An Overview

The Borough of Queens was one of the first destinations for immigrants from the FSU, in the 1970’s, initially from Eastern Europe and later from Georgia and Uzbekistan. As the Eastern European (Russian) immigrants established themselves, they’ve moved on to New Jersey, Staten Island and the tri-state area. Nonetheless, many have chose to remain and call Queens their home. The current estimate is that there are upwards of 5,000 Eastern European (Russian) Jews living thorough-out Queens. Because of the specifics of the Immigrant community of Queens, there are no exact numbers that can be obtained from official Jewish organizations. Our data base, one that I believe to be more accurate, contains approximately 1,200 names with more being added constantly.

The largest concentration of Russian Jews lives in Forest Hills and Rego Park, with the next largest groups being in Kew Gardens and Jackson Heights. There are also pockets of seniors primarily in subsidized housing like Self Help and Bnei Brith in Flushing. There’s a sizable community of seniors in Far Rockaway and smaller amounts (with no definite numbers) in Middle Village, Woodhaven, Astoria, Whitestone, Woodside, Bayside and Laurelton. Our goal is to reach as many as possible updating them on the Jewish dates of their loved ones.

Unlike the Jews from Central Asia and Georgia, the Russian Jews were more religiously and culturally repressed and as a result tend to be less outwardly affiliated with the Jewish community. With this in mind, we started the Jewish Russian Community Center of Queens. Our goal is to create a sense of community among Russian Jews and help them strengthen their Jewish identity. We currently offer affixing Mezuzot either for free or at a greatly reduce rate, organize outings and cultural events. We encourage them to celebrate important Jewish lifecycle events they could not have observed in Russiai.e. Bris Milah, Jewish weddings, Pidyon Haben. We have in the past number of years helped individuals with performing Bris Milah, in one case for a 68 year old.

Ultimately, where possible, we plan to have either a full time or part representative in the above locations to see to their spiritual and communal needs.