90.
Almost every Jewish-interest program in Ukraine is limited by inadequate financial
resources. In addition to weakened fundraising results in western countries
and the declining value of the United States dollar, Ukrainian inflation
challenges the continuation of established and proven programs. Corruption often
is a decisive factor in impeding acquisition of appropriate program premises;
not only does it increase costs, it carries a heavy toll in abandonment of
ethical and moral standards. Western and Israeli organizations almost
uniformly reject the payment of bribes, but burdensome new tax measures in
Ukraine will test the capacity of any organization to fully adhere to Ukrainian
law.
91.
The current generation of Ukrainian Jewish young people is newly empowered – by
a growing variety of Jewish organizations and programs, by their own increasing
command of the English language that enables them to participate in
international Jewish life, and by electronic communications. They can reach
beyond the Chabad rabbis who dominate Jewish communal existence in some areas
of Ukraine and connect with other, more contemporary means of Jewish
expression. Hillel, Limmud, different Israel experiences, and other programs have
broadened their horizons.
Accordingly,
the Hasidic dominion over Jewish communal life may be less tolerated, the
ascendance of Chabad may be a phenomenon of the past. Notwithstanding the
forthcoming completion of the massive Chabad Menorah Center in Dnipropetrovsk,
younger urban Jews even in that city are looking beyond Chabad for a Jewish
life that accommodates modernity and their twenty-first century aspirations. Surveys
suggest that these aspirations include Jewish pluralism, which rarely is
associated with Chabad. Jews of all ages might be aided in their quests for a
more open Judaism by more vibrant and accessible representations of
Progressive/Reform and Masorti/Conservative Judaism than currently are available
in Ukraine; modern Orthodoxy, which might appeal to some young Jews, seems to
have abandoned Ukraine altogether.
92.
Israel commands a major role in the lives of many Ukrainian Jews, if only
because most of them have relatives or friends in that country. Air links
between the two states are strong, and recently instituted visa-free travel
regulations facilitate the maintenance of relationships between individuals,
families, and institutions. Emigration of Ukrainian Jews to Israel continues
and is increasing, reflecting economic distress and political uncertainty in
Ukraine – and also reflecting acknowledgement of Israel as a welcoming home.
93.
Fundamental differences exist between Jewish life in Ukraine and Jewish life in
Russia. Among these are the concentration of Jewish activity in two Russian
cities and the more dispersed nature of Jewish initiatives in Ukraine. Neither
country hosts an indigenous Jewish civic organization with a broad funding
base, but the Russian Jewish Congress has progressed much further in that
direction than United Jewish Community of Ukraine; the Russian group also
demonstrates a more encompassing and thoughtful allocations process than its
Ukrainian counterpart. Wealthy Jews in Moscow have joined forces to establish
the Genesis Philanthropic Group, which supports Jewish identity-building among
Russian-speaking Jews in multiple countries, but, with few exceptions, wealthy
Ukrainian Jews seem unable to maintain civil relations with each other outside
Dnipropetrovsk (and even in that city collaboration often is forced) and lack
the vision necessary to create a comparable fund of national, let alone global,
Jewish significance.
Betsy
Gidwitz
Chicago,
Illinois
August
22, 2011
Unless
otherwise indicated, all photographs and translations are by the writer.
Modified Ukrainian orthography generally is favored over Russian orthography.
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