My Jewish Roots Seminars

An interactive performance for repatriates, bringing back a national memory.

Since 1989, 1,250,000 people have come from the former Soviet Union to Israel. This is ¾ of the repatriates from all countries of the world during the same period – the largest mass movement of Jews in 3,400 years, since the Exodus from Egypt. The biblical scale of the event recalls Yirmiyahu’s prophecy: “the days are coming…. the Lord … brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north” (Jeremiah 23:7-8).

The Soviet empire successfully dissolved the language, traditions, and culture of the Jews. The assimilated descendants have only their roots left. Those who returned to Israel should be helped to restore the national memory erased by the totalitarian regime. This is the mission of the Am haZikaron Institute.

The project “My Jewish Roots” is an interactive engaging performance with the participation of leading actors of Israel, which immerses in the traditions of the Jewish people, opens the silenced pages of centuries-old persecutions, tells about the history of assigning surnames to Jews in Russia, about the origin of each surname of the participants of the seminar.

The “Am haZikaron” Institute has long been engaged in educational activities: since 2008, more than 60,000 schoolchildren, students and new repatriates have learned about the experiences of their ancestors, received a certificate of origin of their family name, realized their belonging to Jewish history, felt a connection to their people, found a sense of family and homecoming.

View reviews: 2023; 2024.

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