JERUSALEM—The first Conservative rabbi to serve in the Ukraine will be ordained this week.

Reuven Stamov, 38, a native of the Crimea, Ukraine, on Feb. 3 will be the 82nd rabbi to be ordained by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary. Following his ordination, Stamov, his wife and two young daughters will return to the Ukraine, where he will serve as the first rabbi from the Conservative movement in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, according to the seminary.

By the age of 23, Stamov completed his master’s degree in mechanical engineering in Ukraine, but could not find a job in his field and instead took a job as a guide in a local Jewish youth club, despite negligible knowledge of Judaism and the history of the Jewish people

He later worked at the Ramah-Ukraine summer camps sponsored by Schechter’s Midreshet Yerushalayim Jewish enrichment programs for Jews in the FSU.

Stamov made aliyah in 2003 with his wife, whom he met at a Midreshet Yerushalayim Jewish community school where he was teaching. Soon after, he began rabbinical studies at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary.