Synagogue-Related Programs
45.
Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz, a native of Caracas, has served the
Kharkiv Jewish population since 1990. He
is highly respected in the city and beyond. He presides over a large choral synagogue, a
local landmark. In addition to a number
of education programs, the Chabad community under his direction owns and
operates its own summer camp for Jewish children and also maintains significant
nutrition and pharmaceutical assistance programs for Jewish elderly.
Rabbi Moskovitz described the local
economy as "close to catastrophic." The cost of all utilities and other city
services has risen substantially.
Businesses have closed or downsized, leading to severe
unemployment. Several banks have failed,
Rabbi Moskovitz said, leaving depositors with nothing. The number of Jews seeking assistance from the
synagogue has escalated significantly, he continued. Many of them, he noted, had been firmly
middle class individuals before the recent crisis. The middle class, he observed, has disappeared. As more people become desperate for money,
crime in the city has escalated significantly.
Rabbi Moskovitz stated that
contributions to the Kharkiv Chabad community fund had declined by 70 percent. Whereas it was understood earlier that major
donors would pay in dollars, those who remain able to pay now do so in
Ukrainian hryvnia. Desperate over his
declining wealth, a major donor (who also was chairman of the hesed) committed
suicide. Oligarch Oleksander Feldman,
who delighted in coming to the synagogue to personally disburse $15,000 to
needy Jews each month, no longer is able to be so generous and clearly is uncomfortable
about his new situation.
In response to his straitened
financial circumstances, Rabbi Moskovitz has laid off staff at every level,
including rabbis who were teachers. He
has made no comprehensive downsizing plans, but watches the situation very
closely and adjusts synagogue-related activity accordingly.
It is obvious that many people are
struggling and are worried about their future.
The community Pesach seder this year drew over 1,000 people to
the choral synagogue; the community at large gathered on one floor, children
from the Chabad school were on a second floor, and local students were on a
third. Clearly, people are searching for
community at this difficult time.
Also,
aliyah to Israel has increased markedly, especially by families with
sons who are approaching draft age for conscription into the Ukrainian army. Some teens go to Israel on their own, joining
the Na'aleh high school in Israel program. Other Jews, said Rabbi Moskovitz, are not
ready to leave just yet, but are organizing their documents so that they can
leave quickly at a future time; they come to him for attestation of their
Jewish heritage, confirmation of which is necessary in order to be admitted to
Israel under provisions of the Israel Law of Return. Unfortunately, Rabbi Moskovitz acknow-ledged,
some Jews still want to relocate to Germany.
Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz and his wife
Miriam arrived in Kharkiv in 1990. Mrs.
Moskovitz is very active in community affairs, especially in Jewish education.
Photo: the writer.
Antisemitism in the area is "probably stable", said Rabbi
Moskovitz. Both pro-Ukrainian and
pro-Russian nationalism seems to have diminished from their previous
high levels, he stated. People are
subdued. They are disillusioned that
previous political activism had yielded no significant changes. The economy is terrible. Local residents are aware of the devastation
further to the east in Donetsk and Luhansk; no one wants such a situation to
arise in Kharkiv.
National
and International Jewish Organizations
46. The Jewish Agency for Israel maintains
its eastern Ukraine head office in Dnipropetrovsk. One of the two Israel shlichim (emissaries)
posted in that city visits Kharkiv every month, sometimes remaining in the city
for almost a week. The writer was unable to visit a small JAFI
office in Kharkiv, which is staffed by local coordinators who operate several
Jewish identity and aliyah-related programs.
The
Jewish Agency holds aliyah seminars and fairs in the city, recruits young
people for Taglit and Masa, offers youth programs and Hebrew ulpan classes, and
assists aliyah candidates in making arrangements for their move to Israel and
enrollment in Israel absorption programs.
This assistance sometimes entails sophisticated placement services for
highly trained scientists from a Kharkiv academic or scientific institute.
47. The writer also was unable to visit the Kharkiv
regional office of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
48. The Government of Israel maintains a Consulate
and Israel Cultural Center in Kharkiv.
The Consulate serves three major functions: (a) it checks eligibility
for aliyah to Israel and issues visas to qualified candidates; (b) it promotes
aliyah through various programs; and (c) it represents the State of Israel in
Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine and an academic and technology
center in the country. Kharkiv is considered
by some to be an unofficial capital of eastern Ukraine and is host to a number
of foreign consulates.
As
was the case in 2014, an official at the Consulate reported increased interest by
local Jews in assembling all required paperwork for aliyah to Israel. Families with young children tend to leave Kharkiv
en route to Israel as soon as they are able to make all necessary arrangements,
whereas some middle-aged people prefer to remain in the city for awhile,
confident that they have all essential documentation should it be advisable to
depart suddenly.
The
Consular official did not know the number of internally displaced Jews in
Kharkiv. It is impossible to know,
the official explained, because they do not report to a central authority. Some, particularly the elderly, go to the
hesed; others come to the Consulate or go to the Jewish Agency or the synagogue;
and yet others simply find housing and employment on their own without
registering with any Jewish organizations.
Further, some move from one place to another so frequently that the
Consulate cannot keep track of those who do express an interest in aliyah. Another major issue is that some IDP's fled
their homes in the eastern regions without any documents at all, making their
claims to Jewish heritage very difficult to trace. Even with documents, archival resources in
the Donetsk and Luhansk areas are not easily accessible in these turbulent
times.
In
response to a question about the number of Jewish scientists and physicians
remaining in the many academic institutions and scientific centers for
which Kharkiv is well-known, a consular official said that many younger people
in this category have left. Many of the
middle-aged and older scientists remain because they fear a loss of status in Israel
or elsewhere; few speak any languages other than Russian, so it is difficult to
find employment in other countries commensurate with their past positions. However, "They send out their [own] kids
to the Technion."
Doctors
and musicians
also have emigrated. Among the departing
musicians are music teachers, depriving the city of its future cultural
richness. Fewer and fewer families can
afford music lessons for their children, so many music teachers are
underemployed.
In
general, stated the official, the caliber of Kharkiv academic and scientific
institutions has declined significantly in recent years. With the intention of generating more
revenue, these institutions have been accepting increasing numbers of students
from developing countries (including those in Central Asia) whose governments
pay full tuition for them to study in Kharkiv.
However, many of these students are poorly prepared for post-secondary
education and the Kharkiv institutions have had to reduce their standards in
order to accommodate them. About 60
percent of all students in the city are from developing countries, the official
said.
The
official described the mood of the city as depressed. People are not hysterical, although some
worry about a Russian invasion.
Zaporizhzhya
The
city of Zaporizhzhya (known until 1921 as Aleksandrovsk) is the administrative
center of Zaporizhzhya oblast (region), which lies immediately south of
Dnipropetrovsk oblast. The cities of Dnipropetrovsk
and Zaporizhzhia both on the Dnipr River, are about 50 miles apart. Zaporizhzhya was established in the late
sixteenth century by roving bands of local Cossacks known as Zaporizhzhyan
Cossacks. Their descendants remain in
the area today, although they are less numerous and less well known than the
Don Cossacks to the east and Kuban Cossacks to the southeast.
A
major nuclear power plant on the Dnipr River powers a local industrial base,
including metallurgy, transportation equipment, and chemical plants. Zaporizhzhya also sustains a food processing
industry based on agricultural production in the area. However, the economy is seriously depressed.
The
current population of Zaporizhzhya is about 753,000, the sixth largest city in
Ukraine. According to Chabad Rabbi
Nochum Ehrentroi, the Jewish population is probably between 10,000
and 11,000, of whom perhaps 5,000 to 6,000 are Jewish according to Jewish law
(matrilineal descent).
Jewish
education and culture
49.
Chabad maintains a preschool and an eleven-grade day school in
separate locations in the city. The
preschool enrolls 38 children in a large, renovated building with ample outdoor
play space. The day school, School
#59, enrolls 120 pupils, a census that declines from year to year due to
substantial emigration from the city.
According to School #59 administrators, the school does well in city
competitions in English, Ukrainian, and Ukrainian history; lacking science
laboratories at the school, pupils do less well in biology and chemistry
competitions. 
School #59
administrators Anya Podlevskaya, left, and Larisa Bobakova, right, said that
inade-quate financial resources limit their ability to hire the best qualified
teachers in the city. In the photo at
right, a small child sleeps during naptime in the preschool. All nursery schools and kindergartens are
required by law to provide cribs or cots for children during a designated
naptime.
Photos:
the writer.
Rabbi
Ehrentroi later showed the writer a large building that he hoped to acquire as
a combined facility for the preschool and day school. It is especially vital to replace the day
school, he said, because its location in a remote area of the city deters
enrollment. Further, the new property
would permit the development of science laboratories and other instructional
spaces that the current facility cannot accommodate.
50. The writer was unable to visit a second
Jewish day school in the city, a school sponsored by ORT, because its
principal was unavailable.
51. The Max Grant Jewish Culture Center was
opened by the Joint Distribution Committee in 2004. Located on a central street in Zaporizhzhya,
the three-story building hosts the JCC on its upper two floors and the local
hesed on its ground floor. The JCC is
considered one of the most dynamic, creative JDC Jewish culture centers in all
of the post-Soviet states. Its director,
Inessa Nosenko, described a robust program of activities for children,
youth, and adults. These include art,
dance, drama, fitness and sports, and a summer family camp. Most of these activities are fee-based, said
Ms. Nosenko, but children from disadvantaged families participate without
charge.
The
Family Service unit, which is a section of the JCC, organizes various
activities for people with disabilities and has lobbied the city for
handicapped access to buildings and city vehicles; it has requested that city
buses be equipped with access lifts, which are uncommon in the post-Soviet
states. In an effort to encourage
greater sensitivity to the needs of people with disabilities, the JCC offers
special recognition to bus drivers who offer assistance to seniors and disabled
people. The Family service unit also
organizes visits to the chronically ill and operates an apartment repair
program that focuses on the housing needs of elderly and disabled individuals.
In response to a question about internally
displaced Jews, Ms. Nosenko said that approximately 500 had passed through
Zaporizhzhya. About 300 have received
some services from JDC or from Chabad, but others have managed on their own,
received assistance from relatives, or remain in regional/city shelters. Eighteen families are housed in a Chabad
dormitory and receive JDC assistance there. (See below.) Some IDP's clearly
have psychological issues, she stated. Unfortunately,
continued Ms. Nosenko, no work is available in the city.
Inna Nosenko and Anatoly
Schvelv direct the Jew-ish Culture Center and the hesed respectively in
Zaporizhzhya. See the following page for
informa-tion about the hesed.
Photo:
the writer.
Speaking
about conditions in the city in general, Ms. Nosenko said that the local
economy has "collapsed." Many
factories have closed and an entire supermarket chain went out of
business. The unemployment rate in
Zaporizhzhya is 38 percent, she stated. Many
Jewish families are leaving Ukraine. She
worries most about internally displaced children, many of whom are
seriously depressed; their problems started, she continued, when they were
still in the combat area, subject to frequent bombing and other military
action. Here, few have permanent
housing, their parents or other caregivers are very tense, they find themselves
in unfamiliar schools, and their friends from home are scattered to different
places.
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