Renovation of the Shekavitskaya Street synagogue is proceeding as planned. The foundation has been reinforced and the basement has been renovated to accommodate a smaller synagogue, offices, a conference room, and a store selling kosher food and ritual items. Rabbi Bleich anticipates that all of this space will be occupied within the next several weeks. The roof of the synagogue will be removed shortly after Yom Kippur so that 100-year old beams can be replaced and a third floor will be added to the structure. A new roof will be installed. It is expected that this process will require two months.

The synagogue building will be extended in a rearward direction, with new space providing for additional offices and lavatory facilities. The wooden building to the left of the synagogue will be replaced; it will host a yeshiva and hostel accommodations for students and visitors to the community. When funding becomes available, Rabbi Bleich intends to construct a small Jewish community center on land available to the right of the synagogue. The kosher dining hall for needy elderly Jews that currently exists in a second-floor space behind the synagogue will be moved to the new community center.8

The Makor Jewish community center, which existed in a centrally located downtown building for some years under Rabbi Bleich’s sponsorship, closed last June when the owner of the structure sold the premises.9 It will be replaced by a small former synagogue in the center of the city, which was returned to the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine (Об’єднання іудейських релігійних організацій Украіни) in September. Known as Bais Yaakov, the synagogue had been used as a cafeteria by an adjacent factory. Although the two-story building requires substantial renovation, including a new roof, a Shabbat minyan has been meeting in its ground floor premises for some months and several community groups are already using the second floor for meetings and activities.

3. Eli Yitzhaki, the Chief of Mission of Jewish Agency for Israel operations in Ukraine, had completed a three-year tour during the summer and had expected to return to Israel at that time. However, the Jewish Agency (also known as JAFI or by the first word of its Hebrew name, Sochnut) had not yet settled on a successor for Mr. Yitzhaki so he remained in Kyiv through September.

The primary mission of JAFI is promotion of aliyah, i.e., immigration of Jews to Israel. A secondary goal is strengthening of Jewish identification in the local Jewish population. After a brief discussion with the writer about meetings to be held with the medical delegation, Mr. Yitzhaki reviewed current figures for Ukrainian aliyah.

Aliyah from Ukraine and Moldova, he said, currently is 40 percent lower than it was at this time last year.10 By the end of 2001, between 15,000 and 16,500 people from Ukraine and Moldova will have emigrated to Israel, predicted Mr. Yitzhaki; the JAFI workplan had projected aliyah for 2001 to be about 20,000. Three shiploads of Jews will sail from Odesa to Israel in September, he said; each of the voyages is overbooked.11

The most important reason for reduced aliyah, said Mr. Yitzhaki, is that the economic situation here in Ukraine has improved, especially in some of the larger cities where the Jewish population is concentrated. Jews are feeling more optimistic about their ability to maintain a reasonable lifestyle in Ukraine. On a regional level, Jews in western Ukraine look toward and identify more closely with Europe than with Israel or the Jewish people; many who emigrate from this area are attracted to Germany.

The “situation” in Israel also is a deterrent to aliyah, continued Mr. Yitzhaki. Parents now are reluctant to permit their children to participate in Na’aleh, the popular high school in Israel program or in the various university and other programs that heretofore have appealed to young adults. Although the plan for 2001 was to send 600 adolescents and young adults to these programs, only 400 actually enrolled.

Another reality is that the aliyah pool has diminished. The Jewish antecedents of many who now apply for aliyah are highly questionable. The Embassy of Israel investigates the backgrounds of all applicants and now denies immigration visas to many candidates.

Many Jews who live in smaller cities and towns in the periphery are migrating internally to larger Ukrainian cities, rather than emigrating to Israel. The emergence of a housing market in Ukraine is facilitating such internal migration. In response, JAFI is closing its offices in about 10 small cities, such as Lutsk , Slavutych, and Shpola.12

Another major deterrent to aliyah, said Mr. Yitzhaki, is the employment and housing situation in Israel. As long as Jews have work and a decent apartment here in Ukraine, many will remain in the country rather than face unemployment and a tight housing market in Israel.

Jewish Agency activity in Ukraine during 2001-2002 will focus on enhancing the Jewish identity of the remaining Jewish population, said Mr. Yitzhaki. JAFI will offer various programs for families in which parents and children can participate together; Jewish cultural and identity-building activities will be featured. The Agency will collaborate with Jewish pre-schools in Lviv, Kyiv, and Dnipropetrovsk in a new effort to reach young families and assist the pre-schools in working with these families to strengthen their Jewish identities and reinforce the Jewish values to which children are exposed in Jewish educational settings.

In another development, JAFI in Ukraine is hosting groups of Israeli high school students on traditional class trips to Auschwitz. Previously, almost all such groups began the European segments of their journeys in the Czech Republic, visiting Holocaust sites there en route to Poland. However, Holocaust sites in Ukraine now are seen as a suitable alternative to the Czech locations. Mr. Yitzhaki suggested that the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago discuss this option with appropriate individuals in its Project 2000 communities in Kiryat Gat/Lachish/Shafir, noting that the first Israeli high schools to send their students to Ukraine are those in other low-income cities, Beersheva and Arad.13


Eli Yitzhaki, Chief of Mission of Jewish Agency operations in Ukraine, was scheduled to complete his term in Kyiv in June 2001. However, because JAFI was unable to name a successor in a timely manner, Mr. Yitzhaki remained at his post in the Ukrainian capital in September. Here he poses with “Ervinke,” a likeness of him made by Kyiv JAFI staff prior to his scheduled June departure.

4. A new Jewish day school opened in Kyiv in September 2000. Its sponsor, Ohr Avner, is the educational arm of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the C.I.S., the large Chabad umbrella group in the post-Soviet states. Sponsorship of the school provides an opportunity for FJC, whose primary funder is Levi Levayev, to build a presence in the Ukrainian capital, a city that has no other FJC representation.14

8. The existing dining service, which is subsidized by the Joint Distribution Committee, accommodates 40 individuals in each of two shifts. Clients must climb an outdoor staircase to reach the facility.
9. See Notes on Jewish Community Life in Ukraine, May 2001, pp. 72-73.
10. The Kyiv office of JAFI covers both Ukraine and Moldova.
Attendance at the anniversary ceremonies and coverage of these events in the press also was affected by the terrorist attacks on targets in New York and Washington, D.C., on September 11.
11. The appeal of ship travel is that passengers are permitted to bring an unlimited amount of baggage with them, whereas they are severely limited in the amount of luggage permitted on aliyah flights to Israel. However, passage by ship to Israel is controversial because the ships are operated by Christian missionary groups.
12. Such offices are located in private apartments or in small rented premises and are managed by local Jews who have completed JAFI training courses.
13.  Israeli high school class trips to Holocaust sites are now accepted components of the curriculum in those communities with resources to pay for them. Aware that pupils in less developed areas of Israel are deprived of such experiences, a coalition including the Ministry of Education, the Jewish Agency, and private donors has begun to fund such trips for youngsters from targeted areas in the Negev region. As a participant in the coalition, JAFI is able to include Ukraine in some itineraries.
See also pp. 15-16 regarding additional meetings with JAFI.
14. Rabbi Moshe Asman, who presides over the well-known Brodsky Synagogue in Kyiv, was appointed to his position in 1996 by Tsirei Chabad (Young Chabad), an Israeli-based faction of the Chabad movement that emerged after the death of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in 1994. However, Tsirei Chabad terminated support for Rabbi Asman several years later. The most prominent current supporter of Rabbi Asman is Vadim Rabinovich, a local oligarch associated with organized crime. Tsirei Chabad continues to support a Jewish day school, known as Simcha, in the Ukrainian capital.
15.  In response to a question, Mrs. Markovich said that her parents were “not happy” and were “terrified” when the couple decided to work in Ukraine.