As the academic year drew to a close, graduates of the architecture and interior design program at the Machon Chamesh Jewish University presented an elaborate and unusual exhibition. It was displayed in the halls and foyers of Moscow’s Hadassah Medical Center, which is a branch of the Israeli Hadassah Clinic, and is a leader in its field among dozens of International medical centers that have developed over the years in the silicon city of Skolkovo in the suburbs of Moscow.
The subject of the exhibition is “A world that will always remain with us”. Its paintings tell a story about the Shtetl, the Jewish towns throughout Europe that were destroyed during the Holocaust. The towns were destroyed but we take our Jewish life with us wherever we may be. This is brought to life by the graduates of the Machon Chamesh Institute together with other graduates of Moscow’s Jewish institutions. They have merited to actually build Jewish life in cities throughout Russia today.
The Machon Chamesh Institute for Jewish Girls, whose full name is “Machon Chaya Mushka”, is headed by its dedicated director from the day it was founded, Rabbi Avraham Beckerman and his wife Frumi and is recognized in Russia as a government university. Located in the “Sokolniki” neighborhood known for its parks and large forest, the campus exudes a calm atmosphere to its female students who arrive from cities all over Russia. Among its graduates, hundreds have established beautiful Torah-observant homes, including many who returned to serve as Shluchos together with their families in the Former Soviet Union.
There is a parallel Jewish university for boys, in the “Atradnia” neighborhood, which also incorporates many Jewish subjects and gets to see beautiful results when some of its students transfer to the Yeshiva Gedola and establish their own beautiful Jewish homes, thanks to their studies in a warm and Hasidic environment.
The Gallery’s opening event was attended by its guest of honor, the founder of the Jewish universities of Russia, Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, who, after a short tour of the exhibition, expressed his impressions of the phenomenal pieces of art, which testify to the high level of studies at the institute, alongside the educational investment in each of the students along with the other important subjects taught at the institute. He noted that a combination of medicine and education are meant to work hand in hand for the benefit of the next Jewish generation.
Mrs. Chana Mamut, director of the College of Design within the Machon Chamesh Institute, presented the project to the participants, the director of the Hadassah Clinic in Moscow, Mrs. Irina Zlomenova, and the philanthropist Yevgeny Togolukov. Each of them praised Rabbi and Mrs. Beckerman, who are investing their hearts and souls for the Jewish education of the younger generation in Russia.
