For 70 years, the Jews of the Soviet Union languished behind an Iron Curtain, discriminated against, robbed of their Torah, and denied the right to escape from their repressive land. Then the curtain was flung open, and Russian Jews poured into the United States by the tens of thousands.

The year was 1989. Rabbi Paysach Diskind, who was selling long distance telephone service at the time, wondered at this sudden torrent of Jews, a phenomenon that could never have been predicted. “I thought it had to be a stroke of hasgacha pratis (divine providence),” says Rabbi Diskind. “Hashem had clearly designed

The Etz Chaim Center for Jewish
Living and Learning has certainly come a long way since I worked in its 300-square foot office in the Imperial condominium on Clark’s Lane, close to 30 years ago. Its metamorphosis into the 21st century became even more obvious to me after meeting with Rabbi Shlomo Porter, the organization’s long-time Dean and President, and native South African Rabbi Nitzan Bergman, its new Executive Director.

  The new Etz Chaim is a “tree of life” that branches out and leaves no Jew behind; it provides a rich, meaningful Torah education and lifestyle experience to Jews of