It was about a 15 minute walk to the community center. It is housed in the ground floor of a big apartment building. There was a painted swastika on the wall kiddy corner to the entrance of the center. I guess anit-Semitism is alive and well here. The center itself had a nice new door, but no markings indicating that it was Jewish place. (the swastika showed that the community knew whether it was marked or not). The center consisted of 6 rooms and a large hallway. First there was Vladimir's office, he is the head of the community. He had a big desk and sat there smoking a cigar and reviewing the books and talking with members about community issues. Next was their big meeting room which held three long narrow tables (seating for about 25-these were the tables that we had made the tablecloth for) and a desk with the computer that had internet access. Lucy gave us time to write quick e-mails and she promised to pass them on to our families-this was the first real opportunity we had to communicate with everyone from back home, but time was short so we had to reduce our impressions to about 5 sentences, a real challenge. Next, across the hall was a small kitchen, about the size of half of my kitchen with a table, refrigerator, and a two burner stove. Galena put out a spread of cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, hard boiled eggs ,bread, herring ,salmon and hot tea for us. This was either lunch or breakfast (by now it was about 11:30 and we were famished). This simple meal was so much better than anything we had eaten at Pushkine... Next to the kitchen was the library/classroom. It had two bookshelves filled with books and supplies (many that we had sent) student desk/tables that sat two or three, sort of a modern version of the kind of desks they used in a one room school house and three glass cases that housed the Jewish museum of Kineshma, pictures and mementos of the town. Lucy's parents were among those pictured. The last room on that side was another classroom with tables and chairs. Moving across the hall was a computer room with three or four computers in it. These were on loan from FEOR. They were not connected to the internet, but could be used for writing papers, playing games, etc. Kineshma students don't have access to computers in school until they are 11 or 12, so having them at the center is a way to give them some extra enrichment. In the long hallway they displayed many of the student's artwork and they had prepared a huge welcome sign in English for us as well.
Lucy opened the door to show us what the "before the renovation" had looked like-cracked walls, exposed pipes, etc. The members of the community had done all the work themselves. The walls looked like painted wood or plastic paneling and everything was new and clean. They are so proud of it and they should be.
Victor came to meet us and together with Lucy we took two taxis to the center of town to Kineshma's art museum. It was an exhibition of local artists including several of Victor's pieces. He does a lot of mixed media and collage and his works were very impressive.
As we walked towards the river and our upcoming Volga boat ride we passed through the center of town. There was a big statue of Lenin and several public buildings. They were trying to do some renovations, but in general the town buildings were terribly dilapidated for their age.
We had heard from Lucy about the boat trip a month ago, but we really weren't sure who was coming until we got on the boat. It turned out that they had rented a small motor boat with a driver and that there were about 15 of us : Victor and Lucy, Vladimir and Galena, Giorge, Dasha, Lucy's sister Sveta from Nimsinovgord Christina, her Mom Irina, her Dad, Tolya, and her brother, Anton and the four of us. The boat had a hold below that sat about 8, a front cabin for two and plenty of standing room around the top deck. I started out down below but quickly moved up top to watch the view and feel the breeze. After all the rain we had during our stay at Pushkine it was so nice to be outside on such a glorious day. I spent a good portion of the time talking with Giorge who is 17. He just returned from 3 years on a youth village in Israel. He loved it there and spoke fluent Hebrew, so that was our common language. He decided to come home and go to college, which is free here and then possibly go back to Israel to do the army when he finishes.
The river was quite wide and along the bank you saw all kinds of houses; most were small and somewhat crumbling, but a few were quite large. We road for an hour until we got to Vladimir and Galena's dacha, or summer home. It was just up from the bank. The hill in front of the house was covered in wild berries: strawberries, raspberries and currants, with apples and cherries also growing on the property. The house itself was not too big, one large bedroom with a big fireplace, a small kitchen and another small bedroom. Off the mid hallway is a door which Vladimir told me led to the bathroom. At one point I opened the door looking for the bathroom. I was mystified because I found myself looking into what looked to me like a barn. I checked with everyone to see if I had heard right and indeed I had, the bathroom was a platform with a hole and a seat covering. It was just a step up from the door to the barn.
They get their water from a spring fed well which is extremely cold. Giorge built their own banya on the property last summer. The banya has 3 rooms, a samovar tea room, a washing room and a sauna room. After shvitzing for awhile, it is customary to be beaten with birch leaves. Apparently the whole regime is very good for the body
After awhile we came inside and were sitting on the beds in the big bedroom just talking with everyone. I think our sleep deprivation hit almost all of us at once and we just started fading mid-sentence. They were so understanding. They just left us for a little snooze and when we woke up an hour later, our dinner was ready. They had brought in some kosher meat from Moscow and grilled it over an open fire. We all picnicked next to the fire. The rest of the meal included bread, cheese, herring, tomatoes, cukes, fresh berries, fish and lots of vodka. We downed two bottles. Russian vodka, or at least this Jewish vodka was so smooth that you didn't feel it going down. There weren't quite enough chairs at the table so the men stood around the fire and ate. It was an idyllic experience and we were stuffed.
When we got back to the hotel we had a little time before Shabbat. We had to get a lighter so we could light candles and then we spent the last few minutes until Shabbat started (at about 10:00) writing in our journals. We made Shabbat over our challah from Kineshma and some Hannukah candles. We sat around in our room for a little eating challah with peanut butter, drinking water and schmoozing,, and then we went to bed. It was another great day!
Woke up at 9:00 and went down to have breakfast in the restaurant. Lucy came to meet us and we headed out to the community center. We were walking a now familiar path-my favorite part was climbing the three steps over the exposed pipe. When we arrived at the center there weren't too many people there. It became immediately clear that in religious mode, we were following the orthodox model-men were davening in Vladimir's office and women were not invited. The women sat around the big table where the office computer is and had a Torah study session. I'm sure they had never seen home made tallitot before, let alone women in tallitot and kipot. Lucy lead the Torah discussion based on a little book that she had which spoke about each parsha. This was the one moment I was frustrated that I hadn't brought a Hebrew-English Tanach. She wanted us to lead the discussion, but we just weren't familiar enough with the parsha, and couldn't read it that fast in Hebrew. In the end, she lead it and the women were quite involved in the discussion. Then we explained about the Torah service. I told them that this was my Bat Mitzvah portion and that the cantor hadn't let me chant the portion. Both Rhonda and Ellen had read Torah for the first time as adults at the minyan and Anne, of course, learned since her conversion. I even told them about my mom who learned at age 75. We split the first aliya between Anne, Rhonda and myself. Ellen read the Haftorah. They had never heard of a Haftorah.
I explained that in our shul there was a custom of saying a prayer for the sick during the Torah service and that one of our members had just had her first round of treatment for cancer. We said a prayer for healing in English which Lucy translated and then we invited other members to say prayers as well. Many did and we said a special one for a local girl who had just come home after neck surgery
After we finished davening we sang songs until the men were ready. Then they set up the table for lunch and all those who had attended services or Torah study stayed for lunch. The fare was pretty much the same: cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese AND meat, ( on separate platters, we were told the meat was kosher), bread, fish, vodka, some sort of fish and egg mayonnaise salad, vodka, wine , tea and cookies Vladimir led the kiddush, pouring first into his glass, and then from his into others around the table
After lunch we were walked back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. This was greatly appreciated because our body clocks by now were totally non-functional and Shabbat lasted until 11:00 p.m., so we had a long day ahead of us. We were asleep within minutes and woke up refreshed and ready for the evening's entertainment.
Giorge came to take Anne and Rhonda back to his home where he would serve as the translator using Hebrew as the language of choice. Ellen and I went back with Lucy and Victor, to share a dinner of artists. On the way we stopped to see Victor's studio. They apologized profusely about the condition of the building, it was incredibly derelict and clearly home to many drunks, but it was cheap and he just needed a small space. Small it was, perhaps 1/2 the size of our den at home. Along all four sides were shelves for the stacked canvasses. and many prints. There was an easel in the middle and room enough for the four of us to stand, but barely room to turn around.
Victor began pulling paintings out of the stack to show to us, wanting us to pick something as a present. His repertoire is vast-he is comfortable in many media: oil, pastel, mixed media, printing making. He also seems to have every painting or drawing he has ever made, so the quality was varied, as well. He had done some things using old clocks, he made collages using old wall papers, gauze and other materials, he mixed glue in with the paint to give it a thicker consistency, he used bubble paper dipped in paint to get texture. He talked of combing the alleys to find new materials with which to paint.
Victor came down with a large rolled up pile of paintings and we continued on our way to Lucy's house. Outside of their house was a big garden with many of the same flowers in our garden at home. They live on the fifth floor.. We finally met Lucy's daughter, Tonya, who is about 20.
Lucy and Victor's apartment is small but beautiful. Victor has painted the walls and the ceilings using stencils and folk art designs. The living room, where we sat most of the evening was long and narrow. It held a couch, a long table in front of the couch for us to eat on and a few chairs on the other side. One wall was filled ceiling to floor with book shelves containing books and Victor's prized bottle collection. He has bottles of all shapes and sizes which he uses in his paintings.
In addition to Lucy's family, we were joined by one of Victor's friends who was a photographer, Lucy's sister Sveta and her husband, and her nephew, Sam, who spoke excellent English. Sam worked as a journalist for a magazine and seemed to be doing well. He had spent some time in New Jersey and some in England and was hoping to go back again when he could get the right visa. He and his dad had come in to pick up his aunt who had been in visiting his grandmother for the past three weeks. His English was excellent and he positioned himself on a chair behind Ellen on the couch and they had some long conversations.
Victor's friend showed his photography, which used all different kinds of techniques and was quite interesting. He and Victor had worked cooperatively on some photo collage and pen and ink art which was beautiful. Victor had also calligraphed and illustrated many books, taking some old fairy tales or fables, writing them up in calligraphy and then illustrating them with collages and little sketches. He showed us many of these books and they were amazing. He has been in several exhibitions and even had a limited publication of his books.
We sat and talked and ate until almost 11:00 at night. Another surreal evening-on the one hand I felt as if I were with family, and on the other it is such a different world
Last day in Kineshma.. Victor and Lucy came to walk us to the Center and this time we took a different route, not through the park and my favorite stairway. Everyone was carrying some of the materials we had brought for the Center, art supplies, the tablecloth, paper cuts and more-we had meant to bring them over by car, but just never organized it when we traveled by cab.
First we all sat around the table in the big room and Olga the culture teacher organized the students to perform for us. The younger ones sang The Wheels on the Bus and Old MacDonald, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes (to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb). The older ones sang a rock version of Go Down Moses and Yesterday. Then the little kids did a little play for us about a turtle and some children sitting on it thinking it was a rock.
For the morning Sunday school, we divided into two groups. Ellen and Anne took the older kids in the room where we had lunch yesterday. Rhonda and I had the younger kids in the classroom with the museum. Rhonda told the story of Mrs. Moscowitz and the Shabbat Candlesticks. Actually Cristina read the book (from our new Russian translation which we messed up as we hurriedly pasted the pages in) while Rhonda acted it out. Then Rhonda taught them how to do the Shma in sign language. Finally came our art project, we made Havdallah sets with them. They used wicky stix to put two Hannukah candles together and we tied spices into netting. This was very new for them and they were very excited about it. It was nice to see the moms and/or dads working together with the children. (The older kids made some very fancy designs with the wicky stix-their candles almost looked as if they had butterfly wings) We reviewed the melody with them-they all know the Debbie Friedman melody. We used the fancy Havdallah set and turned out the lights and sang the brachot, telling them to save their new sets for home. We also taught the hand signals for David Melech. After we were finished we all went out into the hall and they did a little dance for us...1, 2, 3 on your tiptoes. Then we taught them zemer atik. Next came the women's group. They joined us for lunch along with the rest of "regulars". They sang Tumbalalika and Al Kol Eleh...Then we all sang together accompanied by the piano and the accordion: Halelu, Oseh Shalom Am Yisrael Chai and V'nomar L'fanov. There were lots of toasts, goodie bags for us, presentations of the tablecloth and Mizrah for the Center and many good wishes. They even had a special cake for us, and of course we drank lots of vodka.
After lunch we said good-bye to the Center and headed out in the rain in two cabs with Lucy, Victor and Christina to try and catch a little souvenir shopping before our train to Moscow. Unfortunately we arrived at the Kineshma version of a mall shortly before it closed and didn't really get a chance to shop. The mall reminded me of the square in Kiryat Shemonah from 30 years ago-it was a far cry from the mall we had seen in Moscow. It was a big enclosed building with lots of little stalls, each selling pretty simple items. We did find a stall selling Cds and I bought some Russian music for Sam. Ellen or Anne noticed a display poster of Shrek in Russian and wanted to know if we could buy it. They wouldn't sell us that one, but they did give us a whole bunch of their old display posters in Russian which I'm sure our kids will enjoy. The mall was closing so we went back outside to wait for our cabs. Lucy said that she had taken more cabs in the last three days than she usually did in a year-either they walk or take the bus. But...we were the important American visitors and we merited a cab.
At 5:15 the cabs were back to take us to the train station. It had continued to rain so the cab drivers drove around the puddles as if they were navigating an obstacle course. Many people from the community came to see us off. Getting to the train was rather a challenge. It was parked across one set of tracks and there was no bridge. We had to climb down onto the first set of tracks with our big suitcases and then walk down to the far end of the train. Because it was not next to the platform, the step up was almost waste high. Our guard from the JOINT came in handy providing a hand for us to step up so we could get onto the train and pull our heavy suitcases up behind us. If you were in any way handicapped or had trouble walking you would never have made it. After our suitcases were stowed away under our seats, we began the long process of saying good-bye. Everyone came on to the train to say good-bye. Galena, ever the house frau had prepared a picnic dinner for us for the train. Vladimir arrived last, but came on and gave me a special hug. Saying good-bye to Victor and Lucy was so hard. It had only been a short time, but they really felt like family.
It was raining so hard enough that we needed umbrellas. Our last glimpse of Kineshma was everyone standing under their umbrellas waving good-bye. The outside windows were dirty so between that and the rain you couldn't get a clear view. At one point Chrisina came up next to the train and tried to clean off the widow, but it was too high for her, she only managed a little oval. We all took turns peering out the oval trying to get a clearer view. Mostly we sat back and cried. It had been an exhausting and emotional trip. We felt as if we were leaving behind new found family (Lucy was already calling me her sister) and although we promised ourselves that we would come back,--who knows when that will be.