On September 27th, following an old Jewish tradition to visit tombs in days of trepidation and repentance, Karaganda Hesed organized a trip to cemeteries where Jews were buried. Many people expressed their willingness to visit graves of their deceased relatives and close ones. There were difficulties with transport, and the director of Hesed "Miriam" Bella Kamenetskaya asked volunteers V. Schulman, Y. Ratnikov, E. Drovovoz, V. Volodarskiy, F. Malina and others to help using their personal cars.

Forty people arrived to the old Jewish cemetery. A minyan was assembled and the elder of the community Dmitriy Grigoryevich Salop read a prayer, mentioning separately the names of the deceased. People, whose relatives were buried at this cemetery, approached the graves of their loved ones and read Kaddish de-Rabanan. The text of the prayer was prepared in Hesed and given to everyone before the trip.

The majority of people returned to the city after the prayer. The men from the minyan together with the director of Hesed went to a distant cemetery where several years ago Rabbi Meir Scheiner bought a land. The Jews which were put to rest there did not have relatives in Karaganda; therefore we consider it our duty to visit these tombs to read a prayer and to put things in order: to pull a grass out and to tidy up a territory around the tombstones before Yom Kippur. On that day (September, 27th) people talked about duties of living. Some people recollected their "Jewish" childhood; others heard about wisdom of our traditions in which all Jews are always responsible for each other for the first time. Everyone thanked the organizers of the trip and went home with a lightened heart.

Bella Kamenetskaya

Hesed "Miriam" is a warm home which we already had for ten years. In the beginning only few people were there, just twelve senior persons for whom everything was new: socialising, attention and kind attitude. We were volunteers searching for the Jews, inviting them to our warm home where they became acquainted with the customs and traditions of the Jewish people. Nearly everything was out of the ordinary for us, Soviet people. Later we started learning Hebrew and history of the Jews and eventually more different programs were introduced. Today we visit our native warm home where we receive both encouragement and a social help with pleasure and delight.

One of very important Jewish traditions is visiting a cemetery in days of repentance between Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom-Kippur. Nowadays we have an opportunity to observe this tradition every year: to visit tombs of our deceased relatives and to read prays. This calms everyone’s soul down.

Let us express our sincere thanks to the director Bella Arkadjevna Kamenetskaya for the opportunity to carry out this mitzvah.

Goltman