ARCHANGELSK, Russia – For the first time ever in Russia, a state-run prison will be opening a prayer room for Jews. It will be officially put into operation on September 14 at a penitentiary in Russia’s far north-western Arkhangelsk Region, with an inaugural ceremony planned to mark this historic occasion.

Rabbi Aaron Gurevich, the Head of the Department for Cooperation with the Military, Ministry of Emergency Affairs and Law Enforcement Agencies, will participate in this inaugural event as will representatives of the prison administration and the government corrections service.

Regarding Rosh Hashanah, which begins on the evening of September 18, the prayer room will host services, including the sounding of the shofar on Sunday, September 20. “There are a number of prisons where the situation is favorable for creating small Jewish communities. This is due to various reasons: regular correspondence with prisoners, the desire to communicate with local rabbis and community leaders, and prisoners’ interest in meeting regularly for prayer and dialogue,” explained Rabbi Gurevich.

Rabbi Gurevich noted that in 2001, the State Corrections Administration and the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia signed a cooperation agreement, whereby Jewish inmates are permitted to meet with Jewish religious leaders on a regular basis, receive humanitarian aid and literature, receive health insurance coverage, as well as other steps aimed at rehabilitating prisoners prior to their release from prison.

At the moment, there are about 1,200 Jewish inmates in Russian penitentiaries, 400 of whom openly proclaim their Jewish identity and are in contact with the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. Some examples of assistance earlier provided by the FJC Russia include a shipment of sewing equipment to one penitentiary in Mordovia and a collection of more than 1500 books on Jewish and Judaic themes to the libraries of detention centers located in the Moscow Region.

(Source: FJC)