The Jewish Russian Community Centre (JRCC)

In the course of our Diaspora studies one of our tasks was to identify and research a diasporic organization. In the face of my Soviet/Russian ethnic and migratory background and my previous interest in Jewish immigration and identity, I decided to take a closer look at Jewish Russian organizations in Toronto. Though my interest at first consisted in Russian organizations, for reasons mentioned in my previous essay – the conflation of “Russian/Soviet” with “Jewish Russian/Soviet” – I found a Jewish Russian organization, the Jewish Russian Community Centre.

The Jewish Russian Community Centre is the main organization to deal with the specific needs of Jewish Russian immigrants in the area of Ontario, taking care of a community of about 41,5 thousand people. Located on Bathurst Street close to Steeles Avenue, the JRCC is a small building with a school and a synagogue headed by Rabbi Yoseph Zaltzman, who is also the head of the Ontario Community Centre and Head Office of the JRCC, coordinating the branches of the organization and functioning as umbrella for the different services and programs offered both by the JRCC as well as by other Jewish, non-Russian organizations. To coordinate the different communities’ needs for religious support, the Head Rabbi, who is appointed by the Rebbe[i] and the board of Directors, keeps a database of all Russian Jewish people in the area. Being neither a state-funded organization nor financed by membership fees, all programmes and services are paid from voluntary donations by the members of the community and provided by the work of volunteers. The services and programmes provided by the JRCC are as diverse as the needs of the community: from facilitation of the immigration process and initial settlement, to counselling and education for young and old, men and women, crisis management and emergency funds, cultural events, life cycle services, and support of introduction into and maintenance of Judaism up to a database of Jewish singles.

A highly fascinating topic connected to the JRCC which would need some further careful investigation is the way how the rabbi identifies the target groups of the Centre. The dilemma with Jews is the conflation of the cultural/religious and biological identity, which becomes obvious in some of the goals of the Centre. Thus, one of the objectives is to reach out not only to the Jews from the FSU who have lost their Jewish identity due to the long years of oppression through the Soviet Regime. The missionary character of the movement is also implying that non-Jews should be informed about the teachings of the Rebbe with the ultimate goal of conversion. On the other hand, community members are encouraged to marry Jewish spouses and for some marriages, even a proof of Jewish identity is required, in which the centre assists. It would be interesting to ask the rabbi the following question: if his son were to meet a non-Jewish woman and wanted to marry her, would the rabbi want that woman to convert, or would he try to discourage his son from marrying a non-Jewish woman? Similarly, someone with Jewish ancestors is considered Jewish and has to be returned into the community.

The JRCC is a small but powerful centre which provides its members with basic and very important services. It encourages solidarity and works for the material and spiritual wellbeing of the Jewish members and seems to be a strongly inclusive organization. It is a special feature that Jewishness is a religion which unites a very diverse population of people from different places and actually different cultures on the basis of religion. Thus, it plays an important role in promoting the cohesion between different versions of Judaism and different groups of people.

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[i] The Chabad Lubavitch is a Hassidic movement founded by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, that fosters outreach and therefore is a missionary Jewish movement trying to attract Jews as well as people with Jewish ancestors as well as no-Jews.