The Chabad community
has increased school fees, Mr. Brez said, and hopes that planned improvements
in the quality of instruction at the day school will bring new pupils and increased
financial support from families. Staff layoffs in various areas of Chabad infrastructure
are contemplated, continued Mr. Brez, and it is likely that some
remaining community staff will be asked to take pay cuts.
Not all developments
are negative, Mr. Brez hastened to add. The
Boston Jewish Community Women’s Fund contributed $50,000 for a new ultrasound
machine for the Jewish Medical Center; although the Boston Jewish community
has made significant gifts of medical equipment to Dnipropetrovsk medical institutions
in the past, the BJCWF contribution to the Jewish Medical Center is the first Boston
medical donation to a specifically Jewish institution. The Jewish Medical Center, continued
Mr. Brez, entered a competitive bidding process for the provision of medical care
to clients of the local JDC hesed.
It was awarded the contract, Mr. Brez said, a significant vote of confidence in
the JMC and also an important addition to JMC revenue.
Mr. Brez observed that the community is seeking a donor to develop designated
space within the Menorah Center for a centrally located and larger JMC than is possible
in its existing premises at Beit Baruch.
Asked to describe
the current mood (настроение) in the city, Mr.
Brez responded that economic pressure was very "deep", affecting both
institutions and individuals alike. Many
people are considering emigration, he said, because they were pessimistic about
their ability to "survive" in Ukraine.
45.
Igor Romanov is Director of the regional office of the Union
of Jewish Religious Communities (Объединение
юдейских
религиозных
общин), the Chabad religious organization in Ukraine.
The Dnipropetrovsk region includes 16 communities in Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad
oblasts. The role of the regional office is to support the
work
of rabbis in smaller Jewish population centers in these areas and to reach out and
attempt to bring Jewish life to Jews in towns that do not have rabbis.
Only three cities of the 16 - Kirovohrad, Kryvyi Rih (Krivoi Rog), and Dniprodzerzhynsk
- have resident rabbis, Mr. Romanov noted.
Igor Romanov represents Chabad in
small Jewish popula-tion centers in Dnipropetrovsk
and Kirovohrad oblasts. He also is the chief
liaison officer between Chabad and political and judicial systems in Dnipropetrovsk
itself and the two oblasts.
Photo: the writer.
Acknowledging that
cities without rabbinic leadership require more assistance, Mr. Romanov focuses
on identifying potential leaders in these areas and training them to accept various
responsibilities in their communities. Mr.
Romanov and visiting rabbis teach basic Judaism and Jewish ritual to local Jews. Premises may be rented for a small community
office and program center. Student rabbis
are sent to all towns to conduct seders.
The regional office provides matza and certain other holiday foods, but local businesspeople
and seder participants finance the remainder of the seder, including fish and other
food. In all, about 2,000 individuals attend
these seders, Mr. Romanov said.
The regional office
also distributes approximately 6,000 food parcels twice yearly - at Rosh
Hashanah and at Purim/Pesach - to needy Jews in Dnipropetrovsk itself and in the
16 smaller Jewish population centers. Most
recipients are elderly people, said Mr. Romanov, but invalids and large families
also are given such aid. Financed by PrivatBank principal Hennady Boholubov,
the parcels contain 15 to 16 items, including several types of canned fish, kosher
sausage, cooking oil, buckwheat, sugar, and other staples.
Mr. Romanov stated
that the Philanthropic Fund is trying to evaluate the real need for its various
assistance programs. The costs are high,
and it is likely that some aid recipients are taking advantage of the community
by requesting and accepting support that they can afford to purchase or simply do
not require. He estimated that 70 percent
of those who receive the holiday food parcels are, in fact, impoverished, and derive
great benefit from the parcels; they cannot afford to purchase many of the items
in the gift bags. However, he continued,
the Philanthropic Fund is aware that at least 25 percent of the recipients give
some or all of the food to their neighbors.
Further, said Mr. Romanov, it is known that some hesed clients who receive discount
"smart cards" from the hesed also receive unreported remittances from
relatives in Israel, Germany, or the United States.
Mr. Romanov expressed
the concern that the Menorah Center itself may attract "superficial" Jews
who will make unreasonable demands on the Jewish community.
Many Jews, he acknowledged, will not enter a synagogue or associate with
other demonstrably Jewish organizations.
However, the Menorah Center is a public facility; its accessibility may embolden
otherwise non-identifying Jews to seek favors or other assistance that is political,
commercial, or otherwise inappropriate.
Security
obviously is
a major concern at the Menorah Center, stated Mr. Romanov.
A meeting of more than 100 security officials was convened at the Center
to discuss security matters, Mr. Romanov said.
For now, they are satisfied with the visible, but unobtrusive security personnel
who patrol the building and monitor events.
However, the fact that many unidentified vehicles are parked on streets immediately
adjacent to the Center generates continuing disquiet.
Asked about the
general mood (настроение) in the area, Mr.
Romanov focused on the Jewish population in his response.
About 40,000 Jews reside in Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad oblasts
combined, he said; at maximum, he continued, only about 5,000 are active in Jewish
communal affairs. Additional Jews may identify
as Jews for major holidays, but are effectively self-isolated from Jewish life for
the overwhelming majority of the year. Smaller
Jewish population centers cannot sustain Jewish life, Mr. Romanov
stated. Some such Jewish communities already
have disappeared, and more will do so. Individuals
may leave for economic opportunity in larger cities or abroad, rather than for specifically
Jewish reasons, Mr. Romanov observed, but the Jewish element in these villages has
ceased to exist nonetheless.
On a larger scale,
the economy has a major impact on the decisions of Jews to remain in Ukraine
or to leave. Economic conditions now are
terrible, Mr. Romanov said. "All"
young adults are leaving because they are unable to find work, he stated; middle-aged
people are remaining because they do not want to start over in a strange country. However, if political conditions also
deteriorate, continued Mr. Romanov, some middle-aged Jews will leave as well.
46.
As Executive Director of the Chabad Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine,
Rabbi Mayer Stambler travels to Chabad representations throughout the country. Times are difficult, he said.
"We are trying to keep what we have," he continued, acknowledging
a loss of donors and, consequently, the loss of some programs as well.
"Even middle-class people want to leave" Ukraine, Rabbi Stambler
stated. No one is happy.
People are earning a fraction of their previous income; they are unable to
afford vacations, some individuals who seemed solidly entrenched among the upper
middle class can no longer afford to buy coffee in a coffee shop, he observed.
It appeared to him, Rabbi Stambler continued,
that many formerly successful businessmen spent everything that they earned and
never saved or invested for the future. Formerly
successful Jewish entrepreneurs had found pleasure in helping others, stated Rabbi
Stambler, and are frustrated at their current incapacity to be charitable.
Based in Dnipropetrovsk, Rabbi Mayer
Stambler is Executive Director of the Chabad Federation of Jewish Communities in
Ukraine. He also is an authority on Chabad
Jewish education in the country.
Photo: Chabad.
47.
Oleg Rostovtsev is a media specialist whose primary client is
the Chabad Jewish community structure in Dnipropetrovsk.
He is responsible for the community website (http://djc.com.ua),
a community newspaper (Shabbat Shalom), and a weekly television show, Alef. Each episode of Alef
is shown twice weekly on a regional network and draws several hundred
thousand viewers to its program of interviews with local Jews and visiting Jewish
guests, information about Jewish holidays and Jewish current events, and news from
Israel. Because of its large audience, it
attracts significant advertising. Mr. Rostovtsev
also produces various compact disks for the community, arranges and manages press
conferences, and serves as a guide/contact person for visiting reporters and other
media specialists.
Mr. Rostovtsev's
office covered the opening of the Menorah Center in 2012 and continues to report
on events held there. When asked about the
impact of the Menorah Center on Dnipropetrovsk Jewish life, Mr. Rostovtsev
responded that its impact has been limited so far.
The Menorah Center is just a place, a public square (место,
площадь), he said.
It is centrally located and thus is used not only for Jewish events, such as weddings
and concerts of Jewish music, but also for (secular) conferences of physicians,
specialists in information technology, and other groups.
Because it is open to the general public, it does not generate antisemitism,
he continued. No one cares who built it.
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