Rabbi Returns to Country That Banished Him

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Abe Dovid Gurevich, a Lubavitcher chossid who has served as a Shliach in Tashkent and Chief Rabbi of Uzbekistan, has made a homecoming of sorts this month.

It has been the first time, the elder rabbi was granted entry into the Central Asian nation and former Soviet republic since he was banished from the country some 11 years ago.

Rabbi Gurevich has played a key role in preserving Judaism and the Jewish community there after the fall of Communism. As the New York Times pointed out a few years ago, “The Chabad movement … has been in the vanguard of a push to preserve Jewish traditions and resist assimilation in former Soviet territory.”

Since he has been expelled from the country, Rabbi Gurevich remained in touch with the community and its members – many of which have since immigrated to Israel and the United States.

To support the community, Rabbi Gurevich donated his own home in Tashkent for the community to build upon it a state of the art Mikvah. The construction was donated by businessman and philanthropist Lev Leviev and titled “Mei Olga” in honor of his wife.

With this return to Uzbekistan, Rabbi Gurevich visited the site of his former home and said he was impressed by the large Mikvah that was built upon it. He was accompanied by his son R’ Yisroel Gansburg who was also active with the community in past years.

Rabbi Gurevich was warmly greeted by Uzbekistan’s current chief rabbi Baruch Abramchayev, who is also the Chabad Shliach there. Rabbi Gurevich davened Shachris with the minyan and led a farbrengen in honor of Yud Beis Tammuz, who the Rebbe Rayatz was freed from Soviet prison.

The visit was sponsored by the Englander family whose parents escaped Poland to Uzbekistan during the Second World War. Rabbi Gurevich visited the gravesite of the patriarch of the family in honor of his yartzeit.

He then traveled to Fergana in eastern Uzbekistan, about 420 km east of Tashkent, where he met with local Jews and gifted them new Taleisim and Tefillin, explaining the importance of putting on daily. All in all, it was a moving experience both for the rabbi and those who knew him or have heard about what he has achieved.