Community

Spirituality

To Russia With Love

Detroit native is on a mission to awaken the dormant Jew
inside many in the former Soviet Union.

HOWARD LOVY
Copy Editor

L

he's not about to die.
Berkowitz was amazed, in tears.
He told the traveler that his grand-
father was right, it is something you
do when you're about to die, but it's
also something Jews do every day,
while they're very much alive.
Berkowitz then sat down with

to Detroit to visit family.
His interest in Soviet Jewry began
when he attended the Lubavitch
Cheder in Oak Park. The day school
would bring chasidim just out of
Russia to speak to the children.
He remembers one former
refusenik who had spent 15 years in

done had he been alive during the
Holocaust. Would he have fought?
"But instead of thinking about
what would have happened then,
think right now," Berkowitz remem-
bers concluding. "There's something
called the Soviet Union, and there
are millions of Jews there. What are
we doing for them? Can they do
what I do? Can they live freely as a
Jew as I can? That's what I would
pray for, that's what I would think
about, and I would dream."

ast year, on a flight to
Siberia, Detroit-area native
Avraham Berkowitz did
something he usually does
not like to do when in the former
Soviet Union: He dav-
ened in the open.
It's not that he's
ashamed to show his
Jewishness in public
— his thick, black
beard and kippah give
that away immediatel Y•
Realizing A Dream
He just likes to be cau _
Berkowitz never thought he would
tious.
actually go, much less be a part of a
But Berkowitz,
Jewish renaissance in the ruins of
executive director of
the former Soviet Union.
the Federation of
From Detroit, Berkowitz was
Jewish Communities
posted by Chabad-Lubavitch to
of the Former Soviet
many places, spending time in far-
Union, had no choice
away outposts doing rabbinical
on this day. It was
work. He spent a year in Uraguay
time to put on tefillin,
and three years in Argentina, where
even on an airplane.
he got to work raising money and
After Berkowitz fin-
helping build the Jewish communi-
ished davening, the
ty. Argentina is where he thought he
person next to him
would end up, until he
appeared quite both-
met his future wife,
ered and asked
Leah, who was director
Berkowitz how such a
of education at a Jewish
young guy could have
day school in Nikoliev,
the gall to put on the
Ukraine.
"black boxes" while on
The more Berkowitz
a plane. Did he expect
heard stories about
it to crash?
Russia from his wife, the
Berkowitz was
more intrigued he
Students in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, play near a menorah made of ice at their
intrigued, and asked
Jewish day school.
became. At the time, the
his fellow traveler what
Federation of Jewish
he knew about tefillin.
Communities of the
The man said that when his
him and they made a list of 34 of
Siberia — a
Former Soviet Union was
grandfather was near death, he
his relatives. He told him all are
forming, and the
"fiery chasid"
watched him pray intensely with the
Jews just like him, even though they
Lubavitch movement saw
who would tell
"black boxes" on. Then he told the
don't know it.
his Argentina fund-rais-
stories about
grandson, "I want you to know that
Avraham Berkowitz, 27, became
A few days later, 20 of them came
ing and community
how he risked
I am a Jew, your mother's a Jew and
fascinated
with Russia as a child building as a training
to High Holiday services, although
his life to make
you are a Jew. I never told you this,
in Detroit.
they had never participated in the
ground for Russia.
sure under-
but this is what you are and what
Jewish community before.
So, he set up office
ground Jewish
you will always be. And a Jewish
"Every single Jewish activist that's
there a year ago and started a family.
schools and yeshivot stayed alive. To
person, right before he dies, he puts
out there in the former Soviet
He and his wife have a 10-month-
young Berkowitz, the image of being
on these boxes and ties his hand."
Union could tell you dozens of these
old
girl, Rachel.
in a country where it still wasn't safe
The traveler then asked Berkowitz
stories. It happens to me every day,"
The federation consists of rep-
to be a Jew was very powerful. He
how he could insult his religion like
he said.
resentatives
from 130 Jewish com-
remembers thinking, as many Jewish
that by putting the tefillin on when
Berkowitz, 27, recently returned
munities in Russia and 375 in all
children do, what would he have

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2001

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