Machanaim is an organization dealing with the spiritual absorption of

Jewish people Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

from the former

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Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. The movement's work and its goals spawned its name, the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

word from meaning "two camps", in this case referring to

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and

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. Machanaim's founders are Rabbi Dr. Zeev Dashevsky, Dr. Pinchas Polonsky, and Dr. Michael Kara-Ivanov. Machanaim began in

behind the

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in 1979, during the period of Brezhnev stagnation, as a group of young people who gathered to study

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and tradition and pass on this knowledge on to their fellow Jews. Over time it developed into an organized underground network for studying

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

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, and

Jewish law ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

. Almost all the group members were refuseniks. Classes were sometimes interrupted by the

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. In 1987 most of the Machanaim activists received permission to emigrate to Israel. There they set two main goals: to work with new immigrants and to provide assistance in Jewish education for those Jews still in the CIS. The organization has produced many books and classes, especially for

conversion to Judaism Conversion to Judaism ( or ) is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. "Thus, by convertin ...

. Its other main projects include teaching

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

via the media, running a

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and other activities in

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. It is an important proponent of

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among Russian-speaking Jews.

Other uses of the name

Machanaim is also the name of a popular game played at Jewish summer camps and schools. It is sometimes spelled Machanayim.

References

Machanaim
online

Dan Izenberg, Jerusalem Post, 17.10.1997 * "''Machanaim'': The search for a spiritual revival of Judaism among Russian Jews" by Miriam Kitrossky, Michael Kara-Ivanov and Pinchas Polonsky in "Conversations. Orthodoxy and Diversity", issue 7, spring 2010/5770, pp. 54–65 {{Authority control Jewish outreach Jews and Judaism in the Soviet Union Jewish organizations established in 1979 1979 establishments in the Soviet Union