COJECO is excited to launch a second cohort of Adult B’nai Mitzvah Journey, a program for Russian-speaking Jewish adults in New York! This unique experience encourages and enables the participants to join meaningful Jewish learning, celebrate their Bar/Bat Mitzvah, and bring the joy of Jewish living to their families.
The program empowers RSJ change makers to create their own community-building initiatives, with the support of a network of peers, educational workshops, one-on-one mentorship, and mini-grants for project implementation.
A customized, year-long family program for Russian-speaking Jewish parents and their children leading up to Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
The Virtual Academy of Jewish Heritage offers a series of top-notch Jewish and Israel-related educational sessions in English and Russian. Learn more on how to attend these free virtual lectures and help support the academy!
We invite you to join COJECO and the Russian-speaking Jewish community of New York and New Jersey as we proudly march on NYC’s 5th Avenue in support of Israel. We welcome all RSJ community organizations and individuals to join and march together as one strong community.
Bringing Russian-speaking Jewish young adults on a 9-day educational trips to Germany to explore the past and present of Jewish life in Germany, and to experience modern Germany first hand.
We have launched a successful program for adults, children, teens, and families in Northern New Jersey, in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.
SHALOM! HOLA! WELCOME TO THE NEW COJECO TOUR: JEWISH ARGENTINA WITH JACOB SHOSHAN (December 1st-9th, 2025). Experience rich Jewish history and today's vibrant Jewish community in Argentina with COJECO with world renowned tour guide and educator Jacob Shoshan.
Join COJECO in its upcoming events, programs, and trips within the COJECO Center for Adult Jewish Education
Wed, March 4, 2026
A big scale installation containing 42 separate pieces will invite audiences of all ages to actively participate throughout the course of three (3) days on display at the auditorium space at the JCC Manhattan. The audience was able to rearrange the pieces and construct their own Solomon’s Chair, an amassing artifact that originally emerged as a result of […]
Zhenya Plechkina
Zhenya Plechkina is a Ukranian-born artist living in South Brooklyn. Zhenya studied art at the Pratt Institute and the Tisch School of the Arts, and Art Education at the Pratt Institute.Zhenya's teaching experience includes New York City public and private schools, camps and Riker's Island vocational school. Zhenya leads her own Museum Education Series for children and adults. She has exhibited works in a variety of venues in the US and abroad, including the Queens Museum of Art, the Venice Architectural and Moscow Biennials.
After the BluePrint Fellowship, Zhenya went on to become the first Russian-speaking Jewish Joshua Venture Group fellow, where she further developed her initiative, Zshuk Art Initiative.
Architecture workshops for Russian-speaking families with kids 6-12 years old. The project participants will discover works by architects of Jewish descent (ex: Moisei Ginzburg, Alexander Brodsky, Moshe Safdie and Louis Kahn among others) and will develop the foundation of architectural design and freedom of creativity. Through the workshops families will find parallels between Jewish values and specific […]
Masha Dinor
Masha Dinor is originally from Saratov, Russia and recently immigrated to New York. She is an architect and interior designer by trade and finds inspiration in teaching kids about art and design. She was an active member of Saratov' Jewish life and taught tradition and craft lessons at a local Jewish Family Center. Once she moved to Moscow to advance her career, Masha also led classes at a local architectural studio for kids. Masha continues her work as an art educator in New York, where she teaches at Kibbutznik summer camp, Kompot events, Little-Avangardist and Dacha project.
Documentary “The Collective Effort: A Sartorial Journey” follows the creation of a dress made from fabric hand-painted by Jewish youth, and its odyssey from a sketch, onto the cutting table, under the sewing machine, on the model’s body at a photo-shoot, to an auction to raise money for a Jewish cause. The documentary highlights the […]
Leonid Gurevich
Leonid Gurevich is an NYC-based fashion designer, editorial stylist, fashion photographer, and producer. Gurevich is best known for creating strong fashion looks with luxury flair, characterized by an extreme degree of individuality. His editorial work has appeared in numerous print publications including The New York Times, Martha Stewart Weddings, New York Weddings, US, and HELLO. Leonid Gurevich has styled fashion presentations, editorials, workshops, look-books, print ad campaigns for bridal and eyewear brands, a two-part ad campaign for NIKON Europe, and most recently, an ad campaign for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism.
The unique staging of The Purim Spiel Shadow Theater gives a new life to the Jewish tradition of the Purim Spiel. The joyous holiday of Purim celebrates the salvation of the Jews in ancient Persia thanks to the cleverness of Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai who prevail over the King’s evil adviser Haman. This […]
Luba Proger
Luba Proger has a background and education in fine arts, graphic design, and photography. Upon moving to the United States, Luba continued her studies and earned a degree in photography and graphic design from the Pratt Institute, NYC. Luba has been making photographs for over a decade. In recent years she got involved in curatorial work, where she conceived, and developed a number of arts, photography and theater projects. She currently resides and works in New York City.
Luba Proger and Leonid Khanin have been collaborating since 2004 under the name L2coLab. Their combined multidisciplinary education and experience in fine art, architecture and photography has allowed them to create multidisciplinary art and theater projects, addressing ideas of inner beauty, multiculturalism, and belonging. They are experimenting with immersive environments by use of space, innovative video and audio sampling techniques that stimulate viewers’ perception between themselves and their environment.
Leonid Khanin
Leonid Khanin is an architect and an artist. He has been involved in a variety of art projects utilizing conceptual design and realization. His art projects combine set design, video and photography. Through the Blueprint Fellowship, in partnership with Luba Proger, Leonid created a unique theater experience through a staging of The Purim Spiel Shadow Theater which gave new life to the Jewish tradition of the Purim Spiel. The show was performed on an inflatable sphere and accompanied by new musical arrangements of well-known songs from Russian cartoons.
Luba Proger and Leonid Khanin have been collaborating since 2004 under the name L2coLab.
Their combined multidisciplinary education and experience in fine art, architecture and photography has allowed them to create multidisciplinary art and theater projects, addressing ideas of inner beauty, multiculturalism, and belonging. They are experimenting with immersive environments by use of space, innovative video and audio sampling techniques that stimulate viewers’ perception between themselves and their environment.
The Zing-Along Shabes project, a BluePrint Alumni project (2013-2014), aims to foster family traditions around celebrating Shabbat. The project consists of a website and printable booklet that include artwork by Irina Sheynfeld, a toolkit of materials for educators and parents, and musical recordings of songs, prayers and nigns for Shabbat (featuring the voices of Cantors […]
Dmitri Slepovitch
Dmitry Slepovich is a Jewish educator, musician, and music scholar focusing on Ashkenazi Jewish musical tradition. As the founder of the bands Minsker Kapelye and Litvakus, Slepovitch has scored and performed music and acted for film and theater productions in Europe and the US. He has been continuously collaborating on many levels with the National Yiddish Theatre–Folksbiene in New York. Slepovitch earned his Ph.D. at Belarus State Academy of Music where he taught in the position of Assistant Professor prior to his emigration to the US in 2008. He has collaboratively initiated and taught at a number of educational music seminars for Jewish musicians in Belarus and co-produced a festival KlezmerShock in Minsk. He taught at seminars and presented at conferences held by the SEFER Moscow Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization, Intercollegiate Center for Jewish Education, New Jewish School Center in St.Peterstburg, Eshkolot project in Moscow, and other educational, scholarly, and performing events in the FSU, Europe, Israel, Canada, and the US.
Irina Sheynfeld
Irina Sheynfeld is an artist, illustrator and designer born in Odessa, Ukraine, where she studied painting at the Odessa College of Art. Upon arriving to New York, Irina earned her BFA from Parsons School of Design and MFA from School of Visual Arts. She worked as a designer and illustrator for The Wall Street Journal, Time Warner and Oxygen Media. For several years Irina illustrated a weekly column for Editor and Publisher magazine. Irina just had her first solo show at Tagine Gallery in NYC and her work could be currently seen at Amsterdam Art Gallery and at Iridium Jazz Club. She was one of the winners of the Printmaking Completion and recipient of the New Media Award for the best web design.
Inna Barmash
Inna Barmash immigrated to the United States from Vilnius, Lithuania, where she first started singing in Yiddish in a children’s song and dance collective. While a student at Princeton University, she co-founded the Klez Dispensers, the University’s first klezmer band and has since performed with numerous other East Coast groups. Her explorations of the repertoire of Russian and Romanian gypsies led to her co-founding of Romashka, a gypsy band based in New York. While roaming through clubs, cafe, and underground parties with the band, Barmash encountered the composer/violist Ljova Zhurbin, now her husband and collaborator, with whom she started Ljova & the Kontraband, an original chamber folk ensemble and a duo lovingly dubbed BarmaLjova. When not singing or tending to their adorable toddlers, Benjy and Yossik, Inna works as an attorney at an education technology company in New York.
Бабушка | BAb(oo)shka is a performance and series of community workshops about translation between languages, generations, and borders. A performance that retells, reenacts, and represents the experience of being a Jew in the Soviet Union. It is a collage of three overlapping translations, with a live Klezmer Yiddish band and large two-dimensional puppets.
A series of art workshops for children, exploring the wisdom of Jewish texts and art. Collective artwork created will have a purpose of moving towards peace, conflict resolution, empathy and reconciliation.
Ilona Bouzoukachvili
Ilona is originally from Moscow. Her most pleasant childhood memories are associated with visiting her grandparents in Georgia. In the United States Ilona studied English, Graphic Design and Fine Arts. She worked as a Graphic Designer in children's publishing. In recent years Ilona has been organizing community projects for kids and composing Jewish songs in Russian to the guitar. She is also known for baking delicious Challah. Ilona currently works in nursery schools where she teaches art, substitute teaches and babysits.
COJECO was formed in 2001 as an umbrella organization for grassroots community organizations of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants in New York to make their voices heard and respected. Today we represent over 30 such network organizations, including young adult leadership groups, Holocaust Survivors, professional associations, arts & culture organizations, and social justice groups.
COJECO was formed in 2001 as an umbrella organization for grassroots community organizations of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants in New York to make their voices heard and respected. Today we represent over 30 such network organizations, including young adult leadership groups, Holocaust Survivors, professional associations, arts & culture organizations, and social justice groups.
Tel: 212-566-2120 E-mail: info@cojeco.org
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