Falliday Festival at the Minsk Jewish Campus!

You haven't seen Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot celebrated in style until you've seen the Minsk Jewish Campus Autumn Holiday Festival!

On Sunday, September 23rd, the Minsk Jewish community gathered at the Campus for a festival to celebrate the Jewish New Year and the other Jewish holidays of the Fall season.

Festivities included a ribbon cutting ceremony for a newly built playground, complete with swings and seesaws. The children were welcomed to play on the new equipment.

(Notice the emcee's fashionable mullet haircut. It's the favorite 'do of this Jew!)

(Progressive Rebbetzin Ira Abramovich cuts the ribbon as children get ready, set, go!)

I tried out the monkey bars and swings before the ceremony, just to make sure they were safe for the kids of course! Testing the slide and jungle gym is serious business.

(Who doesn't love a little boy in a bow tie?!)


(Belarusian babies sport stylish headware!)

Other festivities included performances by various dance and choir groups. There was a fabulous dance performance by a group of women from Chesed, the campus' senior citizens group. Don't be fooled though, these pensionerettes are far from frail! They've got some mean moves and add even added pizazz to Yiddish songs like "Cheery Bim Cheery Bom!"



And another performance that knocked our Belarusian socks off was by the Divas. The Divas, a singing group directed by Hillel member, Vicktor "Vitusha" Maslov, sang a lively medley of Hebrew songs with a catchy techno beat. Betcha can't sit still while watching this one!


During the festival the Campus turned into a meeting ground for nearly all the Jewish organizations in Minsk. I especially loved spending time at the Jewish Agency for Israel table where lots of Hebrew speakers could be found. The new Israeli shlicha from JAFI arrived with her family about one month ago and I'm already in love with her adorable kibbutznik children.

You might recognize the Jewish Fallidays as the "Yamim Noraim," or the "Days of Awe," but here in Minsk, they're celebrated with style!