The Jewish community center Rimon in Almaty held a ceremony to honor the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the labor front, and the war in Afghanistan. The ceremony was timed to the anniversary of the Great Victory over Nazism.

At the opening ceremony, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Presidium Member, President of the Mitzvah Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Kazakhstan Alexander Baron underscored the important of remembering the valiance that compatriots showed in those dark times and the necessity to foster the memory of victories and tolerance.

The Jewish youth of Rimon congratulated the vterans by reading poems by Yuri Voronov (“Once more at war, once more a siege...”) and Konstantin Simonov (“Wait for me”). The choreographic collective led by Anna Yeremina did a dance routine for the veterans. Then there was a celebratory dinner with the obligatory “war 100 grams” of vodka for the veterans.

When all of the congratulations had been made, the veterans went out onto the porch for their annual photo together. “Each year our dear veterans take a group photo on the steps of ‘Rimon,’ and each year there are fewer and fewer of them in the photo. It is a matter of life and death for us to remember their valiance. It was not the state, it was not the military commanders, but them, the simple soldiers and workers of the supply lines, who stopped Nazism and liberated Europe from the “brown plague. And this is why we all bow down to them,” said Alexander Baron at the end of the event.