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VOICE: Community Building Initiative represents a collaboration between the Sabes Jewish Community Center (Sabes JCC), Jewish Community Action (JCA) and the Minneapolis Jewish Federation with the goal of engaging and connecting the Russian-speaking Jewish elderly community in the Loring Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. This neighborhood includes a number of federally-subsidized facilities that house a large of number of Russian-speaking immigrants.

With the current leadership of Lyudmyla Petrenko, Community Organizer, VOICE provides programming opportunities for the Russian-speaking populations at Booth Manor, Nicollet Towers and Loring 100 to address the key concern of this group: social isolation from the broader Jewish and general communities. These programs are intended to reduce social isolation, build connections with the broader Jewish and general communities, and help ensure that the stories of Russian Jewish immigrants are shared with others who may learn from them. By allowing Russian-speaking elders to keep both their bodies and their minds active, the programs also help ensure both the physical and mental well-being of a vulnerable population.
Programming over the past two years has included:

• Regular English as a Second Language and Citizenship classes
• Senior Fitness classes, held on-site at Booth Manor.
• Frequent Jewish holiday and music programming, which builds on a partnership between the Sabes JCC, JCA, and Temple Israel (which is located near Loring Park). These programs help reconnect Russian-speaking Jews with their cultural and religious heritage.
• Movie nights, with Russian-language movies and refreshments.
• Day trips and excursions (for those Russian-speaking seniors that are physically able to leave the neighborhood). These have included trips to the State Capitol, the Sabes JCC, and most recently a Lake Minnetonka boat cruise. Such trips help ensure that Russian seniors who are able remain active and involved in the community.

The residents feel like VOICE: Community Building Initiative, the new name of their program best reflects the program’s purpose - by participating in different events, community organizing and leadership development, they are able to express their communal voice and enrich their lives.

For more information on VOICE, contact Lyudmyla Petrenko at 952.381.3479 or [email protected].

Community Partners (click links below to visit partner websites)
Jewish Community Action
Minneapolis Jewish Federation
Sabes Jewish Community Center

The American VOICE of the Soviet Jews
A new film

They survived World War II and the Holocaust.
They outlived Stalin’s barbarism.
They experienced the Cold War—from the other side.
Now, they are rebuilding their lives, right here in Minnesota.
These are their remarkable stories.

PREMIERE!
Tuesday, June 8, 7 pm
Minnesota History Center
345 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul
http://www.mnhs.org/historycenter/programs/lounge/

6 pm Gallery Tour - “Minnesota’s Greatest Generation: The Depression, The War, The Boom”
Post-screening discussion with filmmakers & members of local Russian-speaking, Jewish community
Free

Film Synopsis

The American VOICE of the Soviet Jews is a new feature-length film work that collects and preserves memories of local Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, including their childhood, their academic studies and their professional lives, their Holocaust experiences and their service in Stalin’s army during the Second World War, the constraints of their post-war lives during the Cold War era, and finally, their emigration.

Interviewed in the film are Vladimir Posse, who marched in the 1945 Victory Parade in Moscow’s Red Square; Georgiy and Yelena Semashko and Evgeniya Merlis, who lived through the Ukrainian golodomor (famine); and Mera Sokolinskaya and Maria Reznik, who experienced Hitler’s siege of Leningrad—along with the unbelievable starvation, cannibalism, and human degradation it caused.

This ground-breaking film project records the life stories of the members of VOICE Community Building Initiative, which is led by Jewish Community Action and Sabes Jewish Community Center, and funded by Minneapolis Jewish Federation. But this film is not just an oral history project: The American VOICE of the Soviet Jews is a leadership-building initiative for VOICE participants, who played prominent roles in the creation of this documentary work, as well as playing prominent roles in the extraordinary events of the 20th century.

Film Info

The American VOICE of the Soviet Jews (2009, DVD, 60 min.)
Igor Dadashev, Director
Kamil Dadashev, Producer
Lyudmyla Petrenko, Co-producer
Music performed by Igor Dadashev, Emilia Flegel, Alexand Daylis, Matt Levitt

Review by Lisa Gulya

"If you think your identity is tough to cram into the few boxes the Census provides, try this: what do you call Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union who served in the Second World War and now live in the Twin Cities? For now, let’s just call them the subjects of The American VOICE of the Soviet Jews, a 60-minute documentary showing WHERE & WHEN.

It’s a lot to absorb in a single hour—war, famine, anti-Semitism—especially for those of you don't have degreesin history or Russian language. (Hint: you might want to read up on the Siege of Leningrad before you go). But regardless of how much of a World War II aficionado you are, you’ll leave the film with a sense of wonder – what other life stories lie quietly waiting in a Minneapolis high-rise, ripe for a documentary team’s or a curious grandchild’s discovery?"

OTHER RELATED FILM EVENTS

June 13, 2010 - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Historic Fort Snelling World War II Weekend
Travel back to the World War II era and learn about Minnesota’s Soviet Jewish Veterans’ role on battlefields and at home. Visit displays, weapon firing demonstrations, authentic vehicles and reenactors during this special weekend devoted to Minnesota's Greatest Generation.

Visit www.JHSUM.org for more information

May 6—June 24, 2010
“Profiling: exploring the faces of diversity within the Jewish community”
Visual work from 24 artists, including Victor Bloomfield, Igor Dadashev, & Kamil Dadashev, who photographed VOICE participants, will be on display at the Tychman Shapiro Gallery, Sabes Jewish Community Center

"Profiling" Review by Lisa Gulya

"Kamil Dadashev’s photos of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union communicate his subject’s complicated identities much more quickly than words can. An elderly man sits in his kitchen, his yarmulke and menorah displaying his Jewish identity; his blazer blanketed with medals – his time as a Soviet soldier. Another plays the piano; while the third lays his medal on the kitchen table. Tranquil scenes in unquiet lives. The men are all featured in The American VOICE of the Soviet Jews, a documentary about the Soviet Jewish immigrants now living in Minnesota. While they lost family members to war, famine, and Stalinist purges, these men remain. They struggle to explain why, but one thing is certain – just as these men keep the memory alive of those who were lost, these photos will keep their memories with us."

Opens May 6, 2010
Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest Exhibit from the Archives
Lobby, Sabes JCC & online at www.jhsum.org

Sunday, May 23, 2010, 5:30 pm
Jewish Community Action’s Annual Celebration honoring VOICE Community Building Initiative & its groundbreaking film @ the Sabes JCC


Brought to you by the Sabes JCC, Jewish Community Action, the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, the St. Paul JCC and the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.