Jewish Heritage tours in St Petersburg - Recommendations? Advice?

[cbny]

My DH and I will be going on a Baltic cruise in June and would really like to do a Jewish Heritage tour (2 days preferred) while we are in St Petersburg. If you have any recommendations or advice, please let me know ASAP. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Expat Cruise]

I would contact one of the Chabad Houses in St Petersburg, understand they are a orthodox group so they will follow their rules but they will be very helpful and friendly. They may even have students availabe to provide a tour.Here is some basic contact information. Also pleas note you do not need to be Jewish for them to welcome you, Chabad is open to non Jews and respects everyone. If you are female you should contact the Rabbi's wife, male contact the Rabbi. I have not included email address because I believe it is not allowed but easy to find on google. Chabad does not charge for services provided but a small donation can be made. Also do not bring food or drink as gifts for them, they follow a very high level of kosher certification.

 

 

"Maor" Jewish Community Center of S. Petersburg

S. Petersburg, Russia

Phone: 7-812-703-37-67

 

 

Rabbi Ben Tzion Lipsker, Director

Mrs. Dvora Leah Lipsker

 

********

 

Beit Chabad

S. Petersburg, 190121 Russia

Phone: 7-812-320-13-28

Fax: 7-812-710-84-99

 

Personnel »

 

Rabbi Daniel Ash, Director

********

 

Jewish Community of S. Petersburg

190121 Russia

Phone: 7-812-713-62-09

Fax: 7-812-714-44-28

 

Personnel »

 

Rabbi Mendel Pewzner

Mrs. Sara Pewzner

Rabbi Zvi Pinsky

Rabbi Chaim Shaul Brook

Rabbi Shmuel Mendelson

Mrs. Leah Goldberg

Mrs. Rachel Brook

Rabbi Shmuel Chitrik

Mr. Avroom Arshinov

Rabbi Refael Poltarak

Rabbi Moshe Mendel Treskunov

Rabbi Eliyahu Romanovskiy

Mrs. Rachel Leah Romanovskiy

Rabbi Shalom Pewzner

 

Note to Admin: This is not thread hijacking or off topic but a direct reply to the OP's request. Stating what I believe is the best way to have a tour here based upon the requirements. If other posters want to debate Chabad, Judaism, or Religion I will not reply or post

[mskaufman]

You can also check with the major tour operators (SPB, TJ, etc.) to see if they offer something.

[Nitemare]

We did a great private tour with TJ a few years back and asked that it include the major Jewish sites and they adjusted their regular tour to give us those stops as well as the major ones in the city

[KittyloverCA]

I saw that all the major tour operators offered Jewish heritage tours, but I decided against them because I wanted to focus on the major sites. I would have possibly done one if our ship stopped in Riga as a great grandfather was from there, but the SPB one didn’t seem as compelling

[koops4]

We are doing two days privately with SPB Tours this June and they will customize the tour for us.

[dogs4fun]

My DH and I will be going on a Baltic cruise in June and would really like to do a Jewish Heritage tour (2 days preferred) while we are in St Petersburg. If you have any recommendations or advice, please let me know ASAP. Thanks in advance for your help.

IMHO, the single most worthwhile Jewish site in St. Petersburg is the Grand Choral Synagogue. In fact, it is the third largest European synagogue and well worth a visit.

St. Petersburg forbade Jewish settlement in the city for the first 100 years of its existence and select groups of "useful" Jews (rich merchants, college grads, artisans, etc.) were allowed in the mid 1800's under Tsar Alexander II (St. Petersburg was only founded in 1703). So, Jewish sites in the city are somewhat limited - not at all on par with places with very rich Jewish histories such as Prague/Budapest/Krakow, etc.