Temple Shalom is in Zvenigorodka.  "Where?" you say.  That's not how to spell Succasunna.   Nevertheless it is true.  That Temple Shalom is our sister congregation in Zvenigorodka, Ukraine.  It is a remarkable story . . .

Ten members of Temple Shalom, Succasunna, New Jersey, traveled to Ukraine over Memorial Day weekend, 2000 to bring a Torah scroll to the Zvenigorodka Jewish community.  [Note: need information on how the trip came to be.  What motivated bringing a Torah there?]  Zvenigorodka is a small town approximately three and a half hours drive southwest from Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. 

The Reform movement is referred to as the “Progressive” movement throughout Europe The Jews of Zvenigorodka had established a Progressive congregation shortly after the Republic of Ukraine broke free of the Soviet Union in the mid 1990s.

The congregation had successfully petitioned the government for the return of a building that had been a synagogue prior to the Nazi occupation of Ukraine during World War II.  Used as a stable by the Nazis and as an eye clinic by the Soviets, the building was in disrepair, but it nonetheless served as a magnet for the reborn Jewish community of Zvenigorodka.

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