due
to a number of causes, including large-scale famine in the 1930’s.
Some scholars estimate that the Ukrainian population will decline
to 42 million by 2025.2
As
if to illustrate that a portion of the population loss is due
to poor health conditions, schools in Ukraine had been closed
for two to three weeks (the precise length dependent upon conditions
in a particular city) immediately prior to the Chicago team’s
visit due to an influenza epidemic that seemed to afflict the
entire country. In some areas, epidemics of measles and chicken
pox coincided with the outbreak of influenza.3.
1.
The Weinberg Community for Senior Living consists of two residential
facilities, one designed for assisted living and the committed
to early Alzheimer’s care. The Weinberg Community is located in
Deerfield, IL, a suburb of Chicago impoverishment, and environmental
degradation. Fully one percent of the Ukrainian population is
believed to be HIV-positive; use of contaminated narcotics syringes
is said to be the primary means of HIV transmission.
2.
Life expectancy of men and women in Ukraine is 62 and 73 years
old respectively, compared to 59 and 72 in Russia. However, after
having experienced a population decline since independence similar
to that of Ukraine, current demographic statistics show a modest
stabilization of the Russian population.
3.
Other causes of population loss in the post-Soviet states include:
aging of the population, low fertility, high death rate, alcoholism
and increasing use of narcotics, tobacco use, impoverishment,
and environmental degradation. Fully one percent of the Ukrainian
population is believed to be HIV-positive; use of contaminated
narcotics syringes is said to be the primary means of HIV transmission.
An
observer can sense an expansion of economic activity in Kyiv,
with substantial new construction and the slow but significant
growth of a middle class. Indeed, the International Monetary Fund
affirmed a 4.1 percent growth rate in the Ukrainian real gross
domestic product in 2002 and projects a 5.0 percent increase in
2003. Nonetheless, it is estimated that 75 percent of the Ukrainian
population derives their income from the proceeds of a “shadow
economy.” Further, economic conditions outside Kyiv and
several other major cities are much less favorable than those
in the national capital.
A
small group of oligarchs, i.e., individuals exercising political
and economic control, usually for corrupt or selfish purposes,
continues to dominate Ukrainian politics and economics. The Ukrainian
economy as a whole is characterized by extensive criminal activity,
domination of major sectors by organized mafia-type groups, rampant
corruption within government agencies, and thriving black markets
in many commodities. Civic activity appears to be viewed by the
state as a threat to national security; independent politicians
and journalists are subject to harassment, sometimes falling victim
to mysterious accidents. Media, especially major television and
newspapers, are controlled by the state or by oligarchs dependent
on maintaining close relationships with the state.
The
popularity of President Leonid Kuchma stands at 5.8 percent. Opposition
to his rule is widespread4, but ineffective.
He has deftly played off regional clans against each other and
weakened rising stars in his government by frequent leadership
shuffles and dismissals. Business elites are dependent upon centralized
power for the enhancement of their own assets. Mr. Kuchma is expected
to remain in his position until the next scheduled presidential
election in October 2004.
In December 2002, the Ukrainian government released statistics
from its official 2001 census. These figures list a national Jewish
population of 103,591, a figure almost identical to that of 100,000
estimated by Sergio DellaPergola and Mark Tolts of the Institute
of Contemporary Jewry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. These
estimates are interpreted by most to represent the “core”
Jewish population of the country; the “extended” Jewish
population, that is, a number including Jews who do not declare
themselves to census interviewers as Jewish and non-Jews related
to Jews, is believed to be between 200,000 and 300,000. All such
individuals are eligible to emigrate to Israel under provisions
of the Israeli Law of Return.
4.
Several large anti-Kuchma demonstrations were held in different
Ukrainian cities in 2002. On March 9, 2003, approximately 20,000
individuals (according to police estimates) gathered in downtown
Kyiv in an anti-Kuchma rally, joined by smaller groups of protesters
in more than 100 additional Ukrainian cities and towns.
The
estimate of 100,000+ Ukrainian Jews shows a steep decline from
the last Soviet census in 1989, which listed a Ukrainian Jewish
population of 487,000. The reasons for the decline are well-known:
an aging Jewish population (average age close to 60), high mortality
rate, low fertility rate, high assimilation, and massive emigration.
The current intermarriage rate is believed to be about 90 percent
in Kyiv and many other larger Jewish population centers, and the
emigration rate over the last 12 years is estimated by some as
560,000, a number that includes members of the extended Jewish
population as well as core Jews.5
The
largest Jewish population center in Ukraine is Kyiv, believed
to have an extended Jewish population between 70,000 and 100,000
individuals. Perhaps 35,000 to 45,000 Jews live in Dnipropetrovsk,
30,000 in Kharkiv, and 25,000 in Odesa. Donetsk and Kryvyy Rih
(Krivoy Rog) have Jewish populations of 10,000 to 15,000 each.
Kyiv
1.
The Great Choral Synagogue of Kyiv, perhaps better known as the
Schekavitskaya street shul or Rabbi Bleich’s synagogue,
was re-dedicated on Tuesday afternoon, March 4, 2003, after extensive
renovation. As is often the case in Kyiv, the ceremony began late,
due in part to customary heavy traffic in the city. Various dignitaries,
including the Ambassador of Israel, presented greetings, and Rabbi
Yaakov Dov Bleich, a Karlin-Stolin hasid and the Chief Rabbi of
Kyiv and Ukraine, briefly reviewed the history of the building
and thanked various mentors, contributors, and individuals involved
in the actual restoration process.
President
Leonid Kuchma, who had promised to attend the ceremony, sent word
earlier in the day that pressing matters of government would prevent
his attendance. Most Jewish leaders in the city were present,
including Chabad rabbis and others who might be considered ‘rivals’
of Rabbi Bleich. The proceedings in the synagogue were followed
by a festive dinner at a downtown hotel.6
5.
The intermarriage rate in Dnipropetrovsk, perhaps the strongest
Jewish community in all of the post-Soviet successor states, is
estimated by some to be significantly lower.
For
general English-language observations on Ukrainian Jewish demography,
see Joseph Zissels, “Community Development Process in Ukraine,”
Jews of Euro-Asia, #1 (June–August, 2002), passim. Mr. Zissels
also has written a detailed Russian-language analysis of the 2001
Ukrainian census related to the Ukrainian Jewish population; see
his monograph Динамика численности еврейского населения Украины,
December 2002.
6. The six-person Chicago delegation attended the synagogue ceremony
and the hotel dinner at the invitation of Rabbi Bleich.
Originally constructed in 1895, the synagogue remained open during
most of the Soviet period, although its operations were restricted.
A large and thoroughly renovated prayer hall occupies most of
the ground floor. Modern stained-glass windows in the prayer hall
and lobby add a contemporary touch to an otherwise very traditional
design. The basement level includes a smaller prayer hall, several
community offices, and a small store selling kosher food products,
ritual items, and a modest number of gift items. The second floor
includes the women’s balcony and additional office space.
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The
façade of the portion of the synagogue that faces
Schekavitskaya street is seen at left. Access to the building
is usually gained through doors on the side (below) and
the rear of the structure. The primary color of the building
is ochre.
One
side of the building opens on to a paved square and a small
park; another community building will be constructed in
the park in the near future. (See below.) To the rear of
the synagogue is a structure housing a bakery that produces
almost all matzot consumed in Ukraine, Moldova, and some
areas of Belarus and Russia. A third building, which awaits
renovation, accommodates a yeshiva and student dormitories.
The complex is sur-rounded by a wrought-iron fence; the
portion facing the street is decorated with Jewish motifs.
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(Photos are from the publication [Kyiv Municipal Jewish
Community], 2003.)
The
primary funder of the renovation project is Eduard Shyfrin, a
native of Ukraine who now resides mainly in Israel and England.
Sergei Maximov, the head of VA Bank in Ukraine, also contributed
a substantial portion of the reconstruction costs. Several other
individuals contributed $50,000 each. Mr. Shyfrin and Mr. Maximov
are co-presidents of the synagogue.7
2. Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine, spoke
with the writer about various topics in two separate meetings,
the first occuring before the re-dedication of the synagogue and
the second occurring several days later. Rabbi Bleich said that
he hopes to break ground later this spring on a Jewish community
center to be located in the small park adjacent to the synagogue.
The new facility will feature a large multi-function hall on the
ground floor that will provide space for an expanded dining hall
for Jewish elderly at mid-day as well as for weddings and other
events at other times. The second floor, continued Rabbi Bleich,
will contain a kosher restaurant for the Jewish community at large,
and the third will provide guest rooms for overnight visitors
to the community. The basement will accommodate a mikveh. Some
funding has been secured for this project, said Rabbi Bleich,
and he hopes to obtain the remaining necessary funds in the very
near future.8
School
#299, the first Jewish day school in Kyiv, continues to operate
a full Jewish elementary and high school under Rabbi Bleich’s
auspices in separate buildings for boys and girls. According to
Rabbi Bleich, “about 400” youngsters currently are
enrolled in the school, a decrease in the school census from the
450 to 470 enrolled in previous years. It is no longer the largest
Jewish day school in the city, a distinction now held by the Simcha
school (see below).9
7.
The Great Choral Synagogue of Kyiv should not be confused with
the Main Choral Synagogue in the same city. The latter, which
is better known as the Brodsky synagogue, is larger and more centrally
located. Built with funds contributed by Lazar Brodsky of the
wealthy sugar industry family at about the same time as the Schekavitskaya
street synagogue, the Brodsky synagogue was confiscated by Soviet
authorities in 1926 and converted into a workers’ club.
It later became a variety theater and a children’s puppet
theater. After substantial international pressure, the Brodsky
synagogue was returned to the Jewish community in the 1990’s
and restored. Rabbi Moshe Reuven Asman, an independent Chabad
rabbi, presides over the Brodsky synagogue.
8. Rabbi Bleich has managed a JDC-subsidized
soup kitchen accommodating 40 elderly persons in each of two shifts
for some years. This service, which was operated in a kitchen
and dining hall on the second floor of a building in back of the
synagogue, was transferred to another facility in the same neighborhood
during reconstruction of the synagogue.
Kyiv already has one small kosher
restaurant, located some distance away from Podil near the Brodsky
synagogue in central Kyiv.
9. Rabbi Bleich did not seem eager to discuss the reasons for
the decreased enrollment in his school, other than to say that
Simcha enrolls many non-Jewish youngsters. School #299 accepts
only halachically Jewish pupils, i.e., children whose mother is
Jewish, whereas Simcha and several other Jewish schools accept
some youngsters from intermarried families in which the father
is Jewish. See pp. 10-13 for information about the Simcha school.
A
second Jewish day school was opened under Rabbi
Bleich’s auspices in September 2002. Modeled on Israeli
schools for boys from very traditional Jewish homes, the school
currently enrolls 20 boys between the ages of four and 12. Youngsters
study religious subjects from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., with
all instruction offered in Hebrew; secular subjects are taught
in Russian after 2:00 p.m.
According
to Rabbi Bleich, approximately 70 percent of the pupils at the
new school are sons of (mainly foreign-born) rabbis working in
Kyiv, including youngsters from Chabad families; without such
a school in Kyiv, many rabbis and their families would return
to Israel or another country where such intensive Jewish education
is available. The school is located on the ground floor of the
dormitory that Rabbi Bleich operates for boys.
After
renting different summer camp sites for many
years, Rabbi Bleich has purchased a summer camp in the town of
Teteriv’ske, located approximately halfway
between Kyiv and Korosten (to the west of Kyiv). The camp grounds
currently include four dormitory buildings, which, in theory,
accommodate about 400 youngsters and staff. In reality, continued
Rabbi Bleich, the dormitories are better suited to accommodate
250 to 300 campers and staff.10
Rabbi Bleich said that all camp facilities require extensive renovation.
Additionally, he would like to winterize the buildings so that
groups of youngsters and families could participate in various
holiday gatherings and seminars during the winter months.11
Under current conditions, the camp is open only in the summer
and offers separate four-week sessions for boys and for girls.
Rabbi
Bleich also is attempting to strengthen the infrastructure
of his community. A younger Gerer hasid has been appointed to
do much of the traveling and international fundraising for Rabbi
Bleich’s various programs, thus enabling Rabbi Bleich himself
to spend more time in local community-building, including fundraising.12
Rabbi Bleich also intends to engage a new executive director for
the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, a national
umbrella organization with an extensive agenda in community organization,
community relations, Jewish education, recovery of Jewish property
confiscated during the Soviet period, and representation of the
Ukrainian Jewish population in various international Jewish forums,
including the European Jewish Congress.13
10.
Many summer camps are available for rent in Ukraine and other
post-Soviet states. During the Soviet period, trade unions and
other organizations offered heavily-subsidized summer camping
experiences for the children of their members. Following the collapse
of the Soviet Union and its institutions, most camps closed. Typically,
Soviet summer camps provided sleeping accommodations in large
dormitory buildings, rather than in the small cabins characteristic
of American summer camping.
11. As of early March 2003, no funding had been identified for
renovation of the camp.
12. Observers applauded Rabbi Bleich’s belated efforts to
spend more time in Kyiv, but some question whether a young hasid
in traditional Gerer clothing can be an effective representative
for the Kyiv Jewish community in meetings with potential donors
in Western countries or with officials in international Jewish
organizations, such as the European Jewish Congress.
13. The effectiveness of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine has
been limited, due to inadequate funding, poorly trained professional
staff, lack of lay leadership, and the refusal of Chabad rabbis,
who dominate Jewish leadership in Ukraine, to participate in its
activities.
The
Kyiv Municipal Jewish Association is an umbrella
organization covering a number of Kyiv Jewish programs, including
Rabbi Bleich’s synagogue, his schools and a yeshiva, a women’s
club, a Jewish newspaper, and several projects in cooperation
with the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee. In general, acknowledged Rabbi Bleich,
this organization has been neglected as he has focused his attention
on the Confederation.14
Regarding
recovery of Jewish property confiscated
by the state during the Soviet period, the Confederation
has received a grant from the Joint Distribution Committee
to examine approximately 50 structures throughout the country
that were built as synagogues, Jewish schools, Jewish hospitals,
and for other community purposes; these properties are now being
used by various state and private institutions without any compensation
to the Jewish community. The grant will enable investigators to
determine the potential of such facilities for contemporary Jewish
community use, to explore archives for ownership records, and
to undertake legal proceedings for the return of suitable properties
to the Jewish community. Rabbi Bleich emphasized that some or
many of the buildings may be determined to be of little value
to the Jewish community today and that no attempt will be made
to recover all of them.
Renovation
of the former Galitzky synagogue in Kyiv into a Jewish
community center to be operated jointly by the Kyiv Municipal
Jewish Association and the Jewish Agency for
Israel was scheduled to begin in mid-March. The facility
is to open on September 1. JAFI is paying for the renovations.15
In
response to a question about Christian missionary efforts
in the local Jewish population, Rabbi Bleich said that
there has been a visible increase in such missionary activity.
Missionary groups are even attracting some Jews who may be active
in some aspect of the Jewish community, such as families who send
their children to Jewish schools. In addition to distributing
deceptive literature, missionaries are attracting some Jews to
their religious services in return for small sums of money. Rabbi
Bleich observed that countering such missionary work requires
the efforts of the entire organized Jewish community, including
Chabad; he would be pleased to work with Chabad in such an endeavor.
Most missionary groups that he has observed, said Rabbi Bleich,
are associated with American Southern Baptists.
3. The Chicago group made an early evening visit to the girls’
dormitory operated by Rabbi Bleich. The girls’
and boy’s dormitories are located in separate buildings,
each of which was used previously as a preschool. Both have undergone
significant remodeling for conversion to residential use; 45 boys
and 35 girls between the ages of six and 17 are accommodated in
the two facilities. Further renovation would permit additional
youngsters to be lodged in these buildings, but funding is not
yet available for such work.
One
wing of the building has been renovated into premises containing
small bedrooms, each accommodating two or three girls, with an
attached full bathroom. Until additional financial resources are
available, the other girls reside in former classrooms, each with
as many as six beds. A large dining hall and several activity
rooms also are available to the youngsters.
Three
girls in the girls’ dormitory sit on a bed in one
of the small bedrooms. Younger girls are well-supplied with
dolls, stuffed animals, and other toys. Older girls have
decorated their rooms with photographs and other items common
to adolescents.
Youngsters
in the dormitories are provided with room, board, basic
medical care, clothing, and tutoring. They attend School
#299 and participate in various recreational activities
on Sundays and during vacation periods.
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According to Rabbi Bleich and to caregivers, many youngsters in
the dormitories are from single-parent families in which the custodial
parent is unable to care for her child due to alcoholism, narcotics
addiction, severe poverty, or another condition. Some parents
are in prison. Several youngsters are in the custody of one or
more grandparents who find it difficult to cope with the needs
of active growing children. Some children have been sent from
more-or-less functional families in small towns, where schools
are inferior, to learn in Kyiv where opportunities are significantly
greater.
Rabbi
Bleich readily acknowledges that some youngsters enter the dormitories
with significant health problems. Others require skilled psychological
counseling, which, said Rabbi Bleich, is not currently available
in Kyiv.
4. Upon receipt of a significant grant from the Harry
and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation of Baltimore, Rabbi
Bleich has begun work on completion of an assisted living center
for elderly Jews.18 Originally
planned by a developer as an ordinary apartment building, Rabbi
Bleich obtained the structure several years ago and has been searching
for funds to convert it into a supportive living facility. The
Weinberg grant will enable Rabbi Bleich to complete the project
before the end of 2003; the first residents may move into the
building during the summer.
The
facility is six stories high and includes a total of 74 one- or
two- room apartments, most on floors two through five; each unit
includes a private bathroom and most will have a kitchenette.
It is anticpated that two people will live in each apartment,
although some units may house only one individual. The ground
floor includes a kitchen and dining hall, a community room, a
day center for residents and non-resident elderly, a suite of
medical offices, several additonal apartments for elderly clients,
and a large apartment for the building manager. The sixth floor,
which is smaller in area than the other floors, will include an
auditorium, fitness center, infirmary, several hotel-type rooms
for visitors, and office space.
14.
The effectiveness of the Kyiv Municipal Jewish Association is
limited for the same reasons.
15. This project is discussed in some detail in the author’s
A Brief Visit to Jewish Communities in Ukraine October 30 –
November 8, 2002, p. 37.
16. An anti-missionary organization known as Magen (Shield) has
had some success in countering Christian missionary activity among
Russian-speaking Jews. Associated with Chabad, the offices of
Magen are located in Moscow. Representatives of Magen have traveled
to Kyiv and have undertaken occasional work in Ukraine.
17. As noted, facilities in the boys’ dormitory also accommodate
the new school for boys from religiously observant families. In
a similar manner, a wing of the girls’ dormitory is used
for a preschool day program. In previous years, the combined census
of the two dormitories has reached almost 120.
18.
The Jewish Agency for Israel was instrumental in securing the
grant from the Weinberg Foundation.
The
supportive living facility for Jewish elderly is seen at right
in a photo provided by the Jewish Confederaration of Ukraine.
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