The Jewish community of Krivoy Rog was recently visited by Dr. Betsy Gidvitz, the author of the books about the life of Jews in the CIS, and guests from Boston, the representatives of the Action for Post-Soviet Jewry Organization Judy Patkin and Galina Silberstein, who came with the Kegila Project Coordinator Yan Sidel’kovsky.
This was not the first visit to the community. Mrs. Patkin’s first visit to Krivoy Rog was in the early 90s. Since then she comes annually. Mrs. Gidvitz is also well acquainted with the community of Krivoy Rog in view of her numerous visits to the city.
One of the main projects of the Action for Post-Soviet Jewry Organization is the Adopt The Bubbe Program which aims to help the aged men and women.
This time the guests visited the recently opened synagogue Beis Stern Schulman. The chief rabi Liron Ederi toured the guests about the synagogue. The guests saw the main hall, the Mikhail Marmer Museum, the gallery and the photo exhibition. The director of the Ohr-Avner Charity Fund Tatyana Kutz told about the programs of the fund running in the city.
The Ohr-Avner school director Svetlana Skripchuk showed and told the guests about the opportunities for children in the school, the Planet of Childhood Boarding School, the Preschool Development Center and the progress of the construction of the kindergarten and the gym premises which is planned to finish this fall.
After the visit the guests shared their impressions. Mrs. Betsy Gidvitz noted that she loves to come to Krivoy Rog as she likes to see the successful development of the local Jewish community. And this time Dr. Gidvitz was satisfied with the visit providing her with plenty of interesting information for her articles about the Jewish communities and organizations in Ukraine.
