During renovation work at the Jewish school in the city of Kostroma in Russia, construction workers were surprised to discover a historical cache within the walls of the building: holy books and prayer books that were hidden during the terror of the communist regime. One of the books was found bound in the camouflaged cover of a small Russian book, with its pages open to the chapters of Maskat Avot – a silent testimony to the fear of religious persecutors and the courage of the Jews of the region in those days.
Exile for redemption
The city of Kostroma carries deep historical importance in Chabad Hasidism: it was where the sixth Rebmor of Lubavitch, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson (H.R.C.), was exiled after his well-known imprisonment in St. Petersburg in 1927. Before his arrival, the Hasid Rabbi Michael Dvorkin worked to renovate the mikveh and establish an underground Talmud Torah for the city’s children. The buildings were previously confiscated by the authorities, and since the arrival of Rabbi Rufo For 24 years there was a long struggle for their return.
The efforts bore fruit with the help of Governor David Aminov, who made it possible for the rabbi’s house to be returned to the community for a period of 40 years. After the interior of the building was renovated and it housed a purification mikveh and a kindergarten for Russia’s chief rabbi, Rabbi Berel Lazar, the exterior conservation work of the historic walls has now begun.
Simultaneously with the unveiling of the books, the writing of a new Torah scroll began that will be placed in the building in 2027, exactly one hundred years after the release of the Rebbe from exile in the city. The class was held with the participation of Rabbi Lazar and guests of the Torah and Education Fund of Russia. The Torah book was donated by the president of the community support committee, Nathaniel Berkovich, for the upliftment of his mother Margarita’s soul.
The raising of resources for the restoration of the building was accompanied by unusual coincidences: among the donors was the son of a Jew who had been circumcised in the past by the Hasidic butcher Rabbi Yerachmiel Kogel – in whose house the Rebbe stayed during his exile in Kostroma – as well as a local bank manager who retraced his Jewish roots.
Now, alongside the restoration of the walls where the holy books were hidden, the school year at the Jewish school opened on Sunday, symbolizing the continued revival of the Jewish community in the city.