By Joan Lifson

We all decided to go for different reasons. We were a diverse group, ranging in age from 14 to almost 90. Some of us knew each other casually; others met for the first time in the Temple parking lot where we met our transportation to the airport. Yet in spite of our differences, the group bonded. It could have been the hour and a half on the tarmac at JFK, the close call of our London to Kiev connection, the luggage that didn’t catch up to us until Saturday night, our preoccupation with the bathroom facilities or the “slumber parties” on the train to Moscow and then St. Petersburg.

We spent ten days touring, laughing, taking pictures, eating breakfast, skipping lunch (or dinner) not sleeping, praying, coughing, sneezing, laughing some more and counting heads to make sure everyone was on the bus! We participated in Shabbat services and a Seder Pesach with Rabbi Duchovny and our twin Congregation Hatikvah in Kiev. We visited multiple gold domed churches and learned that in the Russian Orthodox tradition there are no seats or pews in any of them.

We toured Babi Yar with Rabbi Duchovny as our guide. He and Cantor led us in Kaddish at the site (now a park) where so many Jews perished.

In Red Square we explored the Kremlin, St. Basil’s, the GUM department store and Lenin’s tomb. We attended the Bolshoi Ballet and the Moscow circus. We discovered that McDonald’s has found its way to the Ukraine and Russia and that you really can get chicken Kiev in Kiev. We saw the drab architecture of the Soviet period and experienced traffic in Moscow reminiscent of crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge on a summer Friday afternoon.

The Hermitage in St. Petersburg was nothing short of amazing. The summer palace of the czars (Peterhof) on the Gulf of Finland required us to cover our shoes as we walked through to preserve the intricate inlaid parquet floors! We were welcomed warmly on Shabbat by the reform congregation in St. Petersburg, but were dismayed to find that their “Sanctuary” was a room in the basement of an apartment building. Services were mostly in Russian but the Hebrew and music united us.

We returned home exhausted, jet lagged and missing another piece of luggage, yet amazingly jovial after a trip none of us will forget anytime soon.