Estonia is opening its first Shul in the capital for the first time in 63 years. The last Shul was destroyed during WWII. The European Jewish Press quoted Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kot (of Estonia) as saying “Tallinn was the last European Union capital without a synagogue, which is required for a fully functioning Jewish community.”
He added:”Thanks to kind contributors in Estonia and abroad, the building that has been missing for the past 63 years has now been completed.”
In addition to holding daily Tefillos, the Shul will start a Hashgocho for kosher food, as well as hosting a Mikvah, and a Jewish museum.
Tallinn’s last functioning synagogue was built in 1882 but was destroyed in 1944 in a Soviet air raid as Nazis were fleeing the country.
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8 Responses
This is a major kiddush Hashem.
Only thing is that its not the first shul in Estonia, since Rabbi Kot has been the Chabad Shliach there already for almost 5 years. Maybe its the firts time a shul was “returned” to the Jewish community of Estonia, which is the law throughout the FSU.
Mah??? Why do Jews continue to migrate to Eastern Europe? Was not the first holocaust enough? Can they not see the growing rise of anti-semitism? Does history constantly need to repeat itself???
Where can we go to escape it then?
“Where can we go to escape it then? ” It seems the Jews will never “escape” anti-semitism, however to return to the soil where the churbon et Europe took place, and where anti-Israel/anti-Jew hatred is prominately displayed on the stones of many a Jew’s deceased relatives, is a mistake. Time has not changed hatred, just masked it.(sic)
No one is emigrating to Eastern Europe from the West, they are emigrating from further East to Western Eastern Europe. then again there are those hold outs who never left when the Iron Curtain was dismantled, much like all of us who are sitting here in comfortable America, when we could be in Golus in Eretz Yisroel observing all those extra Mitzvos which, just maybe, would bring the Yeshua!
“much like all of us who are sitting here in comfortable America, when we could be in Golus in Eretz Yisroel observing all those extra Mitzvos which, just maybe, would bring the Yeshua!”
First of all, America is galus, too, even if it is a media shel chessed.
Also, and more importantly, observing more mitzvos is nice, but there are other overriding factors that are best discussed with each individual’s Rav, such as “Will one maintain their level of observance in Israel, or will that culture lower it?” and “Will the kids be educated by people with acceptable hashkafos or those with different/incompatible/too restrictive/too loose ideologies?” as well as “Will the job market there be worse than here to the detriment of Shalom Bayis, Learning, etc.?”
I’d guess that staying here and being the best oved Hashem one can be will bring the geula a lot faster than simply moving to Eretz Yisrael for more mitzvos at the expense of many other mitzvos.
We will be starting sefer bamidbar soon.
so let’s be miragelim (spies) as soon as we can.
Read the klei yakur on the whole enyin of miragelim.
HaKatan Says:
May 6th, 2007 at 12:35 am
“First of all, America is galus, too, even if it is a media shel chessed.”
Katan – while America may be a great mediNA shell chesed, certainly the MEDIA is not a media shel chesed…..