The Personal Triumph of a Summer Camp Director

Summer 1990 on the 9th of Elul, Rabbi Moishe and Miriam Moskovitz and their young son Mendel arrived in Kharkov, in what was then the Soviet Union.

A year later, summer of 1991, 80 students joined a summer camp program in Kharkov. During that camp, the winds of trouble were brewing in Moscow and tanks on the streets threatened a coup and the return of Communism. Shluchim asked the Rebbe what they should do, and the Rebbe clearly said that he was surprised at the question. Despite the community encouraging the shluchim to leave while they could, the shluchim stayed, and a Seminar which was in session continued. From that camp, many of the students returned to their roots.

7 years later, summer of 1998, a grandmother walks into the shul on Pushkinskaya Street to get a book from the library and ends up signing up her grandson, Yasha for camp. By the end of the summer, Yasha has a bris and becomes Yaakov, and is determined to follow in the footsteps of his counselor.

Reb Yaakov Yakimenko becomes a shliach in Kharkov and the director of Gan Yisrael in Kharkov.

This year, his son Mendel celebrated his Bar Mitzva on 9 Elul, (exactly 31 years since the Moskovitzes arrived in Kharkov!) and 30 years since the first camp in Kharkov! It was very special that his father chose to celebrate his bar mitzvah in camp, where he first encountered Yiddishkeit.

Year by year, Gan Israel Kharkov has had thousands of campers and hundreds of counselors who experienced literally the summer of their lifetime.

One month of day camp in the city and a month of overnight camp at the community’s campsite was a real excitement for all of the campers and their parents after a year of lockdowns and zoom online classes.

This year, the head counselors and most of the counselors were shluchim and shluchos from Kharkov, as well

A few days after camp began, Nikita’s mother walked into shul for the first time. After an hour in shul, she signed up a daughter to kindergarten, another daughter to the Jewish school and arranged for her 13-year-old son Nikita to join camp the next day! Nikita came to shul on Thursday to join the camp trip- his first time ever in shul! He had a bar mitzvah- put on Tefillin and got an aliya for the first time in his life.

Anya/Chana from the orphanage sang on Shabbos as loud as she could in Russian, “I’m a Jew and I’m proud!”

And each camper has his story and his special memories…

Gan Israel of Kharkov – 30 years of miracles and life-changing experiences for thousands of campers!