Jewish Russia
 

I am traveling with Viking Cruises to Moscow and St. Petersburg and have a free day in each city. I am interested in a possible tour of the Jewish community in each or what is left. It is hard to tell by the guide books if there is something of great interest or merely a series of empty buildings. I also wonder if the museum in Moscow is merely a cold space of replica photos. Is there a guide or is it possible to travel unguided? Any insight please. Thanks.

It's mostly chabad or chabad affiliated nowadays, so if you search for a beth chabad and Moscow, you'd have your jewish community. Lots of Shluchim there. Chabad is very cozy with Putin.

There you go: lots of places https://www.chabad.org/centers/defau...ish/Moscow.htm

Another option
 

Jewish Moscow:
mjcc.ru/evreyskaya-moskva-en/

The Grand Chorale Synagogue in St Petersburg has an active but small community and has a restaurant next door. There is an excellent museum in the city center that few people visit, one of the most beautiful in the city, the Russian Museum of Ethnography St Petersburg‎ next to the very popular art museum State Russian Museum of Russian art, on Arts Square, 1 block from the main street, Nevsky Prospect. The section on Jewish Heritage is not about the community in SPb but in general with a large collection of early artifacts and documents. St Petersburg was the only capital in Europe where diversity of faiths were encouraged, starting with Peter the Great who built the city as a way of becoming more focused on Europe and reducing the power of the Orthodox church on state affairs. So ti was the only city where there was not a Jewish district or limits on positions in the government.

Thanks. I will put these on my itinerary

Here is a link to their web site, even with the English pages a lot of it is in Russian Russian Ethnography Museum It will be the only major museum not filled with people during the summer. There are hundreds of museums but most foreign visitors only visit the same 8 or fewer museums and Cathedrals.