This Sunday the Grand Choral Synagogue in Petersburg, Russia opened its doors for the annual Open House it hosts every fall for the last nine years.

Machon Chomesh in Moscow, FJC’s Jewish Institute for women, hosted an open house seminar last week, welcoming potential students from all over Russia.

There is great excitement in the Jewish community in the city of Kazan, as preparations are underway for the grand historical event that will take place this Wednesday.

Last week, Darkeinu mentors from Israel visited four FJC ‘Or Avner’ Jewish schools in Russian cities of Omsk, Moscow, Ufa and Yekaterinburg to see how the studies progress in the new academic year.

The Jewish community of Baku, Azerbaijan enjoyed a visit from special guests at the end of last week: chief rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar and FJC president Lev Leviev spent the shabbat with the community, prior to that visiting the city’s Or Avner Jewish school and kindergarten.

Some 950 people are expected to gather over this weekend for Limmud FSU Ukraine, the biggest event geared towards the Jewish community in the country

Thousands of Jews of all walks of life, young and old, men and women, single, married and entire families turned up for the final celebrations of the fall Jewish holidays of Sukkot and Simhat Torah across hundreds of FSU communities this year.

The first of its kind heritage expedition took place this summer in Ukraine, when young rabbinical students toured the country on mobile synagogue trailers, trying to bring a spark of Jewish identity to every Jew they met on their way.

An enormous Sukkah that can fit about 1000 people was built just outside of Moscow’s Jewish Community Center in the Marina Roscha neighborhood