Wartime lives, a cultural centre and a synagogue in Kostanay’s Jewish history

Jewish life in Kostanay before 2009

The Russian Jewish Encyclopedia links the early settlement of Jews in Kustanay to retired soldiers, mentions tailoring and shoemaking workshops in the late nineteenth century and the watchmaker Isay Shor. For 1910, it gives a figure of 17 residents of Jewish ancestry. Publications about this period do not describe a local synagogue, school or cemetery (Russian Jewish Encyclopedia on Kostanay).

Lipe Reznik’s literature and his final years in Kustanay

The life of poet, playwright and translator Lipe Reznik, who lived from 1890 to 1944, connects Kostanay with twentieth-century Jewish culture. Russian-language sources also use the form Lipa. The Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia associates him with Kyiv’s literary milieu, the teaching of Yiddish and literature, theatre and translation. It gives Kustanay as his place of death (ORT encyclopedia on Lipe Reznik).

The Sholem Aleichem Regional Scientific Library in Birobidzhan specifies that Reznik died on 5 April 1944 while evacuated. Kustanay was the last city in Reznik’s life (Sholem Aleichem Library on Reznik).

The Yiddish Book Center’s digital collection holds a Yiddish edition of Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King titled Ḳnaḳnisl un moyznḳeyser, with Reznik’s name in its catalogue record. The book was published in Kyiv by Kultur-Lige in 1922 (Yiddish Book Center catalogue).

Yefim Lishansky worked in wartime Kustanay

Director and teacher Yefim Yakovlevich Lishansky worked in Kustanay. He was born in 1905 and died in 1982. The Russian Jewish Encyclopedia records his work in the city. The Ukrainian Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine, which lists him as Юхим Якович Лішанський (Yukhym Yakovych Lishanskyi), independently confirms that he worked in Kustanay’s theatres during the Second World War (Russian Jewish Encyclopedia on Lishansky, Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine on Lishansky).

Before the war, Lishansky worked in Kyiv’s theatre and music circles; after the war, he taught for many years at the Kyiv Conservatory. Kustanay was one of his wartime places of work. The Ukrainian reference work also lists other cities, rather than limiting this period to one theatre (Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine on Lishansky).

Work, school and letters from Kyiv in the London family

Yad Vashem’s Hebrew exhibition reconstructs another Kostanay story. In 1941, Rosalia London and her son Felix were evacuated from Kyiv to Aktyubinsk; by the end of the year, they and Felix’s grandmother Anna had moved to Kostanay. Rosalia worked there, Felix attended school, and Anna helped care for the child. The family kept letters from relatives who remained in Kyiv.

Their time in Kazakhstan did not continue until emigration to Israel. In 1943, the family returned to Kharkiv, then moved to Kyiv in 1944. Felix with his family, and his mother Rosalia, moved to Israel in 1991; Felix donated family photographs and documents to Yad Vashem in 2017 (Yad Vashem on the London and Ashkenazi families).

Kostanay’s Jewish families in Soviet times

Postwar statistical figures cited by the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia give Kustanay’s Jewish population as 399 in 1959, 374 in 1970 and 316 in 1979 (Russian Jewish Encyclopedia on Kostanay).

The demographic figures do not reveal who arrived through evacuation or for work, who was born in the city or who participated in religious life. Nor do they establish the continuity of a local synagogue.

The cultural centre and Hesed preceded the 2009 building

The Russian Jewish Encyclopedia dates the Jewish cultural centre’s beginning to 1993 (Russian Jewish Encyclopedia on Kostanay).

The Mitsva archive separately lists the cultural centre, Hesed, coordination of Jewish Agency programmes and a youth club. Cooperation between local organisations and JDC or “the Joint” is dated to 1998, while the charity centre began operating in early 2002 (Mitsva archive on Kostanay Region).

The cultural centre had space in the House of Friendship on Altynsarin Street. Hesed’s historical entry lists food, home care, medical assistance, a library, volunteer work, and women’s and music clubs (Mitsva archive on the cultural centre, Mitsva archive on Kostanay’s Hesed).

One leader could connect several organisations

In March 2006, a report on a gathering of Kostanay’s community recorded the election of Pyotr Rubinstein as the cultural centre’s chair. He was already heading Hesed at that time. The meeting also elected a council and an audit commission (Jewish.ru on the chair’s election).

At a Purim celebration in the Boulevard café, children and adults took part in a performance, with flute, guitar and saxophone music (Purim in Kostanay, 2011).

The Chabad Beit Rachel synagogue opened on 2 July 2009

The new synagogue opened in Kostanay on 2 July 2009. Reports from Kazinform and the local newspaper Nasha Gazeta, published on the day, confirm the date. Citing the regional press office, Kazinform gave the building’s area as 893 square metres (Kazinform on the synagogue’s opening, Nasha Gazeta on the synagogue’s opening).

Nasha Gazeta explained that the name commemorated the mother of Alexander Mashkevich, who funded the construction. A later newspaper report on the opening also stated that the expected rabbi, Levi, had yet to arrive in the city (Nasha Gazeta on the synagogue’s opening, Nasha Gazeta on the synagogue).

The Mitsva report gives inconsistent dates: 2 July in its headline and 2 June in its opening sentence. Newspaper reports published on the day of the opening give 2 July (Mitsva archive on the synagogue’s opening).

Sources do not confirm uninterrupted synagogue operation after the opening

A Kostanayskiye Novosti report dated 1 August 2016 described the arrival of Menachem Zalmanov and his wife Dvora and reported the resumption of prayers after a six-year break. This is a journalist’s account at a specific date. It does not establish when operations stopped, the reason for the break or the legal closure of the religious organisation (Kostanayskiye Novosti on the synagogue).

Kosher meat was brought from Almaty, while Dvora baked bread herself (Kostanayskiye Novosti on the synagogue).

In September 2019, the synagogue published an account of its tenth anniversary celebrations on Nasha Gazeta’s platform. This marks the opening of the building, rather than the start of cultural and social activities in the city (The synagogue’s tenth anniversary, Nasha Gazeta).

Leadership changed after Rubinstein, and the name Mishpacha appeared

An El.kz publication in Kazakh dated 11 March 2019 reported that Pyotr Rubinstein had died in December 2018 and that Vadim Chashkov had become the ethnocultural association’s new chair. It presented Chashkov as a new leader and a participant in community life since 2004, a musician performing Jewish repertoire, jazz and popular music (El.kz on the change of chair).

An open registry aggregator lists the Mishpacha Kostanay Regional Jewish Centre, with a registration date of 23 September 2025, business identification number 250940027341 and Vadim Chashkov as its head (Mishpacha centre record).

A separate record for the former Kostanay Regional Jewish Centre gives a different business identification number, 111140019326, and a registration date of 29 November 2011. It still names Pyotr Rubinstein, although the 2019 report had already recorded his death and the change of chair (Former Jewish centre record, El.kz on the change of chair).

The former centre and Mishpacha have different business identification numbers and registration dates. The publication about Chashkov confirms a personal connection, but the available documents do not establish legal succession.

The present religious centre

Chabad Kazakhstan lists a synagogue, mikvah, dining room, library, children’s club and kosher shop at its Kostanay centre. Its team is identified as Rabbi Menachem Mendel Zalmanov, also called Mendy, and his wife Dvora. The international Chabad directory also has a separate listing for the Kostanay centre (Chabad Kazakhstan on its Kostanay centre, Chabad directory on the Kostanay centre).

Chabad Kazakhstan describes an active centre and its services; the Mishpacha registry record concerns a separate ethnocultural legal entity.

Rudny and Lisakovsk in Kostanay Region’s community materials

The old regional section of the Mitsva archive mentions Jewish communities in Rudny and Lisakovsk alongside Kostanay. This archived section does not confirm the present institutions in those cities (Mitsva archive on Kostanay Region).

ChabadInfo published an account of preparations for Rosh Hashanah and the holidays of Tishrei 5787, in autumn 2026. The meeting was initiated by Kostanay’s rabbi Menachem Mendel Zalmanov. According to the publication, participants were introduced to holiday customs and received sets for celebrations at home and materials for children; Chabad representatives also visited individual residents at home (ChabadInfo on the Rudny programme).

The publication confirms outreach work by Kostanay’s community in Rudny. It provides no count of the city’s Jewish population and does not confirm a separate synagogue or independent legal entity.