A Brief Visit To Jewish Communities In Ukraine

Recent antisemitic actions in the city, continued Mr. Brez, include incidents of “street” antisemitism against local Jews, such as bigoted comments and some physical violence. Rabbi Kaminezki himself was a recent victim of severe verbal abuse as he walked in the city. A large garbage dumpster was dragged into the playground of the community nursery school, tipped over, and emptied of its contents in the area where children play, an event that was antisemitic in its intent, Mr. Brez said. However, he added, as unpleasant as the situation is in Dnipropetrovsk, the level of antisemitism in the city is nowhere near as high as it is in western Europe.

Mr. Brez outlined progress in the development of three community facilities. The new boiler system for the Beit Baruch Assisted Living Facility (see below) is nearing completion. After many delays, renovation of the building for an expanded preschool is underway and will be completed in time for the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year. Viktor Pinchuk, a prominent local industrialist and national political figure, has made the lead gift for this project (see below). Construction of the new Holocaust Scientific-Educational Center seems to be on hold, pending ability of the Joint Distribution Committee to raise necessary funds, which Mr. Brez estimated at $4 to $6 million, for this venture.7

The Philanthropic Fund is quite pleased with the summer camp that it rents in Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov, said Mr. Brez. The camp accommodates a total of 400 youngsters in three-week sessions.

The community is preparing to receive and distribute 5000 tons of United States surplus food commodities to needy people, both Jews and non-Jews, in the region. The distribution, under the aegis of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food for Progress program, will proceed according to criteria established by the U.S. government.

Through its relationship with the Boston Jewish community, the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community continues to be the beneficiary of various forms of medical assistance which are made available to the larger Dnipropetrovsk population. Most recently, it has received a substantial amount of hepatitis B vaccine, which has been administered to infants and children in the city through polyclinics and schools.

2. Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki, Chief Rabbi of Dnipropetrovsk, is the most effective community rabbi in all of the post-Soviet states, building a community infrastructure of local programs and leadership in Dnipropetrovsk without peer elsewhere. His Chabad colleagues in other post-Soviet locales look to him for advice and, in Ukraine, for assistance in dealing with local authorities.

Rabbi Kaminezki confirmed that antisemitism was a growing force in Ukraine. Dnipropetrovsk, he said, was one of very few Jewish communities where the holiday of Lag B’Omer was celebrated in a public manner with parades last spring; other communities, fearing an antisemitic reaction, held indoor celebrations. A kipa-wearing employee of the Jewish Agency was physically assaulted by men expressing antisemitic sentiments. Rabbi Kaminezki himself also had been attacked. The increase in antisemitism, said Rabbi Kaminezki, probably reflects several factors: (1) the political uncertainty in the country, a sense of unease generated by the attacks on President Kuchma; (2) an increasing awareness that several Jewish oligarchs support Mr. Kuchma, a fact that is stressed in nationalist newspapers and in flyers distributed on street corners and similar locations; (3) rhetoric of Arab students in Ukraine; and (4) the situation in the Middle East.

Notwithstanding domestic and international opposition to President Leonid Kuchma, he will complete his term of office, which ends in 2004, said Rabbi Kaminezki. In response to a question, Rabbi Kaminezki 8 said that he is not yet in contact with other political figures. He is confident that all important politicians “understand the importance of the Jewish community.”

Rabbi Kaminezki spoke with some satisfaction of several newly active participants in the Philanthropic Fund. Alexander Zalmanovich Boyko, who is 42 years old, owns a company that manufactures high-quality railroad cars, many of which are exported. He provides significant support for the girls’ home (see below) and has created a special foundation, Fund Zalman, in memory of his father, which finances Jewish activity in many small Jewish population centers in the region. Rabbi Kaminezki said that Mr. Boyko is very creative and has many new ideas that will benefit the Jewish community.

Timur Mindich, age 23, is the youngest member of the Board of the Philanthropic Fund. Mr. Mindich owns businesses in telecommunications and real estate. He provided funding for a large community concert and celebration at Purim that featured a well-known comedienne. He also enabled the community to sponsor a Sukkot restaurant in the synagogue courtyard; the restaurant offered inexpensive high-quality meals in a festive atmosphere throughout the holiday.

Rabbi Kaminezki acknowledged that the level of aliyah had fallen, a consequence of terrorist violence in Israel. However, he said, aliyah will continue and will increase as soon as the situation in Israel improves. It would be a mistake, he said, to cut back on Israel-related programs simply because the current rate of emigration to Israel has diminished. In Dnipropetrovsk, he said, the Jewish community is placing new emphasis on teaching local Jews to speak Hebrew. Rabbi Kaminezki believes that many Jews in the area should move to Israel.

Rabbi Kaminezki said that Ilana Lipkin, the director of the Jewish Agency office in Dnipropetrovsk is very effective in her work and brings a new level of spirituality to Jewish Agency activities.9 Alex Katz, the director of Jewish Agency activity in all Ukraine, has visited Dnipropetrovsk on several occasions and also is highly respected.10

In response to a question, Rabbi Kaminezki said that prayers for Israel are said in the Jewish day school and in the synagogue. He acknowledged that such prayers do not appear in the bilingual (Hebrew/Russian) Chabad siddurim used in the synagogue, but he often includes them in services, especially now when Israel is facing such difficulties.11

3. The Beit Baruch Assisted Living Facility for elderly Jews opened in early 2002, the first dedicated housing for Jewish seniors in all of the post-Soviet states. Although the center is designed to accommodate almost 100 individuals, most in double rooms, intake has been closely regulated and, at the time of the writer’s visit, only 40 persons resided in the building.12 Two more individuals were expected to arrive within days, a man and a woman who had been living in a state home for the elderly in Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine. Rabbi Yosif Wolf, the Chabad rabbi in that city, had found the two in unpleasant circumstances and arranged for their transfer to Dnipropetrovsk.

The very deliberate intake process reflects both the inexperience of staff in operating such a program and severe problems with the heating system that have rendered sections of the building unusable. Slavik Brez, Executive Director of the Philanthropic Fund of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish Community,13 explained the heating problems to the writer. The original plan, said Mr. Brez, was to connect the facility to the city heating system, which was the practice during the Soviet period.14 However, early experience with supply of heat and hot water under control of municipal authorities was unsatisfactory; heat and hot water were unavailable much of the time. Although 40 residents could be concentrated in specific sections of the building to conserve heat, the lack of hot water forced management to install individual boilers adjacent to a small number of bathtubs as a temporary measure so that residents could bathe in sequence. As a long-term solution, it was necessary to install a large boiler system independent from that controlled by the municipality. Mr. Brez said that installation of such a system after construction of the facility had been completed was very expensive, but continued dependence on the city for heat and hot water was no longer an option. The German-manufactured boiler system is now in place, awaiting approval by municipal regulatory authorities. The process of regulatory approval is very complex, said Mr. Brez, and is delaying the provision of necessary services to residents. However, Mr. Brez is confident that approval will be granted within several weeks and that the new heating system will be fully functional by the onset of winter cold.

Other planning and funding issues also are apparent. Several large rooms in the basement intended as a fitness facility have little equipment. Medical instruments are needed for the clinic. Although overseas donors have supplied a fair amount of common non-prescription medicines, such as aspirin, no budgetary provision has been made for prescription drugs required by aging residents. When available, buses owned by the day school take residents to community events elsewhere in the city, but the residents would like their own easy-access vehicle to take them on excursions and to see physicians in clinics.15

According to Beit Baruch staff, the major requirements for admission are that the person must be elderly and одинокий (alone). Many also suffer from intolerable home conditions, such as lack of indoor plumbing or antisemitic neighbors. The average age of residents is about 80. Although many have various health problems associated with aging, almost all are capable of living independently, with some assistance, upon entry into the facility. One exception is a recently admitted woman afflicted with diabetes; the condition has caused blindness and the amputation of one leg. She is confined to a wheelchair and is accompanied by an attendant. Her need for constant care, acknowledged Rabbi Kaminezki, is generating expenses that had been foreseen in a general sense, but for which no specific budgetary provision has been made.

A social and cultural life is developing for residents. Classes in arts and crafts are offered twice weekly; evidence of individual handiwork is apparent in display areas. Classes also are held in Jewish tradition, and a small computer laboratory awaits installation. Choirs and other groups of children from the Jewish day school perform for the seniors. A foster grandparents program has been started. When transportation is available, residents are taken to Jewish community events at other venues. Most of the residents seem to socialize very easily with each other; the writer observed that several who had been newcomers and somewhat distant during her previous visit in April seemed much better integrated and much more sociable in November. In fact, one marriage among residents has already taken place at Beit Baruch.

The dining room at Beit Baruch is light and airy. Residents sit at assigned tables, including one designated for individuals with special dietetic needs (mainly deriving from diabetes). Dining room staff serve food at tables, but residents return their own dishes to a common table at the end of the meal. Dining room food is kosher, nutritious, tas-ty, and filling.16

According to manage-ment staff, some resi-dents miss the non-kosher food to which they had become accustomed during their long lives in the general community; on outings, they use their meager pensions to pur-chase non-kosher, non-perishable food that they consume on the spot or quietly bring back to their rooms.

7. See the author’s Jewish Community Life in Eastern Ukraine, April 12-28, 2002, pp. 12-13, for more information on this project. Even without its own building, the Center recently conducted a very successful international conference..
8. Most other observers, both Ukrainian and international, also believe that Mr. Kuchma will complete his term of office. Opposition forces are fragmented and poorly organized.
9. Mrs. Lipkin is religiously observant. Her four sons are enrolled in the Dnipropetrovsk yeshiva school.
10. See pp. 36-37.
11. An Israeli who attended Yom Kippur services in the Dnipropetrovsk Golden Rose Choral Synagogue told the writer that a prayer was said during the service for the well-being of Israel, although no such prayer was included in the machzor used for the service.
12. At the time of the writer’s previous visit, in April, 28 elderly Jews were living at the facility.
13. See pages 4-5.
14. Most high-quality new construction in the post-Soviet period has independent heating systems so as to avoid dependence on city authorities who turn heating on and off according to the availability of financial resources. Although a mid-October to mid-April heating season was standard in the Soviet Union, budgetary crises in several of the post-Soviet states have caused officials to delay availability of heating until mid-November and to turn it off in March. In some cities, financial shortfalls have left residents without heat in their homes for weeks on end in mid-winter. The failure of Beit Baruch planners to install an independent heating system during the initial construction process has not been explained
15. Beit Baruch is located some distance away from the city center. Although public transportation is available in the neighborhood, walking to and from bus stops probably would be difficult for many Beit Baruch residents.
16. The capacity of the kitchen to prepare meals exceeds the needs of the Beit Baruch facility to feed its residents. Jewish community officials hope that, with assistance from the Joint Distribution Committee, the community can use the kitchen to expand nutrition programs available to non-resident indigent Jewish elderly in the region. Such anticipation may not be realistic; JDC has been reducing its assistance to Jewish elderly in recent months, not increasing it.