FriendsofRefugees.org

F.R.E.E. HQ - Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe

Russian Jewry Center

Education My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor from the mouth of your

Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe (FREE) was founded in 1969 by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. It was led by a group of young ex-Soviet “partisans” to cater to the broad range of needs of Jewish refugees from the Former Soviet Union. FREE has helped tens of thousands of these Jews, who often arrived in the U.S. with nothing but the clothes on their back, and precious little else.

FREE has continued to reach out to these Jews, feeding their bodies and nourishing their souls through housing, rent, medical and employment assistance, and education in Torah and Mitzvot. Serving as the first such Organization in the United States, FREE has become America’s largest Jewish organization serving Russian immigrants with their spiritual and material needs

Governments fall, the map is rearranged, but Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe never stops responding to the call of the Jewish soul. Indeed, Jewish continuity is not an item on our agenda. It is our agenda.

Cong. Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe is an international non-profit organization founded in 1969 by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. F.R.E.E.’s mandate is to restore the Jewish identity and education diminished through over seventy years of communist oppression, by assisting Jews from the former Soviet Union in all moral, spiritual, religious, educational and financial / material areas of their new lives in the FREE world.

From FriendsofRefugees.org

Programs

Adult Education
Social & Humanitarian Services
Bar Mitzvah
Youth Clubs
Summer Camps
Holiday Awareness Campaign
Russian Synagogues
A Bar Mitzvah Celebration
New Tanya Released In Honor of Yud Tes Kislev
Chanukah Concert with M-Generation
Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur Machzorim Published
Newly restored Torah at FREE’s Chicago Synagogue
F.R.E.E.’s First Gala Bar Mitzvah Ceremony
Gala Bar Mitzvah Ceremony
Book In Russian Explains Mikvah Use
FREE Social & Humanitarian Services Division

On their site

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From FriendsofRefugees.org

People

Rabbi Mayer OkunovChairman
Rabbi Schleima GalperinEducational Associate
Rabbi Hershel OkonovVice President
Rabbi Yosef Y. OkunovDirector
Rabbi David OkunovDirector

What they offer

F.R.E.E. HQ - Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe is a centre for Russian-speaking Jews in Brooklyn, led by Rabbi Mayer Okunov.

There is a synagogue on the premises. Visitors are welcomed for Shabbat and holiday meals. Accommodation for guests can be arranged. They kosher kitchens for the community.

Classes run regularly, one-to-one study can be arranged and public lectures are held. There is a library.

For children there is a preschool, a Hebrew school, after-school programmes and a children's club.

Older children and young adults have a teen club, bar and bat mitzvah instruction, a bar mitzvah club and a bat mitzvah club.

They officiate at weddings, circumcisions and funerals. Couples are prepared for marriage. A chevra kadisha serves the community.

The center visits patients in hospital, looks after the elderly, works with children with special needs, distributes food packages and provides humanitarian aid.

There is a women's group. Mezuzos and tefillin can be checked here. A mitzvah tank goes out from here.