Gefilte Salmon: Rosh Hashana in Kamchatka

Kamchatka, Russia: This year, the JDC will help Jews in a spectacular land celebrate the high holidays in their own special way.

Kamchatka is a remote territory in the far east of Russia, south of Alaska and north of Japan, where smoke billows from the peninsula's 29 active volcanoes. The site of Eurasia's only geysers and thermal mineral springs, and inhabited by the world's greatest populations of eagles, wild salmon, brown bears and crabs, nomad reindeer herders and other native peoples live off this bountiful land, as they have for thousands of years.

Kamchatka also is home to another small and special community: some 1,000 Jews. Most of its Jews, like 90 percent of the peninsula's population, live in Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky. Others are scattered in three smaller cities on the peninsula, making communication within the community itself a challenge. Living in this place, accessible only by flight, the Jewish community of Kamchatka is virtually cut off from the remainder of the Jewish world.

Jews came to this region with the onset of the Soviet policy that encouraged relocation to distant territories to take advantage of the area's natural resources. The residents, Jews and others, endured the harsh climate in order to make money in local industry and hoped one day to return westward. Life, then, was good.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union however and the disappearance of government subsidies, many people suddenly became poor. Prices of goods remained costly – 40 percent higher than in the rest of Siberia, and comparable to those in Moscow. With housing prices still low, residents could not purchase a new home elsewhere in Russia, even if they were able to sell.

Those Jews who did not leave for Israel had little choice but to remain in Kamchatka. And for the elderly who struggle to get by on their pensions alone, life in Kamchatka is particularly difficult.

Despite the challenges, Kamchatkan Jews are building a proud and strong Jewish community. JDC is helping these remaining Jews transform themselves into the strong community they yearn to become.

Since 1999, JDC has offered welfare assistance to needy Jews throughout Kamchatka, including food packages, medicines and winter relief such as blankets, heating oil and boots. Evgenia, Director of Kamchatka's JDC-supported Community and Hesed Welfare Center, recalls helping her family pack the Hesed's first food packages. "My father and brother unloaded parcels of products, my mom and I packaged the food," recounts Evgenia.

Today, many community members join in helping with the distribution and provision of services. A local Jewish doctor provides free medical examinations. Others hand deliver food packages to homebound elderly. "Establishing a tradition of volunteerism is one of our main accomplishments," explains Evgenia, who has participated in JDC's training programs in JDC's regional Siberia headquarters, that have enabled her to transform the community's enthusiasm into action. "People realize that giving is as exciting as taking."

This understanding is exemplified in the Rosh Hashanah celebration planned by the community. With assistance from JDC, the community's Jews came together to bring in the Jewish New Year, in their special Kamchatkan way.

Just prior to the festivities, the Jewish community received a gift of wild salmon from the local nomadic peoples as a blessing for the coming New Year. "We are of different backgrounds, but Kamchatka is home to us all," explains Vladimir Stankovich, the Head of the Aboriginal Association, who made the offering on behalf of the peninsula's native peoples. "Kamchatkans are a harmonious family," he added. "And as good neighbors we share the happiness and grief of each other. So when Jews have a holiday, we too rejoice."

The fish adorned the holiday table, where seventy community members gathered on the evening of Rosh Hashanah.

Evgenia led the evening's holiday celebration, during which a grandchild of righteous gentiles sang from the Psalms and a dance troupe performed a Shalom Aleihem story. "It is important for our small community to have a memorable celebration," explains the dance troupe leader. "I'm proud to be a part of it." Another community member sang "Yerushalaim Shel Zahav."

All participants had a chance to sing, as the words to "Adon Olam" and other songs were transliterated to Russian and distributed at the entrance to the celebration.

After this, of course, the celebrants enjoyed the salmon and other traditional and local delicacies.

"Some of the salmon was used to make gefilte fish, or gefilte salmon as we call it in Kamchatka," Evgenia says with a smile.

Indeed, few communities in the world can claim as festive, rich and unique a holiday celebration as that of the Kamchatka Jewish community.