How we celebrated VE Day 2023 and Israel’s 75

By Marina Berkovich

Jewish Russian Cultural Alliance (JRCA) is part of Jewish Federation of Greater Naples. It serves as “home base” for Jews from the former Soviet Union countries that evolved after its collapse who live in Southwest Florida or are visiting.

Peoples of the USSR, concurrently with WWII, fought in the Great Patriotic War from June 22, 1941, when Hitler violated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a nonaggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, invading USSR.

The end of that war was on the day after victory in Europe was declared by the Allies — the primary reason being that Stalin demanded to find Hitler’s body first. Since then, the USSR and, later, all its former Soviet Socialist Republics celebrate May 9 as Victory Day, a holiday that is still sacred to the JRCA group. The majority of us are second-generation and some first-generation survivors of World War II and its atrocities. Our fathers, mothers, uncles and aunts were bombed, evacuated or imprisoned by the Nazis or Soviets and otherwise suffered during that horrific time, imparting onto us deep respect to war heroes and all the servicemen and women.

JRCA volunteers Irene Kharlamov and Elena and Alex Novik set up a beautiful VE Day spread.

During our May 9th commemoration, members of our group who originally came to the U.S. from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Latvia, Georgia and Uzbekistan shared family stories of survival and heroism during the Great Patriotic War.

One member, Roman Barilko, originally from Zhytomyr, told us of his memories of the pre-dawn bombing of June 22, 1941. Another, Mark Livstone, originally from Belarus, shared his incredible story. Each of his parents witnessed the murders of their respective families, parents, children, siblings. Livstone’s parents met deep in the Belarus partisan area and fell in love.

If you have seen the film, “Defiance,” Livstone’s story is like it. Born in April 1943, his parents refused to kill him after the Nazis surrounded their forest and the commanding partisan gave the order to kill the partisan babies, lest they cry and reveal the hideouts. Livstone was the only hope his parents had left and his life was a testament to their survival as he was the only surviving child from that partisan camp. His story is unique.

If you want to learn more, I personally interviewed him for the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center. More stories of fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles and grandfathers followed. We honor and preserve the legacy of survivors and cherish the memory of the fallen. Our intention is to continue celebrating victory over the Nazis as well as our privilege of being alive until the end of our days.

Because such is the nature of our group, we love Israel and cannot let anyone skip the celebration of Israel’s independence. We were able to leave the Soviet Union because Israel was there to invite Soviet Jewry to take the risky steps of parting with the USSR and its depraved ways of treating the Jews. Israel and the U.S. liberated us, and we are eternally grateful to their partnership in our rescue.

JRCA shared a wonderful community meal and delicious desserts. The group’s next meeting will be the JRCA Rosh Hashanah celebration, which is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 15 from noon to 3 p.m. at the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center.

The next few events are tentatively scheduled as follows:

• Hanukkah, Sunday, Dec. 24

• Purim, Sunday, March 24

• VE Day, Sunday, May 12

All events are scheduled for Sundays, noon to 3 p.m. Please join the JRCA email list at JRCAGroup@gmail.com to receive future detailed notifications.

Have a wonderful summer!