FJC & COLlive
Taganrog, the port city on the north shore of the Sea of Azov in the Rostov-on-Don Oblast in Southern Russia, prides itself as the birthplace of Anton Chekhov, the Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered among the greatest writers of short fiction in history.
A new point of pride may be the renewal of the local Jewish community.
Jewish history in Taganrog dates back to the 19th century. In 1887, the city was incorporated into a region that was not part of the ‘Pale of Settlement’ and consequently additional Jews were forbidden from joining.
The city’s Grand Synagogue was established in 1860 and served the Jewish community until the Second World War. While many Jews escaped, the remaining 2,500 local Jews were caught by the Nazis and brutally murdered. Only one 14-year-old Jewish youngster is known to have survived.
After the war, the Soviet regime closed the synagogue and the Jewish community’s institutions, declaring all religious-affiliated activity illegal and counter-revolutionary. Since then, the Jewish community ceased to exist.
In the last few years, the community started to form once again and many of its members became frequent visitors at the synagogue of Rostov which is relatively near Taganrog. A connection was formed with Rostov’s Chief Rabbi Chaim Danzinger who visited and served the needs of the Taganrog community for many years.
Recently, it has been decided that the community had grown large enough to have its own synagogue and a permanent rabbi. Rabbi Danzinger turned to Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar who recommended Rabbi Arie Leib Tkatch.
Rabbi Tkatch and his wife Yehudit Tkatch have been serving the Jewish community of Krasnodar in southwestern Russia. The couple spent a Shabbos weekend in Taganrog and the appointment was confirmed at an official meeting of the Jewish community.
“Rabbi Tkatch has successfully led the Jewish community of Krasnodar and accumulated vast experience,” Rabbi Danzinger explained. “We are certain that under his leadership the community will continue to thrive and flourish.”
Chekhov, who contributed his work in order to help the surviving Jewish victims of the infamous Kishinev pogrom in 1903, may have approved…