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The Forsaken Converts of Russia

They observe the Sabbath, practice ritual circumcision, and refrain from eating pork. They survived the oppression of the czars, suffered persecution by the communists and were murdered by the Nazis. Alexander Zaid and Rafael Eitan were two of them.  But none of this is enough for the State of Israel, which decided to prevent the descendants of Subbotniks - Russians who converted to Judaism hundreds of years ago – from making aliya to Israel. According to the Ministry of the Interior: They are not Jews.. The villages in this part of the world are similar to one another, containing small stone houses with an aluminum roof and a small entrance way. They all have a brown wooden beamed floor, a freezing outhouse in the courtyard, and a shed nicknamed “The Kitzi Kitchen” that was used for storing food during the winter.  The fronts of the houses are lined with green cherry trees. In the spacious courtyards, meticulously cared for grapevines carry clusters of small red grapes which produce sweet grape juice. The leaves falling from the white birch and poplar trees paint the muddy dirt paths with an intense orange color, providing vitality to the otherwise colorlessness of the village.