''Golden Autumn' in Europe's largest park: Spectacular gallery and video from Moscow

October 26, 2019   

On the eve of the Holy Shabbat of the Genesis reading - a few weeks before the snow that is already falling in Russia reaches Moscow, and with the end of the Moscow 'shelka' period, known in Russian as the 'Golden Autumn', photographer Levi Nazarov went to 'Skolniki Park' to photograph the atmosphere of the place during this beautiful period. 'Sokolniki' Park is located in the northeast of Moscow, and it covers 600 dunams, containing hundreds of thousands of diverse trees, 13 lakes and springs, and fresh, clean air. In recent years, the Moscow Municipality has invested huge resources to restore the ancient history of the place, and comfortable paths are spread throughout the length and breadth of the magnificent park. The place is also guarded by a permanent guard to maintain cleanliness, order, and peace. About 93 years ago, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rayetz Rebbe, was in Moscow, for the purpose of Jewish business affairs, to cancel terrible decrees against the Jews of Russia. After a very strenuous and difficult campaign against the authorities, several thugs entered the Rebbe's room with a drawn gun and threatened his life. In order to calm down from the fear they tried to inflict on him, the Rebbe went out to get some air in "Skolniki Park", and in his diary the Rebbe wrote: "And I think that the good air and moonlight will calm me, and I say go for a walk... and I will go to the Sakalniki Forest". On its eastern side, the park adjoins the complex of the "Chaya Moshka Institute", one of the magnificent institutions established about 25 years ago by the rabbi of Russia, the eminent Rabbi Berel Lazar, where dozens of Jewish girls are educated in the observance of Torah and mitzvot. [Gallery]