item" in Gomel. One-hundred-fifty invitations were initially distributed, for a token fee, among the various sectors of the community. The telephone never stopped ringing at the girls’ apartment as requests for invitations poured in. "If there were room we could have had 500 people at the wedding," says Ode lia.

In the end, over 215 people managed to squeeze into the largest facility available in Gomel - the dining room in a factory. The crowd sang and danced into the wee hours of the night to tapes of klezmer music, Carlebach songs, and traditional Israeli melodies. The wedding ended with a rousing rendition of Hatikvah.

As the plans for the "wedding" got underway, four engaged couples approached Odelia and Efrat and asked them to help arrange real Jewish weddings.

Have you just moved to Los Angeles? Travel there frequently on business? Maybe you are just passing through?

If so, do you need a synagogue, a Jewish day school or kosher food? Whatever your requirements, you’ll find information easily in "A Guide to the Los Angeles Jewish Community" published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. It lists just about everything Jewish in Los Angeles, including names, addresses, phone numbers and even e-mail addresses of the myriad Jewish agencies, organizations, programs, synagogues, etc.

The updated guide included listings of organizations, agencies, synagogues, teen groups, camps, nursery schools, supplemental religious and day schools. The new edition even adds listings of singles and young adult programs, mikvaot (Jewish ritual baths), cemeteries and mortuaries, kosher food and Judaica shops.

The free 140 page Guide is designed to help all members of the community locate the broad spectrum of Jewish resources throughout greater Los Angeles. It is expected to be especially useful to people who have recently moved to the area, and those who come to Los Angeles on business.

California is known for its big and beautiful avocados. An avocado is ripe when it yields to gentle pressure.

2 ripe avocados
1/4 cup finely minced onion
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons of diced green chili peppers (optional)
1/2 tablespoon of salt
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon of olive oil

Peel and mash avocados with fork, crushing against sides of bowl. Combine with other ingredients except parsley. Place in serving bowl, using parsley as garnish. Serve with corn or tortilla chips, crackers, or use to fill tomato shells for individual servings. Makes about 2 cups.

Bon appetit - B'teavon!