Fourteen-year-old Gabriel Opalikhin was forced to flee from the city of Pokrov, and in Dnipro, he was warmly welcomed and cared for by the local Jewish Community. With great enthusiasm, he became involved in community life: he had a brit milah, enrolled in a yeshiva, but above all, like many other boys, he dreamed of studying Torah weekly together with his father in the “Avot uBanim” program — fathers and sons — finding not only intellectual joy, but also the emotional warmth of shared immersion into the enchanting world of Yiddishkeit.
The “Avot uBanim” program, led by Rabbi David Vayskovsky, made that possible. Gabriel is now part of the large, united family of our community, and he studies Torah with Yosef Zhilin — also a yeshiva student, an activist, and a young leader of the Dnipro Jewish Community — who mentors him like an older brother.
“Studying Torah together at a set time each week is vitally important not only for shaping a child’s personality, but also for building strong and harmonious family relationships,” says Rabbi David Vayskovsky. “It is crucial that these sessions are not occasional, but regular, becoming part of one’s routine — a real institution. Psychologists note that it is precisely such recurring experiences that help form both character and relationships.”
Participants of the “Avot uBanim” program deeply value these weekly meetings, which take place every Monday at the Golden Rose Synagogue between Mincha and Ma’ariv.
To register, call: +38 (063) 14 54 204 (David).
