What can a visit teach us? A properly structured program, that brings the riches and the complexity of Russian life and also provides time for personal encounters, will leave its indelible mark. Russia’s Jews and the Pale of Settlement. The Bolshevik Revolution and its aftermath The Cold War and its legacy. Russia faces America and the West. Jewish activism and rebirth. These are some of the issues a careful traveler to Russia will encounter.

Jerry Goodman

Day 1 Friday Moscow

Arrival in Moscow. You will be met at the airport and transferred to the hotel.

We invite you to meet with your delegation leader and the rest of the group at Welcome Shabbat Dinner during which you will receive further information on the delegation.
Enjoy a relaxing sightseeing coach tour of Moscow at Night. Receive your first impression of Moscow. See the main streets, squares and places of interest: the Memorial Hill (Poklonnaya Gora), a memorial to the victory over the Nazi invasion in the Great Patriotic War - a complex of monuments, churches, museums and fountains, that includes Moscow Memorial Synagogue; Tverskaya Street - the most animated and saucy in Moscow; the Bolshoi Theatre, The Russian White House, and other major city sights.

Day 2 Saturday Moscow

After breakfast you will be escorted on an in-depth tour to Moscow Kremlin, Kremlin Cathedrals and Armory Chamber.

This tour takes you to the heart of the city - the Kremlin. The first Jewish settlements in Moscow were near the Kremlin’s wall. You will learn about the empire of Lazar Polyakov – the richest Jew in Russia in the 19-century, his bank and the private synagogue. Kitay Gorod, one of the oldest districts of Moscow — probably settled in the eleventh century—was the first place where Jews were allowed to live. It is located near the Kremlin and Red Square. In Red Square, a circular stone platform near St. Basil’s Cathedral was once a place for public announcements and executions; it was on the platform that Stalin planned to conduct the executions in the Doctors’ Plot and declare the mass deportation of Jews to Siberia.

Your tour of the Kremlin will also include a visit to the fascinating State Armory, the oldest museum in Russia. As its name implies, it contains many ancient weapons along with the Armory collection as well as a treasure-trove of breathtaking crown jewels, gold-encrusted icons, bejeweled royal scepters and exquisitely carved Czar Thrones. These stunning treasures eloquently tell the history of Imperial Russia.

Enjoy spending the rest of your day relaxing at your own pace.

Day 3 Sunday Moscow

After breakfast your delegation will visit Russian Research and Educational  Holocaust Center. The Interregional Holocaust Foundation was established in Moscow in  1997. It is the first organizations in the post-Soviet era aimed at preserving the memory of Holocaust victims, creating museums and documentary exhibitions, including the subject in the curricula of schools and institutions of higher education, organizing commemorative events, erecting monuments, and gathering of evidence and memoirs.

Please see Delegate's Pages section to view details and participate in the possible itinerary adjustments through the Forum discussions.

This afternoon, following lunch, enjoy an excursion to the Tretyakov State Gallery - one of the world's largest museums, a treasure house displaying old Russian art from the 11th century onward through today. The gallery bears the name of its founder, Pavel Tretyakov, who presented his collection to the city of Moscow in 1892. Now the museum holds more than 50,000 works of painting, art and sculpture. Wander through Tretyakov Park, dotted by bridges running across the Moskva River and a world famous sculpture created by Shemyakin. Excursion: Jewish Artists in Russian Art History.

Optional
Evening performance at Bolshoi Theatre.
This is the most famous theatre in Moscow. It is reputed to be the second largest performance hall in Europe, after the famous La Scala Theatre of Milan. The Bolshoi Theatre is well-known for its excellent acoustics and rich interior decorations. The most renowned masterpieces in the world, as well as Russian classic opera and ballet, have been performed on its stage.

Day 4 Monday Moscow

Today you will be visiting the Moscow Choral Synagogue and will have a chance to personally meet one of the Key Rabbis of Russia.
The Choral synagogue was originally built in 1892, yet was closed in 1896 when the Jews of Moscow were expelled under a Czarist anti-Semitic decree. It reopened again in 1906. It is the largest and longest running Orthodox synagogue in the Russian capital. Unlike many Eastern European synagogues, this synagogue is a thriving prayer community due to its unique congregation of Russian, Georgian, Bukharan, Mountain, and visiting Western Jews.

Visit one of the local Jewish restaurants for lunch.

Participate in a lecture/discussion Jewish community in the USSR.

Please see Delegate's Pages section to view details and participate in the possible itinerary adjustments through the Forum discussions.

Optional
Dinner. Relax and surrender yourself to the enchanting tunes of Jewish Folk Music, whilst experiencing one of the best and most popular Jewish Restaurants in Moscow.

Day 5 Tuesday Moscow

Morning starts with breakfast at the hotel. The first thing on the itinerary is the visit to the Marina Roscha Synagogue and Jewish Community Center where you will meet and have a chance to talk to Chief Rabbi of Russia. You will see the wooden Synagogue that was destroyed by arson, and later rebuilt in red brick. Behind it stands the new Chabad center, with its white stucco gold-colored aluminum windows, and front faced in polished Jerusalem stone. Besides a sleek 1,200-seat synagogue, the seven-story building contains a gym and fitness room, a computerized auditorium, a video room, a library and offices.

Please see Delegate's Pages section to view details and participate in the possible itinerary adjustments through the Forum discussions.

Experience the city by taking the Metro-tour. The Moscow metro is considered the most beautiful underground railway system in the world. The stations, built in the Stalin era, are remarkable for their bold ornamentation and unique architecture and were created to look like temples and palaces. Most of these stations are decorated with sculptures, glass, colored marble and bronze chandeliers.

Visit the Chabad Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue. This Moscow synagogue has kept since pre-revolutionary times. Till 1917, this building was a private chapel of Moscow’s millionaire Lazarja Solomonovicha Poljakova. After the October revolution the chapel was closed, and the building was transformed in to the House of amateur creativity. In 1991the building was transferred to the Habad Lubavich Chassids community.

Enjoy your last evening in Moscow.

Evening transfer to the train station for your overnight trip to Saint Petersburg.

Day 6 Wednesday Saint Petersburg

Morning arrival in St. Petersburg. Transfer to your hotel. After breakfast you will enjoy the sights of this remarkable city with a Panoramic city tour of St. Petersburg, often referred to as Tsar Peter the Great's "Window to the West." Only 300 years old, the city was built by Tsar Peter to capture and rival the beauties of Paris and Venice. You'll marvel at the extravagant baroque architecture of the city center, Nevsky Prospect, Palace Square and Smolny Convent.

Spend the rest of your day relaxing at your own pace.

Day 7 Thursday Saint Petersburg

Following breakfast visit The Great Choral Synagogue the second largest Synagogue in Europe. Its Grand Hall is able to accommodate 1200 worshipers!  The architecture is done in Moorish and Byzantine styles.
In addition to freeing the serfs of Russia, Tsar Alexander the II also lifted many of the restrictions on the Jewish Community. He is credited with signing a permit in 1869, which gave permission for construction of the Synagogue begin.
Choral Synagogue was used as a hospital during WWII, and thankfully managed to survive during the siege and bombings.

Please see Delegate's Pages section to view details and participate in the possible itinerary adjustments through the Forum discussions.

This afternoon, immerse yourself in the many wonders of the elegant Winter Palace, which now houses the Hermitage Museum, one of the largest art and cultural museums in the world. This vast collection (about 65,000 works) includes some of history's most important art.

Optional:
For theater lovers we suggest to use the opportunity, and visit Mariinsky or Hermitage theatre.

Day 8 Saturday Saint Petersburg

Today you will visit Sha'arei Shalom Progressive Jewish Community and meet with its members to get an overview of Progressive Jewish Community in Russia today. Sha'arei Shalom is the first Progressive congregation in Russia to acquire its own building. The facility is located in the heart of historic St. Petersburg, on the Petrovskaya Embankment, just in front of the famous revolutionary cruiser “Aurora”.

Please see Delegate's Pages section to view details and participate in the possible itinerary adjustments through the Forum discussions.

After lunch spend the rest of your day enjoying the city at your own pace.

Day 9 Saturday Saint Petersburg

Today tour to Peter the Great's favorite residence Peterhof a vast complex of palaces and parkland. Tracts of landscaped gardens are interspersed with statues, water features, pavilions and sumptuous mansions - the most famous being Mon Plaisir, overlooking the Gulf of Finland. A fabulous Great Cascade flows from the palace towards the sea, along the Samson canal. It is lined with gilded statues and leads to a basin with a statue of Samson. On the south front of the palace there is a large parterre, grass plots and basins; 173 fountains line the canal and ornament the woods.

Lunch will be held in one of the Peterhof restaurants.

Return to the hotel. Join your delegation for a Farewell Gala Dinner.

Day 10 Sunday Saint Petersburg

Say goodbye to this elegant, exciting city, as we transfer you to the airport after your fascinating journey.


Optional tours are not included in the final price.


While we work hard to make sure that all the activities listed in the itinerary take place, on rare occasions due to circumstances beyond our control, there may be slight changes to the program. In these cases, we strive to make sure that the substitutions are of equal or greater value to the originally scheduled activities.