Left: A woman inspects matzot at the end of one of two conveyor lines operating in the bakery. The sign on the wall advises workers to “Strictly observe the rules of technical safety.” Below: The matzot are hand-packed in boxes Cartons of matzot are stored in the basement of the synagogue. Here they are loaded on a truck for distribution in a distant area of Ukraine. At the same time, a clerk in the synagogue sells individual boxes to Kyiv Jews and those who come into the Ukrainian capital from other cities.

As noted, Rabbi Bleich often appears to be preoccupied with the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine (????????? ???????????? ???????) and the Kyiv Municipal Jewish Community (???????? ??????? ????????? ???????). The former is a national umbrella organization with three major obstacles to its effectiveness. First, it lacks a single credible lay leader able to mobilize the Jewish population and to generate the financial support necessary to maintain and advance key Jewish institutions, such as synagogues, schools, community centers, and welfare services. Rabbi Bleich would like to fashion the Confederation in the image of the Russian Jewish Congress, but a Ukrainian counterpart to Vladimir Gusinsky, the leader of the RJC, has yet to emerge. (Three oligarchs -- Yehven Chervonenko and Serhy Maximov, both of Kyiv, and Yefim Zviahilsky of Donetsk -- currently serve as co-chairmen of the Confederation.)

Second, the Confederation lacks an Executive Director (?????????????? ????????) who is able to work with the various Confederation constituencies and is untainted by financial scandal. The participation of Yosif Zissels, a hero during the Soviet period and now the Executive Director of the Confederation, may have been necessary for the launching of the Confederation, but his leadership style is inappropriate for the needs of contemporary Jewish organizational life. Although his lack of professionalism has reduced his authority in the organization, he has declined to respond to suggestions that he resign from his current position.

Third, rabbis and communities associated with the Ukrainian representation (????????????????? ? ???????) of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the C.I.S. (????????? ????????? ????? ???), an umbrella group for most Chabad-associated organizations in Ukraine, have declined to affiliate with the Confederation. With rabbis in 13 different Ukrainian cities, including the three major Jewish population centers of eastern Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Donetsk) and the port city of Odessa, FJC is a major force in Ukrainian Jewish life. Although invited by Rabbi Bleich to join the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, it has refused to do so. The absence of these rabbis and their institutions from the Confederation has diminished the credibility of the latter as an umbrella organization. FJC reluctance to join the Confederation appears to originate in personal and political needs of certain FJC foreign sponsors. In time, the shortsightedness of these benefactors may be overcome, at least in part, by the ambitions of indigenous lay leaders from some of the affected cities who are becoming active in the Confederation with the tacit approval of FJC-associated local rabbis.

3. The office of the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine (??’??????? ?????????? ?????????? ??????????? ???????) is located in Rabbi Bleich’s synagogue. Evgeny Ziskind, its Executive Director, is supervising a program in which $200,000 provided by the government of Sweden is being used to build and operate kosher kitchens and dining halls for impoverished Jewish elderly in existing small city synagogues and other community structures. (15) Mr. Ziskind stressed that this approach is designed to strengthen community institutions, whereas the Joint Distribution Committee approach, which usually focuses on the provision of lunches in commercial non-kosher restaurants, does little to support Jewish communal life. The JDC approach, said Mr. Ziskind, has led to antagonism between local heseds and religious communities.

Whenever possible, continued Mr. Ziskind, the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations works with local religious communities to install the kitchens and dining halls in synagogue buildings. These facilities can be used for other synagogue programs as well and will help to develop the synagogues as real communal centers. If an existing synagogue structure cannot accommodate a kitchen and dining hall for at least 20 individuals, then the religious community rents an appropriate building in which dining services can be accommodated; such rentals usually are inexpensive in small towns. Once the kosher kitchen and dining room are established, whether in a synagogue or in a separate structure, a meals-on-wheels program also is developed.

In response to a question concerning JDC reluctance to participate in this program, Mr. Ziskind said that JDC prefers that the local hesed retain control over all Jewish welfare services and that JDC is reluctant to pay for the conversion of non-kosher kitchens into kosher facilities. Replying to another question about UJRO plans to continue the program after the Swedish funds are depleted, Mr. Ziskind said that it is likely that JDC will assume support, although JDC may decline to offer kosher meat.
As for Kyiv, said Mr. Ziskind, the priority is raising $20,000 to renovate the Shekavitskaya street synagogue basement and strengthen its foundation. Once that task is completed, fundraising will begin for development of a Jewish community center on adjacent property. (16) At least one wealthy Jew in Kyiv has promised significant support for this project. Construction will not begin until a minimum of $100,000 has been raised.

15. Sweden and other European governments are providing funds through the European Jewish Congress for programs designed to aid elderly east European Jews in areas with large numbers of Holocaust survivors. Such funding is related to Nazi gold seized by these governments after World War II. Jewish communal organizations in eastern Europe and the post-Soviet states submit proposals to participating countries; the European Jewish Congress evaluates and establishes priorities for the various proposals, but the individual countries retain the right to select the projects that they wish to fund.

16. See the writer’s A Winter Visit to Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv, January 27 – February 8, 2000, p. 25