.sqs-featured-posts-gallery .title-desc-wrapper .view-post

Russia

Yom Kippur on the Train to St. Petersburg

Yom Kippur on the Train to St. Petersburg

by Bettina Gray

On October 12th of this year, I was on a train between Moscow and Saint Petersburg traveling with members of the Slavyanka Russian Chorus on a concert tour of Russia.That particular morning a number of us were standing in the aisles or sitting on the arms of train seats, rocking between concert locations. We were saying the Ashamnu prayer, the prayer of confession and atonement for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in the Jewish calendar.