Commenting on Jewish education and general
Jewish identification in Odesa, JAFI staff members said that 10 to 15
percent of Odesa Jewish children and youth attend Jewish day schools. The low proportion reflects three factors,
they continued: (1) the intermarriage rate is so high that only a minority of youngsters
of Jewish heritage are halachically Jewish - and only the ORT school accepts
pupils who cannot prove halachic ancestry; (2) the quality of general education
in Jewish day schools is not high; and (3) general assimilation, which leads to
a basic last of interest in Jewish education.
Social programs (such as free hot lunches and free transportation) that
previously attracted less affluent families to these schools have been pared
back in response to economic distress, so few families see any advantage to a
day school education. The majority of
youngsters with Jewish roots receive no Jewish education at all, said JAFI
staff. Only about 30 percent of
families with Jewish ancestry are engaged in any Jewish activity. Even if they acknowledge that their maternal
grandmother is Jewish, they claim that such ancestry is irrelevant to their own
ethnicity.
The writer spoke with Shlomo Azarov,
the non-resident JAFI director in southern Ukraine and Moldova, one day after
meeting with the rest of the Odesa-based local staff. In addition to local coordinators in Mykolaiv
and Kherson (and in Kishinev, Moldova), JAFI also employs a part-time (15
percent, said Mr. Azarov) coordinator in Izmail. Prior to his appointment in Odesa, Mr. Azarov
had represented JAFI in the Caucasus Mountain region and in Khabarovsk in the
Russian Far East.
Mr. Azarov stated that few Jews in
Odesa are aware of JAFI activities. Due
to budget cutbacks, JAFI has had to discontinue many of the clubs and other
social programs that it once operated. It cannot afford to publicize its
programs. Its premises, he said, are uninviting, not new
and spacious like those of Beit Grand.
Shlomo
Azarov JAFI director in southern Ukraine and nearby Moldova, actually resides
in Israel. He supervises Ukrainian and
Moldovan staff from Israel and tours the area for ten days every month.
Photo: the writer.
Aliyah from southern Ukraine is driven by any of a
number of reasons, said Mr. Azarov.
First, he stated, the economic and social situation in the area is
driving people out. Life is difficult,
and people are seeking a better life elsewhere.
Also, many local Jews have relatives in Israel, so Israel is a natural
destination. Especially advantageous
absorption and employment conditions await professionals in particular fields
that are in demand in Israel, such as medicine and certain engineering
specialties. Israel also is attractive
to Jews who have become Zionists through experiences in JAFI summer camps,
Taglit, and other programs, Mr. Azarov continued. The type of JAFI year-round activities that
often draw people closer to Israel, such as clubs and series of lectures or
performances by Israeli artists, have been curtailed severely by budgetary
constraints, he noted.
Mr. Azarov described the mood in Ukraine as
"worried." People see little
stability; they are concerned about the nature of Ukrainian politics and about
rising prices. Many Jews are concerned
about the rising influence of the right-wing Svoboda party; in fact, he
continued, when some young Svoboda activists saw him on the street, they said Heil
Hitler! to him. Many Arab students
are enrolled in Odesa educational institutions, stated Mr. Azarov, a situation
that many Jews find disquieting. In
response to a question about confiscations of local businesses, Mr. Azarov said
that successful businesses are endangered if the owner is not close to those in
power.
In his assessment of the Jewish community
situation in Odesa, Mr. Azarov noted a number of rivalries and
antagonisms. Everyone is aware of the
competition between the two chief rabbis, said Mr. Azarov; each of the rabbis
lives in his own world, but each is "politically correct" toward the
other. Rabbi Baksht, continued Mr.
Azarov, seems to spend most of his time with his family in Israel, which
probably is helpful because his absence reduces the likelihood of
confrontations. Another local rivalry is
that between Beit Grand and the Migdal JCC, he continued. JAFI tries to work with the Hillel student
organization, said Mr. Azarov, but they do offer competing Taglit and MASA
groups. The Israel Cultural Center (attached to the
Consulate of Israel) is expanding its youth programs to the point where they
are beginning to compete with established JAFI programs, he stated.
18.
Irina Zborovskaya, the executive director of the American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee in Odesa, estimates the Jewish population of Odesa
at 30,000 to 35,000 people. The general
mood (настроение)
in the city, she said in response to a question, is one of despair and
frustration. Due to its role as a port
city, Ms. Zborovskaya explained, the economy of Odesa is based on
"buying and selling," that is, on trade and related businesses, such as the tourist industry,
banking, private clinics and hospitals, and private schools. Odesa has little work for professionals
outside these fields and its manufacturing base is very limited, thus providing
few employment possibilities for the less well educated or for engineers.
Irina
Zborovskaya, a local woman, directs the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee in Odesa.
Photo: the writer.
The education system is failing, Ms.
Zborovskaya said, even at the preschool level. There simply are not enough preschools, she
continued, so the laws of supply and demand dictate that those that exist
charge fees that few people can afford. The teaching profession is not
prestigious, and pedagogical universities attract only weak and incompetent
students, Ms, Zborovskaya stated. The
general school environment, she continued, is "rather scary." Youngsters are not being prepared for further
education, and few scholarships are available for those able to qualify for college
or university. It is
"impossible," she noted, to save money for tuition. Day-to-day expenses are just overwhelming.
Notwithstanding the existence of private
clinics and hospitals, Ms. Zborovskaya stated, health care is at a very
low level. The average person cannot
afford these private institutions and, in any case, local physicians are not
well trained, regardless of the specific clinic or hospital in which they
practice medicine.
The peculiar nature of the Odesa economy,
continued Ms. Zborovskaya, provides few employment opportunities for men,
in particular. Men have fewer coping
skills to deal with unemployment, she asserted.
Joblessness is increasing and, not surprisingly, the divorce rate is
climbing, she said.
Official employment statistics cannot be trusted
because many people now work in the "shadow economy." People sell goods and services in street
markets, and do not report this work or income derived from it. Inflation is about ten percent, she
estimated. In response to a question,
Ms. Zborovskaya said that it is not difficult for the hesed to find homecare
workers now because people are desperate for income; "even
middle-class Jewish women" accept such work now.
The general situation is even worse in smaller
cities and towns, Ms. Zborovskaya said.
Jews in such cities as Mykolaiv
and Kherson, are leaving such places; some go to larger cities, such as Kyiv
and Odesa, and others are emigrating.
Even middle-class families from large cities are leaving Ukraine,
she stated, because they are concerned about the future for their children if
they remain in Ukraine.
Perhaps because of the stressful
circumstances in which they live, people remain very interested in cultural
life. However, admission to many
events is very expensive. JDC is facing
its own dilemma in this area, Ms. Zborovskaya said. She is aware that many people cannot
afford to enroll in Beit Grand classes or to attend Beit Grand cultural
events. Beit Grand requires a steady
income stream, she stated, but people also need culture.
In answer to a question about interaction
with the Baltimore Jewish community as a product of the sister-city
relationship between the two cities and their respective Jewish communities,
Ms. Zborovskaya stated that more active collaboration can be expected in the
future. She will go to Baltimore soon to
explore such possibilities, and a delegation from the Associated: Jewish
Community Federation of Baltimore is expected in May.
19. The
Israel Culture Center operates as an adjunct to the Consulate of
Israel in Odesa, where it manages the Israeli government Nativ Russian-language
outreach program in southern Ukraine.
The fundamental task of Nativ is emphasizing to local Jews the
connection between their Jewish heritage and Israel. The focus is on working with adolescents
and young adults, introducing them to Israel through various programs and
encouraging consideration of aliyah (immigration to Israel). The Culture Center operates a successful
adaptation of the Israeli Scouts program, enrolling about 150
adolescents in Odesa itself and 50 each in Mykolaiv, Kherson, and
Simferopol. The Scouting program attempts
to attract Jewish youngsters who atttend secular schools, recognizing that many
of them have no ties to Judaism, Jewish life, or Israel.
The Culture Center also sponsors its own Taglit/birthright
and MASA Israel programs, filling three or four Taglit buses (40 people
in each bus) annually and arranging MASA programs for 50 to 60 people every
year. Several Nativ MASA programs
enable Ukrainian Jewish youngsters to enroll in Israeli universities at greatly
reduced fees, a major attraction to local Jews who are aware of declining
standards in Ukrainian higher education.
Grigoriy Ivanovich Petrovsky (1878-1958) was a
prominent local pre-revolutionary political agitator, exile, and subsequent
political figure in the city. His family name was combined with that of the
Dnipr River to produce the current city name of Dnipropetrovsk.
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