[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 17, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S8060]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        SYCAMORES HAVE BEEN FELLED; WE WILL GROW CEDARS INSTEAD

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, the Members of the Senate are 
familiar with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's historic contribution both to the 
field of Jewish scholarship and to the resurgence of Jewish life in the 
former Soviet Union. In 1989, Rabbi Steinsaltz founded the Judaic 
Studies Center and synagogue in the Kunseva section of Moscow, the 
first such new school in the Soviet Union since the 1917 Bolshevik 
Revolution. I am privileged to serve on the center's board of advisors 
and to have hosted Rabbi Steinsaltz on his all-too-infrequent trips to 
Washington, DC.
  It is my unpleasant duty to share with the Senate the disturbing news 
that a fire of undetermined nature broke out last Friday night, July 
12, in Rabbi Steinsaltz's Judaic Studies Center. All 50 students and 
worshipers in the building at the time were safely evacuated. Except 
for the Torah scrolls which were saved from the raging flames, the 
entire building was destroyed, including thousands of books and other 
equipment.
  The center had been a focal point of Russian Jewish life since its 
establishment. It was the key spiritual center for thousands and the 
first Jewish institution of learning officially permitted to function 
during the Glasnost period. During its years of operation, more than 
1,000 Russian Jews were enrolled in intensive Judaic studies courses 
and many thousands more attended seminars and workshops. On Jewish 
holidays hundreds of Jews flocked there for communal celebrations.
  When the fire broke out, the center was hosting a seminar for Jewish 
communal workers from cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth of 
Independent States (CIS). Cities such as Chellabinsk, Siberia, 
Berditchev, Ukraine, and Vitebsk, Belarus, had sent one representative 
each for an intensive 3-month course in Jewish and communal service 
studies. Graduates of this program are expected to return to their 
native cities--far from the major Jewish centers--and apply what they 
have learned.
  Rabbi Steinsaltz, who is best known for his monumental modern 
commentary on the Talmud, was recently given the title of Duchovny 
Ravin--an historic title connoting the spiritual leader of Russian 
Jewry.
  In Jerusalem, Rabbi Steinsaltz responded to the news by quoting 
Isaiah 9:9. ``Bricks have fallen--we will rebuild with dressed stone. 
Sycamores have been felled--we will grow cedars instead.''
  I know I speak for the entire Senate and for all Americans who 
cherish religious freedom and scholarship when I add my words of 
consolation and encouragement to Rabbi Steinsaltz on this 
occasion.

                          ____________________