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CNN Live Today

Russian Jews Reviving Passover Traditions

Aired March 29, 2002 - 13:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a lot of holidays going around. It is Good Friday. Also, we're in the middle of Passover, which is a time for music, prayer and food. But for many older Jews in Russia, those traditions went by the wayside during the Soviet era. Our Moscow bureau chief, Jill Dougherty, reports on a new effort trying to revive the ancient observance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Last- minute touches before the Seder begins. The teachers are ready, and so are the students. Most are in their 60s and 70s, but many are just beginning to learn the traditions of Judaism.

Guiding them through this story of freedom from bondage in Egypt are members of the Passover Project, students from the United States, Israel and Russia, bringing Passover traditions to 40,000 Jews in 350 communities of the former Soviet Union.

The program is sponsored by the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Hillel Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

(on camera): The Seder is a tradition that stretches back at least 2,000 years. But, it's a tradition that was broken here in Russia for 70 years under Communism.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's something that I never had to struggle for. It's something that has always been there for me when I wanted it. And most people here in the former Soviet Union, they don't have it. They were denied it. They -- it's been almost wiped -- it was wiped out of their culture.

DOUGHERTY: "When I was a little girl," Ida Gubich (ph) says, "we used to listen to records from the turn of the century, and my father would teach me the songs."

Sima Haifitz (ph) says her mother was a believer and celebrated Passover. But it was in Belarus, in a little town, so it had to be done very, very quietly. It was almost forbidden: the food, the prayers, traditions that unite Jews through time and distance.

BRAD LEVENBERG, PASSOVER PROJECT: It's not just something that happened generations ago. The fight for freedom and for Jewish survival is something that lives on in the hearts and the souls of every Jew.

DOUGHERTY: Jill Dougherty, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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