MINSK, Belarus, April 1 (JTA) — Catch Koby while you can. Because for a volunteer, Koby Oppenheim gives the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee its money’s worth. The 25-year-old is often spotted dashing from task to task across the Jewish communal compound known in Minsk as “The Campus.” In his conversational Russian, he teaches Hebrew to kindergartners. He teaches English to administrators and Jewish tradition to adults. He advises youth groups how to better coordinate activities and boost membership. And whatever else he’s asked to do. The JDC sent Oppenheim to Belarus in August through its Jewish Service Corps, a program launched in 1987 that has sent some 100 American young adult volunteers to 12 different Jewish communities. Aside from several republics of the former Soviet Union, Corps volunteers have assisted in places like Romania, India, Ethiopia and Turkey. His service has been an exhilarating experience, says Oppenheim, learning about a unique Jewish community — one he’s found surprisingly vibrant. Of the 15 former Soviet republics, Belarus has the third-largest Jewish population, estimated at 65,000 to 70,000. “Like Poland and Lithuania, I knew Belarus was mythical part of the Jewish past, but I didn’t think it was really relevant today,” says the Tel Aviv-born New Yorker, who will ship out later this month and return to Israel to continue his studies. “It’s been a powerful realization for me that, obviously, there still is a community here, with real Jewish life, and with a lot of talent.” Growing up, he says he learned about Russia, White Russia, or Belarus, the Pale of Settlement, the devastation wreaked by the Holocaust and the plight of Soviet Jewry. But within his more German-Jewish milieu, “I didn’t really feel the centrality of Russian-speaking Jewry to Diaspora Jewish life,” says Oppenheim, dressed casually in a plaid shirt, jeans and kipah. That centrality became more apparent from 2001 to 2002, when he spent a year in Germany studying politics in a program through his school, Cornell University. There he encountered the dramatic influx of ex-Soviet Jews who make Germany an ironic bit of Jewish trivia: It hosts the fastest-growing Jewish community in the world. That spurred a long-held desire to learn Russian. In Israel from 2002-2003, Oppenheim pursued twin interests: he studied Russian at Hebrew University and explored the non-profit sector. He worked with a range of Israelis in need — from an Ethiopian woman studying English, to a lonely old man, to a boy whose father was being treated at a local methadone clinic. The opportunity to go on and work in Belarus appealed to him as a two-for-one: immersion in the Russian language and one more aspect of “community engagement.” He hasn’t regretted the move. The lone hitch is that as a modern Orthodox Jew, he keeps kosher, and Belarussian cuisine and food preparation doesn’t quite meet kosher standards. So Oppenheim politely declines local hospitality and typically withdraws a Tupperware-sealed lentil dish, or some other home-cooked meal, from his dark green backpack. It’s a small price to pay, he says. “I’ve gotten so much more out of being here than by reading an article or annual report,” says Oppenheim. “We in the States have the luxury of being numerous and confident enough in our identity and position in society. Here, the Jewish reality is far more different: I’ve learned to appreciate that they can’t take anything for granted.”
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