Mar 3, 2008 -- Moshe Wasserman, a student at Yeshiva University High School for Boys/Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (YUHSB), found the house that his grandmother grew up on in Pinsk. Principal Ya’akov Sklar found headstones bearing his family’s name at the site of the Jewish cemetery in Grozhov. Eleventh-grader Eric Suss heard the long-gone echoes of Torah learning at the Volozhin Yeshiva, now crumbling and empty. Although they had never visited Lithuania and Belarus before, the high school students and staff on the inaugural Julius Wrubel zt"l International Service Mission felt like they were reclaiming a piece of their memories during their winter intersession trip. “We could feel the holiness of the place at the Volozhin Yeshiva,” said Suss. “We sang and danced in memory of the learning that took place there. It was the most powerful part of the trip for me.” Six students—accompanied by Principal Sklar and Daniel Schuval, director of special programs—explored the region through its Jewish, historical, and political lenses. The program was run in conjunction with Yeshiva and University Students for the Spiritual Revival of Soviet Jewry (YUSSR), an organization based on YU's campus that aims to foster a sense of Jewish identity among Jews of the former Soviet Union. To see photos from the trip, click here. The group visited Vilna, Minsk, Pinsk, Radin, and Volozhin, where they ran educational programs for youth groups, met with Jewish community leaders to learn more about the challenges confronting Eastern European communities, and visited local synagogues for daily prayers and additional learning programs. They also visited yeshivot in Radin and Pinsk. “The program gave the boys an opportunity to spread their knowledge and commitment to Judaism and chesed by impacting the world around them, educating other Jews through their knowledge, and fulfilling the mitzvah of tikkun olam [healing the world],” Mr. Schuval said. Despite the language barrier, the students interacted with the youth at the YUSSR Lauder Lech Lecha Youth Center in Minsk. “We didn’t know if we’d be able to communicate with the kids who came to the Sunday school program,” Ari Schaffer said. But the 11th-grader took out his guitar and soon the two groups were singing Hebrew and Russian songs together. “It was touching to see so many kids learning about Judaism in a place that was devoid of Judaism only 50 years ago,” Schaffer said. The trip was funded by YUHS board member Harvey Wrubel, in memory of his father, Julius. “My father studied at a yeshiva but because of financial circumstances during the Depression, he had to go out to work,” Mr. Wrubel said. “He would have loved to have remained at the yeshiva. This gift, which is an opportunity to impart the values of Torah Umadda, is a blessing to his memory and others.” Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, head of school, described the trip as an opportunity for the students to engage in the world in a compelling, thoughtful, and deliberate manner. "Sometimes school is just school but this was an incredible transformative journey for the boys that they will never forget," he said. The Julius Wrubel z”l Internation Service Mission will be held annually to various countries around the world. For more information, please contact Mindy Schachtman at 212-960-5279.