One of the significant traumas of Russian Jewry is the Cantonists decree issued by Czar Nicholas in 1827. During 30 years, the Russian authorities abducted about sixty thousand Jewish children for 25 years of forced military service. The service harmed their bodies and souls, and only a few children remained connected with the Jewish community. Many folk songs from the 19th century describe the physical and mental suffering the children and their families went through. For example, the song "I will write you a letter Mamenyu" describes a wounded soldier writing a letter home:
״…I lie in the hospital, wounded,
And the doctors stand around me,
My heart is gushing with blood,
My dear Mamenyu is not near me…״
For a recording from 1955 of the performance of the song in Yiddish:
https://yiddishsong.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/ikh-tsu-dir-a-brivele-shraybn-performed-by-harry-ary
Nicholas I of Russia- Nicholas I of Russia, 1830.
Most of the Cantonists soldiers converted to Christianity, but the few who remained Jews were allowed to establish a Jewish community within Siberia. Siberia was then an area that was closed to Jewish settlement and served as a penal colony for citizens who committed crimes. Because the authorities deported so many "criminals," including Jews, to exile in Siberia, small towns quickly developed, and some of the Jews became successful traders. The veterans established their communities in tight connection with those local Jewish communities in Siberia.1
Herzel Yankel Tsam- Herzel Yankel Tsam, the Jewish cantonist in the Russian Empire, one of only nine Jewish officers in the Tsarist army in the 19th century who didn’t convert to Christianity.
The Jewish veterans who settled in Tomsk felt that the local Jewish community did not welcome them. In 1903 they retired from the Jewish community and built a small wooden synagogue with their own hands. They designed the exterior door in the shape of a Torah scroll, and the windows of the building were decorated with carved Star of David. A Jewish merchant donated a library of Talmudic sets, and the new synagogue served as their beit midrash.2]
The Communist Party that came to power in Russia in the early 20th century suppressed the religious identities of all religions, including the Jews, and seized the religious institutions. The Central Synagogue of Tomsk became a courthouse, and some rooms served as prison cells. The Cantonists synagogue became a hostel. By the end of the 20th century, after the fall of the Soviet Union, almost nothing remained of the Jewish community of Tomsk, a city of 500,000 inhabitants today. Then, About 20 years ago, Chabad emissaries Rabbi and Rebbetzin Ramatsky moved to Tomsk with the aim of re-establishing the Jewish community.
About three months ago, the Jewish community of Tomsk made headlines recently after the inauguration of a huge new Jewish education center. The center is considered one of the most significant and modern in Siberia. It is the only education center in the city of Tomsk that has a robotics lab, pottery workshops, and table tennis. We had a brief chat with Rabbi Levy Kamintsky regarding the challenges of Jewish education in Siberia and how the new education center might help with it.
"This Jewish community is one of the most assimilated in the world. The Jewish identity here is very, very weak," says Rabbi Kaminetzky at the beginning of the conversation. Years of communism have created suspicion towards religious education, and parents' motivation to send their children to a full-day Jewish school is very low. But after school programs at the Jewish education center are very popular.
There is a tight connection between the Jewish identity of the community members and the Jewish school. "As soon as the child enters our system, they are in a very Jewish atmosphere. Our goal is to get all the children of the community into our [education] system in some way or another," says the community Rabbi.
The flagship program of the educational center is the Sunday School, which is regularly attended by dozens of children who participate in elective workshops. "Arts and craft, theater, journalism, these are the kinds of workshops we are most invested in." Now, with the new center, they will be able to offer workshops at the robotics lab and the ceramic studio. The workshops' themes often revolved around the Jewish calendar and other Jewish topics.
One of the main challenges at the moment, says Rabbi Kaminetzky, is the lack of suitable educators, which have grown much worse during Covid. "Back then, girls from Chabad college would come from Israel to teach. Today, because of the corona, it is not possible."
Another challenge is the emigration to central Jewish locations outside of Tomsk. "It's hard to be a Jew in Siberia... Most people who care about Judaism emigrate to Israel. And it is difficult." However, Rabbi Kaminetzky does not perceive emigration as an enemy. "We do not see it as a problem because our goal is to give everyone what they need. Those who wish to emigrate to Israel can emigrate. Whoever stays should have the opportunity to feel Jewish here."
We asked Rabbi Kaminetzky to describe the vision of the new education center briefly:
"Our vision is that Jewish children in Tomsk will have the opportunity to feel Jewish. We wish to give them the opportunity to grow and develop their wellbeing, regardless of their economic status."
Want to learn more? As part of our M.A program for Jewish educators, Dr. Yossi Goldstein offers a fascinating semester course on contemporary Jewry and Jewish Education. It includes a survey of the demographic changes that have impacted world Jewry since the mid-nineteenth century. In addition, it explores the impact of the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union on this state of affairs.
In the photo: The new education center next to the Tomsk Synagogue.
[1] An archival study conducted in 2015 by researchers from the Siberian University of Tomsk describes the development of the local Jewish community. https://www.readcube.com/articles/10.18769%2Fijasos.54314
[2] Information and pictures is based on ANU museum material: https://www.anumuseum.org.il/blog-items/hatfonim-coming-kidnapping-jewish-children-tsarist-russia/