Izabella Tabarovsky

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Apr 24, 2017, 6:05 AM

Who will make a ‘Schindler’s List’ about Soviet Jews?

At every Yizkor service, I add additional souls to my personal prayer list: the nearly 34,000 Jews murdered at Babi Yar in Soviet Ukraine over two September days in 1941. We still don’t know all of their names, but...

Apr 17, 2017, 6:48 AM

The courage to be Israeli

Illustrative photo of a light-rail train in Prague. (Photo credit: Prague tram image via Shutterstock)

Unlike her Israeli friends, she doesn't have to summon all her courage to board a train

Jul 6, 2016, 10:38 AM

Here’s what people don’t get about conversions

When the rabbinate rejects a conversion it rejects a profound journey of personal courage and soul-searching

May 5, 2016, 8:45 AM

What If You Had Been Our Neighbors?

Perhaps it is because some of my own had perished in Babi Yar that I spend so much time trying to visualize what it must have been like to be there. Before the European Jewish ghettos had turned deadly, before...

Apr 27, 2016, 3:36 PM

Exile, Freedom, and Awareness of God’s Presence

An 18th century Rabbi Menacham Nachum of Chernobyl wrote in "Maor Eynayim": It is known that the secret of the Egyptian exile is that awareness was in exile... One must be aware that there is a blessed Creator, but they (the Israelites...

Apr 20, 2016, 4:29 PM

I Am a Former Jewish Refugee, and This Is Why Israel Is Important to Me

In front of me is a handwritten letter written by Elena Yarylchenko, a Jewish woman from Luhansk, an East-Ukrainian city, which over the past year became a scene of heavy fighting between pro-Russian forces and Ukrainian army and volunteer...

Apr 12, 2016, 5:32 PM

Honoring Our Parents in Health and Sickness: The “Unexpected Gifts” of a Father’s Dementia

One day, as Eve Soldinger drove her father Reuben back to the memory unit of his nursing home, he asked her who had paid for the new tires he had noticed on her car. Soldinger knew that despite his growing state...

Apr 1, 2016, 6:45 AM

From the Venetian Ghetto to Washington, DC: Celebrating the Music of Italian Jews

For most American Jews, the notion of Jewish music brings to mind Hava Nagila, klezmer, and the Avinu Malkeinu modes of the well-known High Holy Days prayer. Throw in some familiar synagogue tunes, and we believe that we know...

Mar 22, 2016, 5:59 AM

The Purim Games

Purim is a chaotic, crazy-making holiday celebrating the story of Queen Esther and her heroic efforts to save the Jewish people of the time from annihilation. The story is known for its quick twists and turns in character and...

Oct 26, 2015, 12:05 AM

“Reb Shlomo, Why Are You So Happy?”

A review of “Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: Life, Mission and Legacy” by Rabbi Natan Ophir When asked about Rabbi Carlebach’s music, Timothy Leary, that dedicated explorer of mystical experiences and expanded states of consciousness, is reported to have said: “If...

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About Me

Izabella Tabarovsky is passionate about Jewish life and Israel. She grew up in Russia, has lived in the U.S. for over 25 years, and travels frequently to Israel. She works at the Kennan Institute in Washington, DC, where she focuses on the politics of historical memory of the Holocaust and Stalin's repressions in the former Soviet Union. Her writings have appeared in Newsweek, The Tablet Magazine, Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post Ivrit, The Wilson Quarterly, Kennan Cable, Russia File, and Science and Diplomacy, among others. The views expressed here are her own.