In
addition to hesed programs for senior adults, continued Mr. Botvinnik, Hesed
Graham conducts a day care program for 28 small children considered
at-risk. The youngsters are provided with three meals each day and a program
that is rich in music and other forms of cultural expression, as well as
socializing experiences. Mr. Botvinnik said that the program is very expensive
to operate because it must provide transportation to children, many of whom
live some distance away from the building.
The
Jewish community center program caters to about 1,000 individuals from
childhood through middle age, said Mr. Botvinnik. It emphasizes music, dance,
art, and various clubs or interest groups. (The writer, who visited the
facility late in the afternoon, saw several children’s ballet classes in
progress, as well as some children entering the building with musical
instruments. The writer also visited a Mazel Tov program, a group of mothers
with small children at play in a well-equipped room; in addition to providing
play experiences, the program also taught participating young mothers about
various childcare issues.)
Kyiv
Situated on both banks of the Dnipr River in
the northern part of the country, the origins of Kyiv are lost in antiquity.
It is, however, known as the “mother of all Russian cities,” long pre-dating
cities in Russia itself. Kyivan Rus – the city and territories around it - is
considered the forerunner of the modern Russian state. In 988, Prince Volodymyr of Kyiv designated
Orthodox (Byzantine rite) Christianity as the state religion of Russia and
established its seat in Kyiv. Kyivan Rus attained its greatest powers in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries when it was a trading center between the Baltic
and Mediterranean seas. Sacked by Mongols in 1240, the lands of Kyivan Rus
were successively under Tatar, Lithuanian, and Polish control from the
fourteenth century and then annexed by Russia in 1686. The third largest city
in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Kyiv was occupied and almost
completely destroyed by German forces between September 1941 and November 1943.
Now the capital of
independent Ukraine, Kyiv is the political hub of the country and an
important center of Ukrainian commerce, industry, culture, and education.
Increasingly, prominent businessmen from other parts of the country are
relocating to Kyiv in order to be close to government, national financial
institutions, and other critical national organizations. It is as well a magnet
for younger people wishing to build careers in post-Soviet Ukraine. The 2011
population of the city is estimated at 2.8 million.
Densely packed new apartment buildings
are typical of new developments on the east bank of the Dnipr River.
Photo:http://www.google.com/imgres?q=kiev+images&hl=en&sa=X&rls=com. microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&tbm=isch& tbnid=X97vp_ECxf2FhM.
Retrieved July 24, 2011.
Notwithstanding the relatively large size (26,000 to
70,000 people) of the Kyiv Jewish population, Jewish community life in
the capital remains weak and lacking in spirit. Kyiv, said one observer, is a
city of Jewish offices, but almost empty of Jewish life, as such. Rabbi
Yaakov Dov Bleich, the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine, appears to be
absent from the country on more days than he is present, and no other
individual has emerged as a leader of Kyiv Jewry. The majority of Kyiv Jews
remain aloof from all organized Jewish activity. Not only is there little
noticeable dynamic Jewish life in Kyiv itself, but the capital seems to provide
little stimulus or direction for Jewish life in the rest of the country.
Jewish Education
56. The Orach Chaim day school (School #299),
operating under the auspices of Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, is the
oldest of five Jewish day schools in Kyiv. It currently enrolls a total of about
200 pupils in grades one through 11,
a significant decline from its peak enrollment of approximately 470. Boys’
and girls’ classes meet in separate buildings, each a former preschool located
some distance from the center of the city. The general Jewish demographic
decline is but one factor in the loss of pupils; the remote locations of the
buildings, their lack of modernity, a secular curriculum that lags behind that
of elite public and new private schools, the intensity of the Orthodox Jewish
curriculum, the requirement that all pupils be halachically Jewish, and the
single-gender education model are additional significant deterrents to greater
enrollment. The need to maintain four separate buildings (schools for boys and
for girls, dormitories for boys and for girls) imposes a major financial burden
on the Orach Chaim system. The dormitories now accommodate approximately
20 youngsters, whereas they previously housed over 60 children.
Khariton Gilgur,
the veteran and respected principal of the school, expressed doubt about its
future. The frequent and protracted absences of Rabbi Bleich, he said, contribute
to a sense of drift in several of his endeavors, including the school. Among
the most problematic issues is the “antiquated” state of the school buildings;
Mr. Gilgur fears that they will fail periodic city inspections. A new stimulus
to declare one or more of the buildings unsuitable is that the municipality now
acknowledges a shortage of preschools. Authorities could force closure of an
Orach Chaim building and return it to city control; after renovation, said Mr.
Gilgur, it could be opened as a city preschool.
Municipal education authorities impose a battery of
tests to monitor student progress in city schools, said Mr. Gilgur. Orach
Chaim pupils do well on these examinations, he continued; the school even has
received academic achievement awards of new classroom technology and grants for
travel to historic sites. However, he noted, the city is not obligated to pay
salaries of teachers of secular classes with fewer than 30 pupils – and many
Orach Chaim classes have only 20. The first grade has only 18 pupils. Orach
Chaim cannot survive if it has to provide resources for the compensation of teachers
of secular subjects, as well as religious subjects.
All teachers are paid on time, said Mr. Gilgur. Some
donors pay vendors, including food purveyors, directly without going through Orach
Chaim. Mr. Gilgur is speaking with an American Jewish man who has lived in
Kyiv for many years about potential support of the school, but does not know if
this individual’s ideas would be acceptable to Rabbi Bleich.
The Jewish studies curriculum
now includes two classes (one in Hebrew and one in Jewish tradition) every day
on Monday through Thursday, but only one class on Friday due to an early
dismissal for Shabbat. Avi Chai supports several Shabbatonim every year, but
payment for these programs is made through a bureaucratic process involving the
Joint Distribution Committee. Management of the Avi Chai grant is very
expensive, said Mr. Gilgur.
Khariton
Gilgur, right, has been principal of the Orach Chaim school since it was
established in 1990.
Photo: the writer.
Most of the four buildings were constructed in the 1960’s of material that is
“more sand than cement,” said Principal Gilgur in 2009. The girls’ school, in
particular, has an unattractive façade, covered in graffiti and with several
broken outer windows. Orach Chaim must replace 100 broken windows in its four
buildings every year, acknowledged Mr. Gilgur. (The damage appears to be
perpetrated by common vandals – “bandits,” as they are called in Ukraine -
rather than by antisemites, Mr. Gilgur stated.)
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