Testimonials

 “I often have to decide what type of life I want to lead. And I want it to be Jewish one. I want it for my family—my parents and my children and their children and generations to come. Could I do it on my own? Maybe I could, for a short while…and then…disappear. But G‑d believes in me. He gave me JRCC and sent me here. It is my refuge where I found the meaning of everyday life. Here I learned to understand my children, parents and friends. Here are people mostly with the same goals, and we are together, and this makes us strong. It makes me strong. Thank you, rabbis, you are our teachers and friends for being with us in this town, showing and leading the way. I’m wishing you and all of us a success with Moshiach to come today.”

—Yosef & Inna Eidelman

 “JRCC provides for our community with real warmth. It opens gates to Jewishness for all ages, including, but not limited by, organizing Jewish life cycle events (bris, chuppah, holidays, etc.), educating us in Torah and mizvoth. JRCC provides practical help and consulting in all everyday issues and in key life problems. Many can say that a JRCC rabbi is a good friend. It’s hard to find a single Jewish family from the former U.S.S.R. which didn’t get real help from JRCC.”

 “I discovered JRCC exactly 21 years ago. We came to Canada with two little boys, without any practical or spiritual knowledge of Judaism. Coming to Canada, we found that life in Canada was immensely different from life in Russia. Everything took a lot of getting used to. We asked people we knew about things to do, where to send our kids for a proper education, and at one point, we were faced with a particular problem and were referred to Rabbi Zaltzman for assistance.

Coming from Russia, we were unaware of what it had meant to be a practicing Jew. All we knew was that, in fact, we were Jewish. So it’s understood that at first we didn’t acknowledge all that they had done for our family. We were connected to the Russian community, as Rabbi Zaltzman mainly had officiated at all our family’s Jewish celebrations.

I attended synagogue regularly to say the Kaddish for my late mother O.B.M, I found a warm and welcoming community, which helped a lot with all the trouble I was enduring at that time. My children were especially fond of Rabbi Jacobson, whom they referred all their questions to, and he was just pleasant to be around.

I’m so happy I found the JRCC because they are all (at least in my mind) my extended family. It’s not just a community it’s a lifestyle for the better.”

— Alex & Lilia Plax

 “All of the activities organized and arranged by JRCC have helped us to come closer to understanding the real meaning and the real purpose of being present in this world. By attending a broad variety of these JRCC programs tailored for the “Jewish Russian” community, we re-acquire the infinite wisdom of our Torah. It gives us back something we’d almost lost in the U.S.S.R. —the feeling of belonging to the great Jewish nation.”

— Arkady & Diana Ulitsky