“Why Should Stalin Dictate When I Keep Purim?”

Raised in a home that defied Soviet oppression to transmit the truth, Rav Benzion Zilber is living proof of his parents’ supreme dedication to Torah — and of a forgotten miracle that saved millions of Jews

ATfirst glance, there’s not a lot to distinguish the third-floor apartment at 113 Sanhedria Murchevet from the surrounding ones. Located in a cluster of buildings that are home to a number of renowned talmidei chachamim, the apartment’s old-world Yerushalmi simplicity and walls lined with seforim and pictures of gedolim are what you might expect.

But come Shushan Purim, the entirely unexpected takes place here.

While the neighbors recall the Jewish people’s salvation in ancient Persia, the apartment’s owner adds something from another time and place entirely.

He takes out a shot glass and raises an unexpected toast — in Russian.