When Sally Gratch from Evenston, IL met Svetlana Yakimenko in Russia in the late 1980s, it was not yet o.k. to be a Jew in Russia. For the next few years they traveled together and met Jews in towns and villages. In 1994 they invited Jewish women from around the world to Kiev to meet and talk and learn from one another. Since then Project Kesher has become one of the most important Jewish groups in the Former Soviet Union. By forming alliances with other minority groups, they have become the largest group addressing domestic violence. Throughout Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova women and girls come together to learn Torah and Jewish rituals. At the UN recently Project Kesher was the only Jewish group standing up in an international forum for the rights of women of all ethnicities and faiths in a half-dozen Russian-speaking countries. While Sveta is not named Esther, she represents the Jewish woman in hiding who steps forth to save her people.
When Sally Gratch from Evenston, IL met Svetlana Yakimenko in Russia in the late 1980s, it was not yet o.k. to be a Jew in Russia. For the next few years they traveled together and met Jews in towns and villages. In 1994 they invited Jewish women from around the world to Kiev to meet and talk and learn from one another. Since then Project Kesher has become one of the most important Jewish groups in the Former Soviet Union. By forming alliances with other minority groups, they have become the largest group addressing domestic violence. Throughout Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova women and girls come together to learn Torah and Jewish rituals. At the UN recently Project Kesher was the only Jewish group standing up in an international forum for the rights of women of all ethnicities and faiths in a half-dozen Russian-speaking countries. While Sveta is not named Esther, she represents the Jewish woman in hiding who steps forth to save her people.