Cheburashka Wears a Kippah
As a Russian speaking, Jewish, queer couple who wants our future children to be fluent in Russian and know about their cultural roots, we notice that there’s a deficit of Russian-language books with characters who look and live like we do. We see English language children’s literature grow more diverse and inclusive, but find that […]
Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tatyana immigrated to the US with her family at age 11. She received her BA in Sociology Summa Cum Laude from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master’s in Instructional Technology and Media from Teachers College Columbia University where she focused on the use of games and social media in education. She has been an educator for 12 years, the past 5 of them at The Jewish Education Project working with day schools and congregational institutions all over North America to innovate classrooms and make learning more engaging and personalized. She currently works at an all boys school on the UES teaching coding and STEAM. She shares a home with her wife and about as many books as could comfortably fill a small public library.
Cheburashka Wears a Kippah
As a Russian speaking, Jewish, queer couple who wants our future children to be fluent in Russian and know about their cultural roots, we notice that there’s a deficit of Russian-language books with characters who look and live like we do. We see English language children’s literature grow more diverse and inclusive, but find that […]
Valeriya is a second grade teacher in a NYC public school, working primarily with English language learners. She immigrated to the US with her family in 1999 from Yekaterinburg, Russia. She received her BA in Literary Studies from The New School and a Master’s in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from CUNY Hunter College. Her short play The Frequencies of Love was put on as part of The Headcase Showcase through The New School in 2012 and was part of a reading series at La MaMa theater.
Ruben Shimonov – Out of the Fringes and Into the Tapestry: An RSJ-Mizrahi-Sephardic-LGBTQ Community Initiative
The goal of this community project is to create a series of enriching and dynamic programs that will engage and empower an often marginalized, yet crucial, segment of the RSJ community: Sephardic and Mizrahi Russian-speaking Jews, particularly those who are LGBTQ. The objective is to both build a supportive and vibrant community of Sephardic, Mizrahi […]
RUSA LGBT
RUSA LGBT: Russian-Speaking American LGBT Group RUSA LGBT is a network for Russian-speaking LGBTQ individuals, their friends, supporters and loved ones. As part of the Blueprint Fellowship project, RUSA LGBT created a series of meet-ups and events exploring what it’s like to be a Russian-speaking LGBTQ Jew in the US today. The event series culminated in a panel presentation […]
Yelena Goltsman is a Kiev-born human rights and LGBTQ activist. She is the founder
and co-president of RUSA LGBT, an organization that was formed in 2008 to
establish a social network for the Russian-speaking LGBTQ community in the New
York area and beyond. Yelena is a long-time member of Congregation Beit Simchat
Torah and is an outstanding lay contributor to the life of the synagogue, organizing
a wide range of programming and learning opportunities. Her concern for Russian-
speaking LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers and those still oppressed in the
former Soviet Union has made the issue a central component in CBST’s social justice
work. Currently and for the past several years, Yelena is serving on the Membership
Committee of the synagogue.
