300 attend Rosh Hashono in the ”Hilton”

It was exactly 10 years ago on the eve of Rosh Hashono that Rabbi Yossi and Suri Marozov arrived to Ulyanovsk as the first Rabbi to this city.

Their first task was to arrange the first ever Rosh Hashono services, thank G-d it was very successful, a small classroom was used to squeze nearly 40 people for each prayer service, totalling over 120 attendees.

2 years later the community finally established its first Synogogue, a very small room in the Jewish Center, with a foyer that could handle a total of 50-60 Jewish at each prayer service, for the next 2 years a total of over 150 Jews attended Rosh Hashono Prayers.

On the fifth Rosh Hashono since our Rabbi’s arrivel it was decided to erect a tent on the outside yard of our community, the tent included separate section for men, woman and a dining area, our Rosh Hashono morning minyan, stayed at 50 people, but our evening service grew to 150 participants, a total of over 200 Jews attended the Rosh Hashono prayers services for the next 6 years.

But this year – in honor of 10 years since our Rabbi’s arrival – we decided to expand, we converted the grand ballroom of the newly opened ”Hilton” hotel into a Synogogue!!!

We rented 3 halls, 1- as a Synogogue, 2- as a banquet hall, 3- children’s prayer program.

The Synogogue had over 170 seats, but to our surprise over 220 people arrived to the evening prayers, making the total attendance to Rosh Hashono prayer services this to over 300 people!!!

The morning prayers as always began at 10:00, followed by a festive banquet at 12:30, followed by a walk to the Volga River at 2:00pm for the Tashlich.

The evening Services began as usuall with the Shofar blowing at 18:00 followed by prayer services and then finally a grand banquat!

The Jewish Center of Ulyanovsk would like to wish all Jews in Ulyanovsk and worldwide a happy and sweet new year!