Jewish Heritage Travel & Kosher Tours To The Former Russian Empire & Scandanavia
Welcome to the Jewish Research and Tourist Center Zekher Avoteinu based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The name of our center in Hebrew means "memory of our forefathers." We invite you to make acquaintance with our common past, for ancestors of most Ashkenazi Jews came from the Russian Empire. Our Center carries out Jewish and general tourism in Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, other republics of the former Soviet Union, and Scandinavia.
The main idea of the tourist program of our Center is to combine Jewish and general sightseeing. We try to portray the Jewish history of each particular city or shtetl as being an integral part of the history of that region.
The Center is based in Saint Petersburg, however our tours cover the whole area of the former Russian Empire (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Estonia), as well as the Scandinavian countries.
The tours can be conducted in various languages. Our highly qualified guides accompany tourists during their stay and cater to their needs.
We work both with individuals and groups. Special programs with participation in community life may be arranged for missions, students groups, and anyone else interested. For professionals we organize meetings with their local colleagues (physicians, social and educational workers, etc.)
On special request kosher catering can be arranged, and if we are informed in advance we can arrange Shabbat meals with families recommended by the local rabbi.
Our Center has worked with physically challenged persons, and we can provide wheelchairs, canes, and other required equipments to those in need during the tour.
For groups of 15 or more persons we offer ten-day tours, which include three days in Moscow, four days in Saint Petersburg, and three days in either Kiev (including visits to shtetlach in Ukraine) or Vilnius (old Vilna, including a visit to the ghetto and a Karait settlement).
VISIT THE LAND OF YOUR ANCESTORS
For those tourists whose ancestors were from Ukraine we have prepared a new tourist route, which includes visits to big cities (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Kiev) and several small shtetlach in Ukraine.
For the armchair travelers we offer a unique service: our photographer and archivist will visit the shtetl/town, in which you are interested, and will collect material concerning the native place of your ancestors and, if possible, your family.
If you are interested in joining the group and/or getting more information please contact us.
CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS
If you come to St. Petersburg, Stockholm, or Helsinki, on a cruise ship we invite you to be our guests.
Our tours differ greatly from those offered by cruise companies, both in quality and price. The guided tours provided by Zekher Avoteinu are unique, as they are based on the results of our research and many years of experience of working with Jewish tourists. We tailor the program of your stay to make it as much personalized as possible so that you could remember for years. All city tours arranged by Zekher Avoteinu combine visits to the sights of traditional tourism and to the places of Jewish interest. In addition, we offer a wide range of options to participate in cultural and social events within local Jewish communities.
Our center organizes tours for travelers coming on cruise ships to St. Petersburg, Stockholm, and Helsinki. The programs are tailored to the interests of tourists and include tours of general and Jewish places of interest. Professional guides, speaking various languages and well versed both in the history of art and architecture and Jewish history, will introduce you to the masterpieces of world art preserved in renowned museums and to the history and present day life of the local Jewish communities.
We offer you the following options:
St. Petersburg
Sightseeing tour — During this tour you will see the magnificent palaces of the Russian tsars and nobility, romantic bridges and embankments of numerous rivers and canals, the Nevsky Prospect, the Arts Square, the Admiralty, the Field of Mars. In St. Petersburg, Jewish history is interwoven with the general history of the city, so that in all the places that you visit you will learn about their Jewish history. You will also visit the Big Choral Synagogue, the second biggest synagogue in Europe, and the Small Synagogue, both beautiful examples of Mauritanian style and recently renovated.
Hermitage — We offer guided tours in the famous museum that once was the winter residence of the Russian Emperors. In the biggest museum of Russia you may admire the works of the old masters and impressionists, see Egyptian mummies and Russian applied art, sculptures carved by the masters of Ancient Greece and Rome, and by August Rodin, pictures by Rembrandt and Rubens, by Pissarro and Van Gogh.
Summer residences of Russian tsars in the outskirts of the city — Petersburg is surrounded by the ring of summer residences that belonged to Russian tsars. These are magnificent palaces situated in beautiful parks. Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin) was one of such residences. There, close to the Catherine's Palace, stands a monument “Formula of Sorrow,” erected on the place where in 1941 Nazis exterminated local Jews. It is the first and the only monument to the victims of Holocaust in our city.
Another former royal residence, Peterhoff (Petrodvoretz), is situated on the shore of the Gulf of Finland. It was founded by Peter the Great and is famous for the numerous fountains in the park surrounding the palace.
Russian Museum — This museum houses one of the biggest collections of Russian art, beginning from the icons to the modern works. Among its treasures there are also works by Jewish painters and sculptors — Isaac Levitan, Mark Shagal, Leon Bakst, Mark Antokolski — that became part of Russian culture without loosing their connection with Jewish traditions.
Saint Peter and Paul Fortress — It was the first building erected in Saint Petersburg. Built as a military fortress, it was soon turned into the main political prison of the Russian Empire. Among its prisoners were Prince Alexis, son of Peter the Great, the writers Fedor Dostoevsky and Maxim Gorky, and the elder brother of Lenin, as well as Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, the founder of the Chabad Lubavitch.
Jewish cemetery — The Jewish cemetery is situated in the outskirts of the city. It is a stone manuscript of the history of the Jewish community in Saint Petersburg. In this cemetery there are tombs of many prominent personalities of the Jewish community of the city.
Jewish life in the city - For those interested in making acquaintance with the revival of the Jewish life in the city we suggest visits to the ORT, which was founded in St. Petersburg in 1880 and now once again returned to the city, to Jewish welfare centers "Hesed Avraam" and "Eva," to the Jewish Arts and Crafts Center, to the Research Center "Petersburg Judaica," to Petersburg Jewish University, schools and day care centers. Those interested in visiting any of these places and/or families should contact us beforehand.
In St. Petersburg you may also watch the famous Russian ballet or listen to classical music in renowned concert halls; and for those interested in the folklore there are performances of leading folk groups.
The main idea of the tourist program of our Center is to combine Jewish and general sightseeing. We try to portray the Jewish history of each particular city or shtetl as being an integral part of the history of that region.
The Center is based in Saint Petersburg, however our tours cover the whole area of the former Russian Empire (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Estonia), as well as the Scandinavian countries.
The tours can be conducted in various languages. Our highly qualified guides accompany tourists during their stay and cater to their needs.
We work both with individuals and groups. Special programs with participation in community life may be arranged for missions, students groups, and anyone else interested. For professionals we organize meetings with their local colleagues (physicians, social and educational workers, etc.)
On special request kosher catering can be arranged, and if we are informed in advance we can arrange Shabbat meals with families recommended by the local rabbi.
Our Center has worked with physically challenged persons, and we can provide wheelchairs, canes, and other required equipments to those in need during the tour.
For groups of 15 or more persons we offer ten-day tours, which include three days in Moscow, four days in Saint Petersburg, and three days in either Kiev (including visits to shtetlach in Ukraine) or Vilnius (old Vilna, including a visit to the ghetto and a Karait settlement).
VISIT THE LAND OF YOUR ANCESTORS
For those tourists whose ancestors were from Ukraine we have prepared a new tourist route, which includes visits to big cities (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Kiev) and several small shtetlach in Ukraine.
For the armchair travelers we offer a unique service: our photographer and archivist will visit the shtetl/town, in which you are interested, and will collect material concerning the native place of your ancestors and, if possible, your family.
If you are interested in joining the group and/or getting more information please contact us.
CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS
If you come to St. Petersburg, Stockholm, or Helsinki, on a cruise ship we invite you to be our guests.
Our tours differ greatly from those offered by cruise companies, both in quality and price. The guided tours provided by Zekher Avoteinu are unique, as they are based on the results of our research and many years of experience of working with Jewish tourists. We tailor the program of your stay to make it as much personalized as possible so that you could remember for years. All city tours arranged by Zekher Avoteinu combine visits to the sights of traditional tourism and to the places of Jewish interest. In addition, we offer a wide range of options to participate in cultural and social events within local Jewish communities.
Our center organizes tours for travelers coming on cruise ships to St. Petersburg, Stockholm, and Helsinki. The programs are tailored to the interests of tourists and include tours of general and Jewish places of interest. Professional guides, speaking various languages and well versed both in the history of art and architecture and Jewish history, will introduce you to the masterpieces of world art preserved in renowned museums and to the history and present day life of the local Jewish communities.
We offer you the following options:
St. Petersburg
Sightseeing tour — During this tour you will see the magnificent palaces of the Russian tsars and nobility, romantic bridges and embankments of numerous rivers and canals, the Nevsky Prospect, the Arts Square, the Admiralty, the Field of Mars. In St. Petersburg, Jewish history is interwoven with the general history of the city, so that in all the places that you visit you will learn about their Jewish history. You will also visit the Big Choral Synagogue, the second biggest synagogue in Europe, and the Small Synagogue, both beautiful examples of Mauritanian style and recently renovated.
Hermitage — We offer guided tours in the famous museum that once was the winter residence of the Russian Emperors. In the biggest museum of Russia you may admire the works of the old masters and impressionists, see Egyptian mummies and Russian applied art, sculptures carved by the masters of Ancient Greece and Rome, and by August Rodin, pictures by Rembrandt and Rubens, by Pissarro and Van Gogh.
Summer residences of Russian tsars in the outskirts of the city — Petersburg is surrounded by the ring of summer residences that belonged to Russian tsars. These are magnificent palaces situated in beautiful parks. Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin) was one of such residences. There, close to the Catherine's Palace, stands a monument “Formula of Sorrow,” erected on the place where in 1941 Nazis exterminated local Jews. It is the first and the only monument to the victims of Holocaust in our city.
Another former royal residence, Peterhoff (Petrodvoretz), is situated on the shore of the Gulf of Finland. It was founded by Peter the Great and is famous for the numerous fountains in the park surrounding the palace.
Russian Museum — This museum houses one of the biggest collections of Russian art, beginning from the icons to the modern works. Among its treasures there are also works by Jewish painters and sculptors — Isaac Levitan, Mark Shagal, Leon Bakst, Mark Antokolski — that became part of Russian culture without loosing their connection with Jewish traditions.
Saint Peter and Paul Fortress — It was the first building erected in Saint Petersburg. Built as a military fortress, it was soon turned into the main political prison of the Russian Empire. Among its prisoners were Prince Alexis, son of Peter the Great, the writers Fedor Dostoevsky and Maxim Gorky, and the elder brother of Lenin, as well as Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, the founder of the Chabad Lubavitch.
Jewish cemetery — The Jewish cemetery is situated in the outskirts of the city. It is a stone manuscript of the history of the Jewish community in Saint Petersburg. In this cemetery there are tombs of many prominent personalities of the Jewish community of the city.
Jewish life in the city - For those interested in making acquaintance with the revival of the Jewish life in the city we suggest visits to the ORT, which was founded in St. Petersburg in 1880 and now once again returned to the city, to Jewish welfare centers "Hesed Avraam" and "Eva," to the Jewish Arts and Crafts Center, to the Research Center "Petersburg Judaica," to Petersburg Jewish University, schools and day care centers. Those interested in visiting any of these places and/or families should contact us beforehand.
In St. Petersburg you may also watch the famous Russian ballet or listen to classical music in renowned concert halls; and for those interested in the folklore there are performances of leading folk groups.
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