blogs/rabbi-joshua-hoffman

This title of a Yehudai Amichai poem captures so much of what we experienced on our first full day on the ground in Kiev.  There was a time when Jewish life thrived in this part of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.  Great study halls of rabbinic masters and vibrant centers of Jewish culture animated this often war-torn and politically tumultuous region.  Religious freedom came with the Bolshevik Revolution and many Jews became proud socialists in this seemingly free society.  They may not have practiced Judaism like their parents, but they were free to choose.  In fact, one picture we saw said it all.  It depicted a festive march of Jews through the streets of some non-descript Russian town, with a casket hoisted on the shoulders of the crowd.  The casket was for "The Shabbat."  They were free to choose not to practice religion at all.  Then the Nazis came and post-World War II Communism that virtually shut down all religious expression and cultivation of Jewish identity.  Then, identity was thrust upon the Jews and shipped off on trains to crematoria or shot into ditches.   They have always identified as Jews, but practice and culture were all but extinguished under the Soviet regime.  Today, now 20 years after Glasnost and Perestroika, there is a nascent Jewish community growing.  You can feel it like I did even sitting on the airplane heading into the Kiev airport.  When the man sitting next to me saw my kippah, he told me he loved Israel, that his parents were Jews, and that he was an atheist.   We'll come to learn loving Israel means loving Jews and Judaism, and his enthusiasm to share his identity with me, is a radical change from the era of refusniks and the looming threat of KGB.

Our first experiences of Jewish life in Ukraine took place as our group was divided into teams to make home visits.  We were assigned to meet Lev.  Lev, a 98 year old shut-in, opens the door with a wide smile and invites us into to his 450 square foot apartment.  It was very small!  There was small foyer for coats, a small kitchen with enough room for a table with 2 people and a bedroom/​living area that contained his bed, a display case of pictures, teacups, and some figurines, and a clothes dresser.   We sat in his room, and he on his bed.  We delivered a package of food into his kitchen, and spent some time listening to his story.

Lev spent most of his life under communist rule, so Judaism and Yiddishkeit were a novelty to him.  There were no visible signs of Jewish life in his compact apartment, but when we discussed the social program, called Hesed, organized by the JDC (Joint Distribution Committee), his smile brightened, his eyes lit up, and he simply told us Hesed was his Judaism, Hesed was his community, Hesed was his family.   Once again, the love of Israel is intended to include both the State and the idea.  Israel is viewed favorably in the Ukraine, so much so that the Ukrainian delegation to the U.N. was purposely absent during the vote to upgrade the Palestinian State to non-member observer status.  It's also been shared with us that behind every great start up company in Israel, is an Israeli finance and organization person and a Ukrainian technician.  The disproportionate amount of engineers and scientists in this country and among them a disproportionate amount of Jews lends credence to the concept.

After our in person and in depth visit we were brought to the Hesed center, where some 10,000 Jewish people like Lev are brought to the center at least once a month to socialize, learn and share, and receive a decent and healthy meal.  It isn't hard to imagine, but difficult to see in reality, that many of the Jews living in Kiev are at the poverty line; meaning by week three of a month, many elderly people have to begin rationing their medicine, food, and even essential comforts like diapers for incontinence. Hesed is the life saver, literally for these Jews in need.   The effort to help these Jews, we're told, is having a positive but challenging consequence.  The care these people receive increases their life expectancy. The longer and healthier their lives are, the more long-term assistance they will continue to need.  In a world of supportive resources stabilizing at best the present, future concerns for care are real.

But, we are not allowed to dwell on this for more than a moment as we are whisked into a bustling room of activity where pre-school children are sitting with teachers and inviting us to help them decorate masks for the Purim holiday beginning in just a few weeks!  Language is not a barrier for us and them and we communicate with the smiles and gestures of laughter and joy.  These children are at the center as part of a program called Beiteinu, which reaches into the homes of Jewish families and equally provides supportive resources and helps build Jewish identity by bringing the families together for programs around holidays, lifecycles, and social programming.

There is no organized Jewish community in Kiev yet.  There are many places where Jews can associate, but the real work is in cultivating a new generation of leadership empowered to develop structures and systems of support for these families and the aging population.   There is more than possibility here.  There is a sense of hope and possibility that Jewish life can and must be vibrant for these people.  Indeed, it is in many respects the only place they find hope in their lives.

All this before 2 PM