Teenagers from the Ohr Avner Chabad Day School in Almaty, Kazakhstan, stand at the city limits of Chi’ili, where the Rebbe’s father was exiled by Soviet authorities. The students toured Jewish sites along the historic Silk Road through central Asia.
Teenagers from the Ohr Avner Chabad Day School in Almaty, Kazakhstan, stand at the city limits of Chi’ili, where the Rebbe’s father was exiled by Soviet authorities. The students toured Jewish sites along the historic Silk Road through central Asia.
Students from the Ohr Avner Chabad Day School of Almaty, Kazakhstan, completed their first expedition in the project "A Jew in Central Asia," a bus trip to Chi'ili, a rural settlement in the distant Kazakh Steppe to which Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Schneerson, of righteous memory – father of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory – was exiled by Soviet authorities.

The tour was the first organized Jewish expedition from Almaty to the town, which is known for its white, salty soil and strong turbulent wind. In meetings with the students, the city's deputy mayor promised to help locate the house where Schneerson, chief rabbi of Yetaterinoslav, Ukraine, lived and the old cemetery where exiles were buried.

"Providing Jewish experiences is among the critical tasks of contemporary Jewish education, especially for assimilated youth in the former Soviet Union," Rabbi Shevach Zltopolsky, director of the Ohr Avner Chabad Jewish Educational Complex, said of the trip. "Becoming familiar with Jewish historical places, with other Jewish communities and schools, is a very important part of such an experience."

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Traveling along the historic Silk Road, the teenagers visited numerous Jewish communities led by Chabad Lubavitch emissaries. Highlights included a presentation by Chief Rabbi of Kyrgyzstan Arie Reichman, a Shabbat gathering in Tashkent led by Chief Rabbi of Uzbekistan Dovid Gurevich, and a warm welcome by Rabbi Yitzchok Yakobson of Samarkand. Students also visited Turkestan, where Persian Jews have lived for hundreds of years, and Chimkent, where they made friends at the Jewish Youth Center and gave a presentation about their expedition.

This expedition was sponsored by Malka (Kulyash) Altynbayeva, a key supporter of the Jewish Community of Almaty and winner of the 2005 Jewish Woman award.