"It used to be that the synagogue was the one place where a Jewish person could celebrate Chanukah, but now thanks to God there are a lot of places," said Moscow's chief rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, who estimated there are some 250,000 Jews living in Moscow. "We expect some 10,000 to 20,000 people to light the candles of the menorah and that is about 10 times what it used to be."
On Sunday, the first day of Chanukah, events are planned for the Moscow Synagogue, at the Gogol Theater, where a concert is planned, and an 11 P.M. menorah-lighting ceremony outside the Bolshoi Theater.
Throughout the week, other, smaller celebrations are scheduled, including a Wednesday morning party for Moscow's Jewish students at a school called the House of the Jewish Woman.
"Each year it is bigger and people feel freer," said Rivka Weiss, a Belgian citizen who is the principal of the House of the Jewish Woman. "Jewish people feel more free to speak about their roots, their history and their festivals. It is starting to be a country like any other country where each people can celebrate their traditions."
Expatriate Jews are helping with the Chanukah party. Jeff Zeiger, an American who runs the Tren Mos Restaurant, is donating food and supplies to the effort. "I've always believed that we Jews who have been practicing have a duty to help the Jews here learn about the tradition." said Zeiger. "If we can help new people learn about old traditions, that is a mitzvah, a good deed. We want people to realize that it is O.K. to celebrate Chanukah in Moscow."
Chanukah, which is a historical holiday rather than one based in Jewish scripture, marks the perseverance of Jews in ancient Jerusalem after Greeks desecrated the temple and destroyed all but enough oil for one day of lamp burning. The small amount of oil miraculously lasted for eight days, hence the eight days of Chanukah in which a new candle on the menorah is lit each night.
For Jewish children in the West, a big part of the holiday is receiving presents much like their Christian counterparts. While there is a Russian and Eastern European tradition of giving Chanukah money to children, Goldschmidt said it is much more low-key than in the West.
"I think that this tradition has been influenced a lot by the Christian festivals," he said. "It is something that has been brought in from the outside."
For Jews of the former Soviet Union, Chanukah has a special resonance as a holiday celebrating the "spiritual victory of the Jewish culture over Greek occupiers who tried to enforce their culture in Judean Israel," said Goldschmidt.
Despite the scope of the festivities, Moscow rabbis say many Russian Jews are still ignorant of their religious history.
"Most of the people unfortunately still do not know when the high holy days are," said Rabbi Yosef Cunin, who leads the local community of Lubavitch Chasidim. "An American gentile might know more about these holidays than a Russian Jew."
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