According to the press service of the Federation of Jewish communities of Russia, about 500 Jewish clergy arrive on August 21 in Moscow, and will visit the following days in Smolensk, Lubavičy (Smolensk region), Lozna and Lady (Belarus), as well as in Almaty, according to the portal "Interfax-Religion".
In these cities, the rabbis will visit the graves of the righteous, related to the history of Hasidism, and will take part in the collective prayers and a few celebrations.
Members of the Congress, which is organized under the auspices of the FJC and the chief rabbinate in Russia, will discuss measures to counter terrorism, anti-Semitism in Europe, the situation of the Jewish communities, the consequences "for refugees in the EU's" open door policy, as well as issues of conducting interethnic and interreligious dialogue.
Lozna is a small town, even by the standards of the Belarusian regional centers. Foreign tourists until recently, there was not seen. And when at the turn of the XXI century appeared in Lozna first tour group from Germany, they looked as aliens from another planet.
A few years ago on the building of the regional House of Culture attached plaque. It reads: "In this place was a family mansion, from which the artist Marc Chagall". And only after that Lozna frequent filmmakers. From Russia, France, and even faraway Japan. By the way, the Japanese came here twice. Like their town Chagall. To make a film where the documentary footage side by side with art. Today Lozna recorded in the routes of many tourist groups.
The first Jews settled in Lozna when this town belonged to Leo Samuel Oginski. It is unlikely that someone will show exactly the date today, when this happens, do not save the document, but presumably it was in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. In 1745, here in the family Boruch Posner and his wife Rivka was born a boy, who was named Schneier-Zalman. This person will be the founder of a new religious and philosophical teachings of Chabad, the first Lubavičy rabbi, the founder of the dynasty of spiritual leaders of the Jewish world.
Lozna boy Schneier-Zalman very early discovered amazing abilities. My father gave it to the school of local Talmudist, but he refused to be a teacher of young Schneier-Zalman surpasses his knowledge. A year later, the local rabbi in the protocol Lozna community by 1760 will call the boy "amazing scientist, genius, sophisticated in talmudic casuistry."
He was called the Alter Rebbe, which translated into Russian means "old master." He founded a school in Lozna for their elected students. It was called the Academy.
According to statistics, in Lozna in 1880 lived 1536 inhabitants, of whom Jews constituted about 65 per cent. Or rather 997 people. Including, of course, and numerous family Shagal. In the town there were 4 Jewish prayer house and a Jewish school ... So it is not by chance decided to visit the Belarusian town rabbis of Europe.
Lady is a village in Dubroŭna district, also associated with the name Schneier-Zalman, so that it is included in all the Jewish encyclopedia and is known all over the world. This place is even called "the fortress of Chassidism".
belaruspartisan.org
