Yad Yisroel

The Early Years

The Yad Yisroel organization was started by the Stoliner Rebbe in 1990. During the era of the Iron Curtain, the Rebbe travelled to the Soviet Union to visit the Jews still in the FSU.

During his visits, the Rebbe saw the effect that communist Russia had on the Jews in the USSR. The situation caused him unbearable pain. It was at this point that the Rebbe concieved the idea of Yad Yisroel - of an organisation to bring Russian Jewry home to their heritage.

Kiev, Ukraine

When, in the early 1990's the Iron Curtain began to fall, Yad Yisroel began to develop and grow.

The first city that was targeted was Kiev, the capitol of Ukraine, where a school was opened on a rented boat on the Dnieper River, not far from the central synagogue which had been used as a stable. The school started with 17 children- both boys and girls. The founder and teacher of the school was Rabbi Yakov Dov Bleich, who then went on to become the Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine.

Yad Yisroel Today

Since those early days, Yad Yisroel has developed and grown into a multi faceted organisation. Over these years, Yad Yisroel started comunities and schools in Kiev, Lvov, Minsk, Pinsk and Cheminitski.

Yad Yisroel has helped and influenced thousands of Jews throughout the former Soviet Union.