This year’s Lag BaOmer celebration became truly extraordinary for 59-year-old Chaim Yisroel — a man with three past convictions, no home, and no close relatives, seemingly destined for a lonely old age. Like many others, it was the Jewish Community of Dnipro that saved his life and became his family. For five years, Chaim Yisroel lived on the streets — until he found a new life at the “Good Future” Center, established by the Jewish Community of Dnipro for people like him, in the historic “Alter Shul” synagogue building.
Together with other participants of the “Good Future” program and congregants of the “Alter Shul,” Chaim Yisroel joined a Lag BaOmer outing outside the city. The celebration turned out to be one of the brightest and most inspiring days of his life. Rabbi Adam Smiliansky, leader of the “Alter Shul” and one of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s emissaries in Dnipro, once again helped the congregants — many of whom have experienced great hardship — to put on tefillin and organized a joyful outdoor celebration in nature. The picnic brought together relaxation from everyday worries with deep spiritual meaning — learning about the history and themes of Lag BaOmer, enjoying archery, fishing, dancing, and heartfelt conversation.
The day’s highlight was a real Chassidic farbrengen, with food cooked over an open fire by the participants themselves — one of the cherished traditions of Lag BaOmer.
“Our congregants can only live full and meaningful lives thanks to the Jewish Community of Dnipro and the tireless care of Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki,” shared Rabbi Adam Smiliansky. “Take Chaim Yisroel, for example — his story says it all. He gave up drugs, had a bris, now participates in daily prayers, wears tefillin, studies Torah, and is actively rejoining society. Not long ago, he was on the brink of death — his health ruined, with no future and no hope. What saved him? Maybe it was the childhood memory of his mother pointing at a synagogue and saying, ‘Our G-d lives here’? That memory showed him the way — but it was the Jewish Community of Dnipro that saved his life, by opening the ‘Good Future’ center and giving him a home in one of the city’s most beautiful and historic synagogues — the renowned ‘Alter Shul’ on Kotsyubynskoho Street.”
