This report reviews a visit by the writer to eastern Ukraine from May 20 to June 1, 2003. The cities visited include three of the five largest in Ukraine -- Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk.1 Other cities visited were Zaporizhya and Krivyy Rig in the same region.2

Collectively, more than 100,000 Jews live in this area, a number larger than that of the Jewish population living in Kyiv and the region surrounding the Ukrainian capital. Although estimates of the size of the Jewish populations in these and other Ukrainian cities vary, many observers believe that the Jewish population of Dnipropetrovsk is between 30,000 and 35,000, second in Ukraine only to that of Kyiv (perhaps 70,000 to 80,000). The Jewish population of Kharkiv may number 25,000 to 30,000, and that of Donetsk may be 14,000. The Jewish populations of Zaporizhya and Krivyy Rig probably are between 7,000 and 8,000 each.

The general population of Ukraine continues to decline, from approximately 53 million at the time of independence in 1991 to 47.8 million in mid-2003. Causes of population loss are aging of the population, low fertility, high mortality, significant substance abuse (alcohol, narcotics, tobacco), poor nutrition, inadequate medical care, impoverishment, and environmental degradation. Fully one percent of the Ukrainian population is believed to be HIV-positive. Life expectancy of men and women is 62 and 73 years of age respectively.

The Jewish population in Ukraine is declining even more precipitously than the general population. The “core” Jewish population, i.e., the number of individuals who declare themselves as Jews to census takers, is reported by both the Ukrainian government and academic specialists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem to be slightly more than 100,000. The “extended” Jewish population, i.e., core Jews as well as Jews who do not identify as Jews to census takers and non-Jews related to Jews, is believed to be between 200,000 and 300,000.3 All such individuals are eligible to immigrate to Israel under provisions of the Israeli Law of Return.

Economic conditions in Ukraine are complex and appear to be deteriorating. The gross domestic product of Ukraine was growing at an annual rate of between five and six percent at the time of the writer’s visit. However, observers estimated that the middle and upper classes together constitute only about ten percent of the entire Ukrainian population. According to Ukrainian government statistics, about 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, a cohort including most elderly people and many children. The average salary is about $52 monthly, and the average household income is about $70 monthly. Real unemployment in many large urban areas may be as high as 40 percent, and fully 75 percent of the population derives a major portion of its income from a “second” or “grey” economy. The dominance of the grey economy extracts a major toll on rural and elderly populations, neither of whom have opportunities to engage in secondary economy activity. A growth in inflation places a further burden on pensioners and others dependent on fixed incomes.

The combination of an unusually harsh winter, a hot and dry spring, and an invasion of locusts in spring of 2003 has created expectations of a 2003 grain harvest 40 percent lower than that of 2004. One press account described “frantic consumer hoarding [in late June] of flour, sugar and other basic foods amid fears of shortages in Ukraine.”4 Consumers across Ukraine were further reported to be “snapping up flour, buckwheat, sugar and pasta – sometimes intercepting it as it is unloaded from trucks . . .”. Retail prices for flour were reported to have doubled and prices for other basic staples to have risen “dramatically” in late June. The Ukrainian government promised to release grain from state reserves and to purchase food abroad in an effort to stabilize prices.

1. The capital city of Kyiv has the largest general population, estimated at 2.6 million. Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk rank second, third, and fourth with populations estimated at 1.5 million, 1.1 million, and 1.0 million respectively. Odesa, which the writer did not visit on this journey, also has a population of about one million. The general populations of Zaporizhya and Kriviy Rig are estimated at 875,000 and 715,000 respectively.
2. The writer also visited Kyiv for one day on June 2. Meetings held in that city are not recorded in this report.
3. 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
4. Associated Press, June 30, 2003, as reported in Kyiv Post Daily, July 1, 2003 [online]. See also Chicago Tribune, June 27, 2003.
5. Thomas Dine, “Free Press in Russia and Ukraine: A Key to Integration in Europe,” in Freedom of the Press 2003 (New York: Freedom House, 2003), p. 150. The report cited the following as characteristic of Ukrainian media: state censorship of television broadcasts, harassment and disruption of independent media, and failure of authorities to investigate attacks against journalists. Kyiv Post Daily, June 12, 2003, reported the stabbing of a journalist on June 11 in Dnipropetrovsk, a key Ukrainian political center and stronghold of Kuchma support.
6. See pp. 38-41.
7. Originally known as Lishkat Hakesher (Liaison Bureau) or Lishka, this entity was created in 1952 to coordinate and manage Israel government operations in the then-Soviet Union. It is attached to the Office of the Prime Minister, bypassing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
8. It is unlikely that such funding will become available through the Jewish Agency in the near future. Continued exclusion of newer day schools from Israeli funding may constitute a major community relations problem for the Jewish Agency.
9. Among the many issues facing the emerging Jewish community in the post-Soviet states is a serious lack of communal property in which to hold programs. Jewish day schools under Nativ/Hephzibah auspices generally stood empty during weekends and holiday periods, inaccessible to other community organizations seeking space for programs.