OMSK, RUSSIA, September 9, 2003: During Soviet times, Tsylyana Gorbunova and friends met discreetly every week in the rooms of Omsk’s Red Star Stadium in the early morning hours to secretly fulfill their spiritual needs. The group sat on shabby carpets and practiced a forbidden form of meditation called yoga. Three decades later, Gorbunova’s expertise in yoga is helping to kick start her latest spiritual endeavor in Judaism. Since 2001, the director of Omsk’s Hesed center has used yoga to attract the city’s highly assimilated senior citizens. “The Jewish center is primarily religious, and according to the Torah, we Jews have to be healthy. So we picked this path of yoga to bring them closer to Jewish culture. The most important thing isn’t to talk about health but to implement,” says Gorbunova, 55, who was a doctor and social worker during the Communist era. After changing into 1980’s-style athletic attire, the women lie down on their own rugs and begin stretching in tandem. Over the next hour they choose a few dozen exercises. Some are designed to ease their breath, others to relax their bodies. All participants swear yoga has reduced their health problems, which include osteoporosis, high-blood pressure and excess weight.
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