Emma Mamayeva, a concert pianist trained at the Moscow Conservatory, acknowledged that in Russia, she knew she was Jewish but had heard of just two Jewish holidays: Passover and Rosh Hashana. She spoke neither Hebrew nor Yiddish. Only when she left the former Soviet Union and settled in New Jersey in 1992 did she begin learning about Judaism.

It is a background she shares with thousands of immigrants from the FSU who came to the United States in a wave of immigration in the 1980s and 1990s. And while they settled here with the help of the local Jewish community, relatively few have affiliated with synagogues.

Hoping to counter that trend, Mamayeva and five other immigrant musicians will perform “A Night of Stars: Music and Songs,” a concert at Temple Beth Ahm in Springfield, on Saturday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m.

The concert is the second major event of a new outreach effort at Beth Ahm organized by Genya Mallach, wife of the Conservative synagogue’s Rabbi Mark Mallach, to attract local Russian Jews to established synagogues.

Last fall, a wine and cheese party in the sukka, the group’s first event, attracted 50 Russian immigrants. A handful have begun attending weekly Jewish education classes taught by Rabbi Mallach.

Genya Mallach, herself a Russian immigrant, understands their mindset.

“They have strong Jewish identities,” she said, but their Jewishness stems from pride, cultural attachments, and experience with anti-Semitism. They have little experience with the religious or spiritual side of Judaism, she said. Synagogues are “intimidating” places.

“They are raised as atheists. Those people without any background, without any basic education, you cannot say to them, ‘Come to shul to pray.’”

Mallach recounted the story of one woman who came to synagogue and was handed a siddur.

“She opened the book and threw it down. It scared her,” she recalled. “It looked holy, but she thought it was Christian. She thought people were trying to convert her.”

Mallach described outreach to Jews from the FSU as “delicate.”

“You have to bring them in through the back door,” she said.

Mallach feels the newcomers deserve to have their heritage returned to them; they need, however, a nonthreatening portal. “They were stripped of their identities,” she said.

Anna Suffir, one of the performers at the March 10 concert, agrees. Like Mallach, she found Judaism here through her husband, an Orthodox Jew from Libya. (They met in Italy, where she was en route to the United States from Lvov. He followed her here.) “I had rabbis in my family, and I knew nothing when I left Lvov,” she said. She has enjoyed embracing Jewish traditions and has raised her family with them. In fact, she has become a touchstone for Jewish experience for her extended family in the United States. A longtime member of Beth Ahm, she hosts her family for all the Jewish holidays and said it was her influence that made her nieces and nephews request celebrating becoming b’nei mitzva.

The first half of the March 10 program will feature selections from the classical canon, including works by Chopin, Liszt, and Verdi. The second part will offer an eclectic mix of folk songs, show tunes, and popular songs. In addition, Suffir, whose father’s family was murdered at Babi Yar, will recite poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poem “Babi Yar” in Russian and English.

Tickets to the concert cost $7 in advance and $10 at the door. For more information, call the temple at 973-376-0539.