Asher Samusenka
Belarus: Part 6 of our International Students Series
Freshman Asher Samusenka grew up in a small, non-religious village in Belarus called Gomel. Born to a secular family, his first taste of Yiddishkeit came at eleven years old, when he attended a Yad Yisroel-sponsored camp geared to Soviet Jewish children. The camp brought Asher closer to his Jewish heritage, which is why he decided to move to Pinsk at age fourteen to attend the Stoliner yeshiva there. “The school had 30 boys and 30 girls…a few synagogues… a couple Jewish families, a kosher store, and a kindergarten. If you wanted to learn more after school, you could learn with the American bachurim who came to learn at the kollel.”
Did he like it? Asher smiles. “I only went home on vacation.”
Upon graduation from the yeshiva, Asher’s rav helped guide the alumni onto their next paths in life, giving the graduates the opportunity –and sponsorship—to settle down in various other countries abroad to continue their higher education in a frum, supportive environment.
Asher joined many of his friends in America—to Beth Medrash Govoha’s Russian branch, Tal Torah, in Lakewood. But it was somewhat hard to go from two Limudei Kodesh classes a day—which is what he was doing in his Pinsk yeshiva—to learning full time. “It was hard to adjust; it was a whole new world.” When he heard about LCM from several Pinsk alumni friends, he decided to give it a shot.
“I wanted to get a degree, get a normal job and become successful. I think this is the opportunity, and the right time in my life, to do so. And to be religious and grow up in a more Jewish environment, you need to be out of the country. Not a lot of people are religious in Russia, these days. There’s no such thing as a part-time college with half-day learning and half-day college.”
Every summer since he’s left Russia, Asher returns back to Pinsk to do kiruv at the same camp that made him frum. “The kids are so simple, so innocent. They’ll say, I’ll learn 30 pesukim just for one candy! I’ll say 30 mishnayos! It makes me so happy to see.”
But although he loves going back to do kiruv, Asher is set on living in America for “more opportunities.” “To be religious, it’s so much easier here. It’s almost impossible to not be able to keep kashrut!”
Major: Marketing and Management
Biggest difference between Russia and America? “People are tough back there. They’re nicer here.”
Advice to international students? “Find out what you want to be in life, and who you want to be, and pursue that goal. Make it happen.”
