New Jewish Youth Centre & Mikvah Dedicated in Thornhill

A new youth centre, library and mikvah serving the GTA’s Russian-speaking Jewish community has officially been dedicated in Thornhill.

The Kholodenko, Murad and Ressin JRCC Youth Centre, Library and Mikva, located beside the Jewish Russian Community Centre of East Thornhill, celebrated its formal completion with hundreds gathering for a dedication and mezuzah ceremony.

The facility includes a youth centre, three classrooms and Shloimele’s Library, which now circulates some 20,000 books annually. It also features an outdoor sukkah seating 120, a guest suite and a mikvah.

The story behind the mikvah stretches back generations.

Under Soviet rule, Rabbi Chaim Dovber (Berel) Zaltzman secretly built a mikvah after his wife, Chaya Esther, had been travelling 36 hours by train each way every month from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, to use a mikvah in Samarkand.

Weeks before the Thornhill dedication, Rabbi Berel Zaltzman passed away at 91. His grandson, Rabbi Mendel Zaltzman, who leads JRCC East Thornhill, dedicated the new mikvah in his memory.

The JRCC was founded in Toronto in 1980 and today says its network serves an estimated 50,000 Russian-speaking Jews across the GTA.

From a secret mikvah under Soviet rule to a thriving Jewish centre in Thornhill — three generations later.

Source: Lubavitch.com