Jewish tour of St.Petersberg

We would be interested in a Jewish Heritage tour of St.Petersberg.Do you have any recommendations?

We used TJ Travel for a private tour and requested that we visit some Jewish heritage sites and were very pleased with what we got.

We would be interested in a Jewish Heritage tour of St.Petersberg. Do you have any recommendations?

We worked with White Nights tour company to create a custom tour because our July visit was our second one, although spaced several years apart. We asked for an in-depth Jewish Heritage tour for part of one of the days.

When we visited the Chorale Synagogue, we were met by another guide who was a specialist in the synagogue. Throughout Russia, there are some destinations where a private guide may not work with clients. (Backstage at Mariinsky Theater is one example.)

Reading the web site for the Jewish community of SPB, I believe the Grand Chorale Synagogue is another. There's a line of text that refers to some recommended tour guides, but those names somehow aren't included on the web site. ("Jewish Heritage tour of S.Petersburg. For ordering please refer to the folowing tour operators affiliated with the Synagogue...")

http://en.jeps.ru/excursions-and-tourist-services/guided-tour-synagogue-petersburg.html

Here's the email for contacting the Synagogue about tours:

tour@jeps.ru

Check Jewish Heritage packages on Best Guides website. Chose shore excursions and then shore excursion packagers. As far as I know they have this tour only as a private option. One more suggestion. If you are really deeply interested in the life of Jewish community in St. Petersburg ask your manager to organize a meeting/tour of Synagogue with pastor Gregory. He is a very interesting and bright person. Nobody else will tell you about the Synagogue better than him. Of course it will add additional cost but I guess it’s worth the money.

Jess :)

Check Jewish Heritage packages on Best Guides website. Chose shore excursions and then shore excursion packagers. As far as I know they have this tour only as a private option. One more suggestion. If you are really deeply interested in the life of Jewish community in St. Petersburg ask your manager to organize a meeting/tour of Synagogue with pastor Gregory. He is a very interesting and bright person. Nobody else will tell you about the Synagogue better than him. Of course it will add additional cost but I guess it’s worth the money.

Jess :)

The current chief Rabbi at the Synagogue is Menachem Pewzner. While the title "Chief Rabbi" suggests there are associate rabbis, none of them would use the title "Pastor."

Pastor Gregory may very well be on the list of guides endorsed by the synagogue. Unfortunately, the list referred to by the web site text is missing. Here is the email for contacting the synagogue directly: tour@jeps.ru

My family used TJ Tours for a 1-day Jewish Heritage tour of St. Petersburg last summer and we were very pleased. We were able to talk (along with our guide) with Cantor Gregory at the Grand Choral Synagogue. I agree that he provided a perspective and information about the synagogue and its history that we would not have gotten otherwise.

We also visited the Hermitage (where, at our request, our guide directed us to the Rembrandt paintings) and the Judaic exhibit in the Museum of Ethnography. The tour normally visits a Jewish Community Center, but my daughter really wanted to see the Church of the Spilt Blood, and TJ Tours easily made that substitution to our itinerary when we asked if it was possible.

We had lunch at a small (but tasty and inexpensive) kosher restaurant with traditional Russian food. Our guide gave us the choice between that and a more upscale place.

We looked at several companies that offered Jewish Heritage tours, and chose TJ because they offered more time at the Hermitage than several others. We had no regrets at all with our choice. Any questions we had before the trip were answered promptly, and our guide and driver were as accommodating as they could be.

I have heard equally glowing reports about the other popular tour companies, so you probably wouldn't go wrong with any of them, but TJ is the only one with which I had first-hand experience.

Sorry, for my misprint. Of course I meant Cantor Gregory. I’m not Jewish. My husband is half Jewish and very much interested in Jewish culture. Hope it will excuse me J

We haven’t met Gregory in person but I heard about him a lot on the ship.

Jess :)

Did anybody visit the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg?

Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg? I have visited the city multiple times and I am aware of no such museum in St. Petersburg. I am very interested in Jewish heritage.

There is a memorial to the Jews of Pushkin (Tsarskoye Selo) near the Catherine Palace - is that what you mean?

There is the Russian Museum of Ethnography which houses a huge collection (representing the cultural heritage of 157 peoples of European Russia, Siberia, Far East, Caucasus and Crimea and embraces the period from the 18th century to present times) and includes a Jewish exhibition ... but it is not a holocaust museum.

There is a holocaust museum in Moscow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_Memorial_Synagogue_(Moscow)

Maybe that's what you are thinking of.

<<<Karen>>>

Did anybody visit the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg?

Hi NiaGara-Buff! I think you mean Holocaust Memorial in Pushkin (Tzarskoe Selo) which is a suburb town of St. Petersburg http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12096

We saw it from our van on the way to the palace. I think if you book Jewish Heritage tour it will be a special stop at this memorial with a detailed story about Jews who were killed here.

Jess :)

Did anybody visit the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg?

There is a Holocaust museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Are you sure that is not the one you are thinking of?