In October 2007, a group of congregants from Temple Isaiah traveled on a Jewish Heritage tour of Eastern Europe and St. Petersburg. The highlight of this trip to the former Soviet Union was the presentation of a Torah Scroll to the progressive congregation in Grodno, Belarus. With 70 children in their cheder, and no Torah for a Bar Mitzvah, our gift was greatly anticipated. Congregants celebrated with dancing and singing alongside of Rabbi Grisha Abramovich and the Grodno community on Simchat Torah. Our congregants explored Jewish life, past and present, in Eastern Europe, from Warsaw to St. Petersburg and many communities along the way, including Minsk, Vilnius and Riga. Led by our Rabbi Emeritus Robert Gan and Sheila Gan, they returned to places from which our ancestors fled because of pogroms at the turn of the century, places where Jewish life was destroyed during the Holocaust. Thanks to this trip, Isaians had the wonderful opportunity of enriching Jewish life by their presence, their encouragement and by sharing the gift of Torah.