On December 22, 2022 our Russian-Jewish Boston Community celebrated a very unique and special event. Our first Boston-Sderot wedding in Israel! Yudit Bolotovsky and Harrison Volaski met on the beach in Tel Aviv in August 2017 while both had just moved to Israel on their new journeys in life. Yudit-grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and was deeply immersed in the Russian Jewish community in Boston as a teenager and young-adult. She first got introduced to the Boston Sderot Project as a 12-year old at sleepaway summer camp- Camp RSM. Fast forward to 2017, after many years of involvement, she decided to move to Sderot, Israel to run the RJCF-sponsored Boston Sderot Community Center and teach English. She had volunteered as a counselor and then was Program Director at the Boston-Sderot camp from 2012-2016 and became truly inspired to do more in the community to help. After volunteering for many years as counselor at the camp and many other RJCF events and fundraisers, she wanted to fully immerse herself into Israeli culture and understand what living in Sderot really was like. Harrison Volaski grew up in the suburbs of North New York, and on the contrary did not have a Jewish community around him. It wasn’t until he went to college that he met other friends from a similar background to him. When he met Yudit and her group of childhood friends, he was shocked and slightly jealous that they had experienced growing up so proud to be Jewish and speaking Russian. He moved to Israel for medical school at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. By his second year, Yudit had convinced him to run a mentorship group for highschoolers in Sderot interested in going into medicine. Together they share a deep connection of the importance of having a strong Jewish community around you to give back to it through education, and support.

After 3 years of living in Israel, Harrison and Yudit moved back to the United States to return to their hometowns and families. In 2021, they got engaged and began to plan their wedding. Having it in Israel was an immediate and obvious decision for both of them. Israel was a place so dear to their hearts for many different reasons. Harrison became a true Tel Aviv local and knew the city’s best food spots, gyms, bars, and even motorcycle shops better than anyone. Yudit’s experience was very different, where she spent her time primarily teaching young children in Sderot and blending in as a southern local. Finding a wedding venue halfway between their two homes was key.

Yudit and Harrison hoped their wedding would not only bring people to celebrate their marriage but also to celebrate their favorite place- Israel. Their wish was to give all of their childhood, camp, school, and college, and work friends a chance to visit Israel and experience the joy it has to offer. They were pleased to welcome about 25 first time visitors to Israel, 80 returning visitors from the US, and around 100 Israelis- around 60 of them being Boston Sderot camp alumni campers/counselors. This was an opportunity for their communities to unite and learn about each other's cultures and traditions together. There were Ashkenazi American Jews, Moroccan Israeli Jews, Jews who escaped the former Soviet Union, young Jews who were initially less connected to their roots, and non-jews. It was very important for them to have a traditional Jewish wedding, under a Huppa.. Coincidentally, it also happened to be the 5th night of Hanukkah- which in Jewish tradition is the first night that there is more light than dark. Their ceremony was the first ever Jewish wedding ceremony attended by many of the guests, as well as a Hannukah candle-lighting.

There was a strong presence of guests who were connected to Camp RSM, Camp Boston Sderot and Russian Jewish Community Foundation, where many reunited with their old camp counselors and campers from years past.The event showed how really strong and powerful our connections and friendships formed through volunteering in Israel. Yudit and Harrison hope to inspire the generations ahead to follow in their path and celebrate their roots and heritage, and give back to the community. It was very important for Yudit to have this huge piece of her life represented. Their wish certainly came true being able to host 200 beloved guests in central Israel, during the holiday of lights, with their families, friends, campers, counselors, teachers, and students.