Commentary
104.
The general mood in Ukraine is one of
despair as residents attempt to cope with national political instability, acute
economic pressure, massive corruption, and fear of the future.
Critical institutions have failed, including many in medical care and in
education. "There is no hope for tomorrow"
was a common lament during the writer's visit.
For young adults attempting to build careers and for those raising children, a sense
of foreboding prevails.
A casualty of the
ineptitude of the Yanukhovych government has been its credibility.
It has lost the support even of its oligarchs, who have benefited from its
incompetence and corruption.
However, the government continues to enjoy the backing of the security services
and armed forces.
The Ukrainian population
has suffered a significant demographic decline in the 22 years of Ukrainian independence. Demographic losses reflect poor health care,
inadequate nutrition, substance abuse, impoverishment, low fertility, high mortality,
lack of confidence in the future, emigration of younger age cohorts and wealthier
segments of the population, and environmental degradation.
105.
The rise of a right-wing, fascist political party, Svoboda, in Ukraine
only deepens the sense of apprehension. Although
Svoboda (Freedom) denies that it is antisemitic and it has attempted to reach out
to prominent indigenous Jews and to Israeli and other foreign diplomats, its political
platform and rhetoric are frightening to many.
106.
The Jewish population of Ukraine is declining more precipitously than the general
Ukrainian population. Although anecdotal
information suggests that Jews live longer than non-Jewish Ukrainians - due to residential
concentration in large cities with better access to health care, a higher level
of education, greater financial security, and medical/social services provided to
some older Jews by international Jewish organizations - Jews are emigrating in disproportionately
greater numbers than their share of the overall population would suggest.
Many of those who remain in Ukraine are assimilating into the general population. Smaller Jewish population centers are disappearing
as former Jewish residents emigrate abroad, migrate to larger cities, or assimilate. Jewish day schools in some smaller Jewish population
centers have closed, and other Jewish institutions are likely to collapse as well. Jewish funding sources are recognizing that
smaller Jewish population centers simply cannot sustain Jewish life at a cost that
is defensible.
Such circumstances
demand an increased investment in summer and winter camps, Shabbatonim, family camps,
and seminars that bring people together over considerable distances for intensive
Jewish experiences. In the longer term, migration
to large cities or to Israel should be encouraged.
107.
The demographic situation is exacerbated
by an intermarriage rate widely believed to be 80 to 90 percent.
Many descendants of such intermarriages are disinclined to identify as Jews. Of those whose Jewish roots do not conform
to Jewish law (halacha), that is, those who are not descendants of Jewish mothers,
most are rejected by Orthodox rabbis who continue to control certain gateways to
Jewish life. On the other hand, the search
by some individuals of mixed ethnicity for a Jewish heritage validates the presence
of more welcoming Jewish organizations, such as Hillel, Moishe House, the Jewish
Agency, the Joint Distribution Committee, and others.
In turn, these groups need to be fully responsive to those Jewish religious
streams that offer a more open, more tolerant interpretation of Jewish law and practice.
108.
The formal Jewish education infrastructure appears to be a spent force, yielding
few positive results. Jewish day schools,
particularly those under Orthodox sponsorship, are losing enrollment.
Many are operating with fewer than 20 youngsters per grade level, a number
depriving them of government aid (if government inspectors adhere to government
policy). Certainly, Jewish demographic decline
plays a major role in the loss of pupils.
However, low achievement standards in secular studies, poorly equipped and maintained
school facilities, and Jewish educational content that seems antiquated and irrelevant
to many contemporary Jewish families are additional deterrents to pupil enrollment.
The various colleges
and quasi-universities established by rabbis attract mainly impoverished and/or
academically weak young people who are unable to enroll in more conventional universities
and institutes. Alternatively, some rabbis
pay tuition fees at secular institutions for young people who agree to undertake
a parallel course of religious studies under rabbinic supervision.
Many young people in these programs find such religious curricula tedious
and irrelevant to the lifestyles that they wish to pursue.
Students from poverty-stricken
families may have few alternatives within Ukraine, but Israeli programs offer other
options. As the Ukrainian Jewish population
continues to decline - particularly that segment of the Jewish population that comes
from small towns with weak schools - the ability of these rabbinic-sponsored programs
to attract students will wane accordingly.
Clearly, some rabbis also are finding that the cost of main-taining these dual programs
is prohibitive.
The stipend-based
Orthodox STARS (Student Torah Alliance for Russian Speakers) program, which was
initiated in 2006, drew positive endorsement from some observers in its early years,
but the passage of time has led to a more tempered view of its achievements. In brief, the issuance of stipends has been
the primary incentive for many, perhaps most, participants; with only a modest number
of exceptions, their interest in Orthodoxy has failed to survive the cessation of
payments upon completion of the STARS course.
Although several
universities in Ukraine offer random Jewish-focus courses (most often in history),
the field of academic Jewish studies is severely underdeveloped and underfunded. The situation is unlikely to improve under
current economic conditions.
109.
Informal Jewish education - in the form
of summer and winter camps, Shabbatons, multi-day seminars and family camps, programs
focusing on cultural expressions of Judaism, youth and student groups - appears
to generate greater interest. Participant
planning and leadership are critical elements of successful programs for older adolescents
and young adults. The need to pay participation
fees is understood, although many would-be participants are unable to pay the full
cost of programs.
A single [multi-day]
Jewish Agency seminar for students and young adults achieves more profound and lasting
results in building Jewish identity than does an entire year of STARS classes, an
Orthodox rabbi told the writer, and his rabbinic colleagues agree with him, he added. However, he acknowledged, they cannot declare
this fact in public, and he implored the writer not to mention his name.
Greater investment in informal Jewish education, properly planned and executed,
is warranted.
Similarly, Taglit
and MASA, as well as Na'aleh and Selah, have proved their worth in advancing Jewish
identity and strrengthening ties between Ukrainian Jewish young people and Israel. These programs also should be fortified and
expanded.
110.
As Ukrainian Jewry diminishes in numbers, the circumstances of older Jews in
Ukraine require additional attention from both local Jews who remain and from world
Jewry. It is unrealistic to expect the Ukrainian
government to respond adequately to the needs of its older citizens; equally, it
is unlikely that the current model of dependence upon the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee will yield a sustainable plan to insure that Jewish seniors
in Ukraine are able to live in dignity. A
more fruitful approach might be the development of a coalition of indigenous, Israeli,
and North American Jewish service providers that would create a Ukrainian Jewish
welfare system for the provision of social services to Ukrainian Jews, particularly
elderly Jews. The coalition must be committed
to actual service management by local Jews, with financial support from both Ukrainian
Jews and from international Jewish organizations.
Such a coalition
would include Ukrainian Jewish professional and lay leaders, a Joint Distribution
Committee team with a revised future-oriented mandate, North American Jewish federations
and their constituent welfare agencies, smaller Jewish welfare-related groups (such
as Jewish Healthcare International and Adopt-a-Bubbe), European Jewish foundations
and other groups, community rabbis in the post-Soviet states, and relevant Israeli
organizations, including health plans, hospitals, and other organizations.
Hundreds of qualified Russian-speaking Jewish social service professionals
are available within these groups to work with indigenous individuals, many of whom
already have acquired valuable professional experience, in building a viable post-Soviet
Jewish social service system. A Ukrainian
Jewish welfare system might vary in detail from one post-Soviet Jewish community
to another, but its common element would be local management of essential social
services for the Jewish population, supported financially by both local and international
sources.
Betsy Gidwitz
Chicago, Illinois
October 10, 2013
Unless otherwise indicated, all
photographs and translations are by the writer.
Modified Ukrainian orthography generally
is favored over Russian orthography.
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