November 9, 2004
25 Heshvan, 5765

The Bar Mitzva of the Oldest Jewish School in Russia to be Celebrated in Israel

A quarter of the graduates of the school have moved to Israel over the last decade.

On Thursday 11 November, the Jewish Agency will hold a festive bar mitzvah ceremony for the oldest Jewish day-school in Russia, the Lipman School in Moscow. Graduates of the school now living in Israel will also participate in the ceremony.

Gregory Lipman, founder and principal of the school, visited Israel for the first time 13 years ago during the first Gulf War. He consequently decided to set up a Jewish-Zionist educational institution in Moscow. Over the last 13 years, hundreds of Jewish boys and girls have received a Jewish education at the Lipman School. A quarter of its graduates have already made aliyah, many of them outstanding students and IDF soldiers and officers.

The Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Education support 43 Jewish schools throughout the former Soviet Union, from Siberia to the Baltic Sea. Gerda Feuerstein, director of the Jewish Agency's unit for education in the FSU, says that holding the ceremony in Israel, with the participation of school graduates now living in Israel, emphasizes the meaning of Jewish-Zionist education in the Diaspora. The Jewish Agency develops the connection to Israel among thousands of Jewish pupils in the FSU.

The Jewish Agency and Ministry of Education organized an exciting Israel trip for Gregory Lipman and a group of 30 pupils from his school in Moscow, aimed at familiarizing them with the country. The climax of the visit will be on Thursday November 11th, when school pupils and graduates will gather for the school's bar mitzvah ceremony taking place at Kiryat Moriah in Jerusalem from 4:00-7:00pm. The ceremony will include a video-conference with teachers and pupils at the school in Moscow, as well as with teachers and pupils now living in Israel as well as Israeli teachers who served as emissaries at the school.

For further information:
Semyon Dovzhik
Office of the Spokesman, Jewish Agency for Israel
e-mail: semyond@jazo.org.il
Tel. 052-3847317

or contact:
Michael Jankelowitz
Liaison to Foreign Press
The Jewish Agency for Israel
Cell: 050-7601706
Voicemail: 02-6202780
e-mail: michaelj@jazo.org.il