In unforgettable event was held a few days before Pesach, in a huge complex in the north of the historic city of Derbent, located in the Muslim Republic of Dagestan in Russia. The cornerstone was laid for a new and spectacular shul complex, completely renovated with the donation of Mr. Suleiman Karimov, a local Muslim who, for the sake of peace in the world, is investing a fortune to build a shul alongside a house of prayer.
Karimov, who maintains personal contact with the Chief Rabbi of Russia, Rabbi Berel Lazar Shlita, with whom he consulted throughout the halachic and ideological process on his initiative, invited him to attend the cornerstone laying ceremony held at the place where the buildings will be erected and symbolize peace for the whole world, which will show the possibility of living together with appreciation and respect for every person.
The journey began with the arrival of the Chief Rabbi at the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, a year and a half after Muslim rioters tried to harm passengers who landed there on a flight from Israel. He was received with great respect by the airport management, who conducted a tour and gave a full overview of the security operations that have been improved since the incident that shocked all of Russia.
The rioters have since been punished with very heavy penalties by the Russian government. At the request of the Chief Rabbi from the President of Russia, a medal of valor will be awarded to the government official who personally stopped the plot of the attackers.
Although the city of Derbent is not the capital of Dagestan, but the city’s fascinating history spanning thousands of years has made it one of the most famous cities in Russia and a center of attraction for hundreds of thousands of tourists. The city has one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, which continues to this day, led by the city’s rabbi, Rabbi Ovadia Isakov. Its active community members experienced a horrendous event less than a year ago when a group of extremist terrorists who infiltrated Russia set fire to the shul and burned nine Torah scrolls. Miraculously, not a single Jew was harmed.
The Chief Rabbi’s visit strongly supported and encouraged the community and its leaders. After the main event and davening Mincha and Maariv in the shul building, the community president Reb Boruch Elishayev showed the Rabbi around the large building, pointing out the renovations and restoration taking place there, while serving the city’s Jews on a daily basis, and expressing their hope that the renovations be completed very soon.
“Jerusalem of Derbent” is the name given to the complex where the shul will be built
Standing on a huge stage, in front of dozens of rabbis, religious figures, government representatives, and an audience of many hundreds, the Chief Rabbi Shlita called for taking an example from this place of what it means to respect one another, to live a life of security and peace based on faith in one and only one Creator.
A special moment was when public figures were called upon to insert a letter into an iron capsule that would be opened in exactly one hundred years – a different version of the foundational scroll that some people customarily insert during the laying of the cornerstone. Among the things that Rabbi Lazar wrote in his letter was that, by nature, many things will change in the next century, but baking and eating matzah, as all Jews do these days – will not change at all, as it has not changed since we left the land of Egypt. ‘I am certain that all of this will be done in Jerusalem near the Third Temple’ – his words caused a great Kidush Hashem.
The shul donor is also the initiator and founder of the largest multimedia fountain in Russia, and after the event he invited the Rabbi for a special tour of a huge park complex in the city, at the center of which sits the unique fountain. The area of the fountain is 4.7 thousand square meters. It consists of nine two-story bowls, which simultaneously release 2214 jets of water up to a height of 30 meters, combined with colorful sights of the city’s history, which is one of the oldest and most beautiful in the world. The place has become a center of attraction for many thousands.
This uplifting visit concluded a series of impressive visits that the Chief Rabbi of Russia has made during the winter months throughout the length and breadth of the world’s largest country, in order to see from upclose the needs of the communities, and encourage its members as well as rabbis, the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s dedicated emissaries.
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