The following is a description of the YUSSR programs taking place in the Lech-Lecha Youth Center in Minsk, Belarus.

Overseas Directors: Akiva and Ariella Broide. This is the ninth year YUSSR has sponsored a full-time representative in Minsk.

• Winter & Summer Camps
• Kabbalat Shabbat Program
• Saturday Night Havdalah & L.L. Leader Meeting
• Sunday School
• Shabbat Retreats
• Holiday Family Programs
• Lech-Lecha Leader Training

Winter and Summer Camps: YUSSR camps are a pivotal part of YUSSR programming. YUSSR runs camps in a campsite outside Minsk in the summer and winter with an average of 120 Jewish children from Belarus at each camp. American and Israeli student volunteers staff the camps. These volunteers spend two months before each camp preparing programs and activities for the specific camp. Each camp focuses on a particular theme, past themes include: Am Yisroel Chai, Geula vs. Galut, Jewish community and Jewish Life Cycle. After spending time in a YUSSR camp, many campers become active participants in the year-round YUSSR programming in Belarus and return the next season to the YUSSR camps. At the camps the Lech-Lecha (L.L.) youth leaders have their own seminar.

Kabbalat Shabbat Program: The Friday Night program is the focal point of the youth group activities in the Youth Center. This weekly Shabbat program is led by the Lech-Lecha leaders and consists of three components: an education program, a beginner service, and Friday night Shabbat dinner including kiddush, challah, zemirot and a dvar torah. Approximately 40-90 children in Minsk participate weekly, their ages ranging from 7-20. Due to the wide age-range there are currently separate programs for the younger and older age groups in Minsk. Many parents continue to join their children at this program, allowing the YUSSR Overseas Director the opportunity to teach adult education classes.

Saturday Night Havdalah and Leach-Lecha Leader Meeting: Each week, up to 15 local youth leaders eat the third Shabbat meal together, study the weekly Torah portion with the YUSSR Overseas Directors and plan the coming weeks events. This event is held in the Youth Center Dining Hall.

Sunday School: Weekly Sunday school for children ages 5-15 and adults in the Lech-Lecha Youth Center. The children are offered classes in Jewish History and Tradition, Torah Texts, Jewish Identity (Music, Dance, and Culture), Hebrew and English. Lunch is provided to all of the students and teachers. In Minsk, there are 60 children and 15 adults enrolled for this year (2004-2005).

Shabbat Retreats: Shabbat retreats in Minsk for youth from other communities in Belarus. Six times a year, up to 50 children are brought to Minsk to spend Shabbat in the Youth Center. Food and housing are provided. The weekend programs include educational sessions, beginner services and Shabbat meals. The program concludes with a Sunday morning learning program in the Sunday School.

Holiday Family Programs: To celebrate each Jewish holiday, the Lech-Lecha youth group hosts parents and families for a holiday celebration. The celebration includes a holiday specific presentation by the youth group children and a festive meal. Holiday specific programs are likewise run for parents and children. The holiday activities host up to 200 people in Minsk, with Pesach and Rosh Hashanah attracting the most. This year we hosted a Family and Youth Holiday programs for Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Chanukah, Tu B'Shvat, Purim, Pesach, Yom Hazikaron, Yom Ha'atzmaut, Yom Hashoah, Lag B’Omer and Shavuot.

Project Pesach: Over 3,000 people participate each year in Passover seders conducted by YUSSR student volunteers. YUSSR sends 35 volunteers to 15 different communities throughout Belarus and Germany to conduct kosher sedars and lead educational programs in the Jewish communities. Communities included: Minsk, Moghilev, Bobruisk, Vitebsk, Grodno, Brest, Polutsk, Mozer, Baranavich, Slustk, Borisov, as well as many others.

Volunteers have two days to organize kitchens for Pesach preparations and assist in the purchase and cooking of food for two community-wide sedarim. In addition, volunteers lead educational sessions with the youth and the adults of the community on relevant holiday topics, search for chametz with the community youth and teach the mah nishtanah to the youngest of the Pesach Seder participants. On Shabbat, the YUSSR staff conduct a kabbalat Shabbat oneg with the community teenagers, lead and explain the tephillah services in the community Synagogue on Shabbat morning and invite the entire community to join them in a havdalah program including story telling and singing as Shabbat departs.

Shavuot Experience: Over 100 people participated in peer to peer learning programs prepared by high school students who fly to Minsk to spend the week of Shavuot with their contemporaries. Introducing the next generation’s leaders to one another, while reviewing torah texts the group bonds over discovered similarities and attitudes regarding the future of the Jewish people. The members of the Belarussian community enjoy the enthusiasm, excitement and insightfulness of the high school volunteers.

This program is an opportunity for American high school students to put into practice the educational instructions they have been receiving throughout their schooling. Equipped with years of Jewish training students have a myriad of experiences to share with their contemporaries in Belarus. The American High school volunteers have an opportunity to prepare educational sessions as well as tour Jewish sites in Belarus and Lithuania. Throughout their visit they participate in several humanitarian aid ventures including restoration of the Jewish cemetery in Minsk and home visits to several of the community’s elderly.

Sukkot: YUSSR volunteers are sent to four cities in Belarus: Vitebsk, Moghilev, Minsk and Bobruisk. In addition to preparing a Kosher kitchen and cooking community wide meals for the holiday, the YUSSR staff is responsible for building and decorating a sukkah for each community. In the Sukkot spirit volunteers invite community members to join them in the sukkah and sing Hebrew and Yiddush songs to celebrate the holiday. Informal educational sessions are prepared and relayed to the community to include as many as possible in the holiday festivities. Like the Pesach program, volunteers will spend a Shabbat conducting a Kabbalat Shabbat program, a tephillah service Shabbat morning and a havdala program at the conclusion of Shabbat. YUSSR volunteers are encouraged to meet with the youth who participated in the summer and winter camps and review with them the customs and traditions that they learned about in camp. For our campers in is an opportunity for follow-up that includes family and communities in their Jewish experiences.

The Chesed Project: Our Chesed Project combines the efforts of many of our Jewish teens, teaching them the concept of giving to others and providing food and visitors to homebound people in the community. The Kosher Cooking Class prepares food, which teenagers separate into boxes which Jewish youth deliver weekly to home bound elderly members of the community. The youth spend time visiting the older adults and are able to provide them with a delicious kosher meal.

Lech-Lecha Leader Training:

Leadership training for the Lech-Lecha leaders. The training includes textual and programming skills as well as leadership training. The goal of the Leadership Training program is to inspire and educate young Minsk Jews to act as Jewish role models for the community and to afford these leaders the opportunity to share their ideas and inspiration with their peers in other YUSSR programs.

Yeshivat Lech-Lecha Summer Program: The Summer Program is a 17-day intensive learning program held at a campsite outside of Minsk. The goal is to teach the youths the skills needed to study Jewish texts and impart knowledge as a foundation for teaching and creating programs year-round. Participating Lech-Lecha leaders spend six hours daily studying in a Beit Midrash (study hall) environment with partners and tutors. The curriculum includes Talmud, Bible, Jewish Philosophy and Jewish ethics. Teachers are brought in from the US and Israel. Ratio of teachers to students is 1:5.

Lech-Lecha Winter Seminar: The YUSSR Lech-Lecha Winter Seminar is a one-week seminar for Lech-Lecha leaders emphasizing leadership skills training. At the conclusion of the seminar, the leaders serve as co-counselors together with the YUSSR team of American University students. The Winter Seminar takes place outside of Minsk.

Lech-Lecha Newsletter: Two Lech-Lecha leaders edit and publish a monthly newsletter, which is distributed to members of the Jewish community. The newsletter includes material of Jewish content, human interest and humor. The editors invite contributions from the children and encourage them to research Jewish topics and submit articles. In addition, the newsletter advertises the programs of the Lech-Lecha Youth Center, thereby attracting more children and parents to the Youth Center.