The
general population of Ukraine is estimated to be 44,429,471 as of July
2015,a steep decline from the
estimated 1991 national population (at the time of the disintegration of the
Soviet Union) of 53 million. Individuals
of Ukrainian and Russian ethnicity account for 77.8 percent and 17.3 percent of
the population respectively. The
estimated 2015 Ukrainian birthrate is 10.72 per 1,000 population, compared with
a death rate of 14.46 per 1,000 population, that is, significantly more people
die than are born. Population loss reflects poor health care,
inadequate nutrition, substance abuse (tobacco, alcohol, narcotics), aging of
the population, low fertility, high mortality, emigration of younger age
cohorts, impoverishment, and environmental degradation.
Kyiv,
the capital of Ukraine, was estimated in mid-2015 to have a population of
2,797,553. It is followed in size by
Kharkiv, 1,430,885; Dnipropetrovsk, 1,032,822; Donetsk, 1,024,700; and Odesa,
1,001,558. It is likely that some of these figures have
been affected by hostilities in eastern Ukraine, with Donetsk suffering a
population loss and the three largest cities experiencing an influx of
internally displaced persons.
Different
Jewish organizations use different methods to estimate the total Jewish
population of Ukraine. One of the
more reasonable numbers, 211,000, is advanced by the Institute of Contemporary
Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and employed by the Jewish Agency
for Israel. Jewish population figures
parallel those of the general Ukrainian population, that is, the largest
numbers of Jews reside in the largest cities.
Perhaps 35,000 Jews live in Kyiv, 26,000 in Dnipropetrovsk, 25,000 in
Odesa, 21,000 in Kharkiv, and 10,500 in Donetsk. Smaller Jewish populations of up to 15,000
may reside in smaller cities and towns in the periphery of each of these major
demographic centers. About 50 percent of
the Jewish population is believed to be elderly. The number of Jewish internally displaced
people remaining in Ukraine is thought to be about 2,000, some of whom have
found their own housing and others of whom reside in temporary shelters,
receiving full or partial support from rabbis and/or the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee.
The
Jewish population of Ukraine has declined substantially in recent years,
mirroring and exceeding the decrease in the Ukrainian population in
general. Emigration to Israel has
increased dramatically, reflecting both the deteriorating economic situation in
Ukraine and the displacement of many Jews in eastern Ukraine.
The
writer interviewed 74 individuals during her travels in Ukraine, including five
diplomats attached to foreign representations.
The diplomats are not identified by name or position in this
report. The writer also communicated
with several additional individuals by telephone and/or e-mail with reference
to this report.
Dnipropetrovsk
Founded
in 1778 on the banks of the Dnipr River, Dnipropetrovsk was known until 1926 as
Ekaterinoslav, in honor of Catherine II (Catherine the Great) whose
troops conquered the territory. As the Soviet Union consolidated its power in
the 1920’s, place names associated with the tsarist period were changed to
reflect Communist control. Currently the third largest city in Ukraine,
following Kyiv and Kharkiv, the population of Dnipropetrovsk is slightly over
one million. It was a closed city until mid-1990 due to its extensive military
industry, particularly Yuzhmash, a producer of intercontinental ballistic
missiles, booster rockets, and related products.

Panoramic view of the city as seen from
the tower of the National Mining University. Three stepped towers of the
Menorah Center are visible at right. (The towers appear as beige in
color.) The city rises on both sides of
the Dnipr River. As is true in most
Dnipr River cities, the more developed side is on the west bank (which appears
in the foreground of the above photo.)
Photo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dnipropetrovsk_Panorama.jpg. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
Dnipropetrovsk continues to be a center of
heavy industry, hosting factories producing cast iron, rolled metal, pipes,
mining and agricultural machinery, large appliances, and transportation
equipment. Other prominent industries in
the city include food processing and apparel manufacture, the latter for
European firms. Notwithstanding the
current economic crisis that affects the local economy, just as it affects the
remainder of the country, economic conditions in Dnipropetrovsk are somewhat
less severe than in most other areas of Ukraine. The oblast government is considered
among the most enlightened and capable in the country; private enterprise is
encouraged and supported, thus diversifying the economy and providing some
hedge in conditions of economic turbulence.
Historically, the city
has been an important source of leadership for the former Soviet Union and for
post-Soviet Ukraine. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, former Ukrainian Prime
Minister Valery Pustovoitenko, and former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma all
spent significant portions of their careers in important leadership positions
in the city. Yulia Tymoshenko, a past
Prime Minister of Ukraine imprisoned under the former Yanukhovych regime, is a
native of the city.
Jews have lived in the
region of Ekaterinoslav, part of the old Pale of Settlement, since the late
eighteenth century. By 1897, the Jewish population of Ekaterinoslav had reached
41,240, more than one-third of the population of the entire city at that time. Pogroms occurred in 1881, 1882, 1905, and
1918; the 1905 attacks were the most devastating, killing 97 and wounding more
than 100 people. Prior to the consolidation of Soviet authority in the 1920’s,
the Jewish community was highly organized, maintaining a diverse network of
Jewish religious, educational, and cultural institutions. It was an important center of both Zionism
and the Chabad movement. A small Karaite community had its own prayer house.
More than twenty years
after the demise of the Soviet Union, Dnipropetrovsk is once again an important
center of both Zionism and the Chabad movement. The State of Israel enjoys a
robust image in the city, reflecting substantial emigration from Dnipropetrovsk
to Israel, continuing bonds between local Jews and their family members and
friends in Israel, the presence of many Israelis as teachers and other
community professionals, a stream of capable shlichim (emissaries) of
Israeli organizations, and the strong pro-Israel stance of Chief Rabbi
Shmuel Kaminezki. Regularly scheduled commercial air service connects
Dnipropetrovsk and Ben Gurion airport in Israel. Estimates of the current Jewish
population of Dnipropetrovsk range from 25,000 to 40,000; it is the second
largest Jewish population center in Ukraine, surpassed only by Kyiv.
Dnipropetrovsk is the center
of the Chabad movement in Ukraine. Honoring the historic presence of Chabad
in the city that continued into the 1930’s, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem
Mendel Schneerson appointed Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki to the post of Chief Rabbi
of Dnipropetrovsk in 1990. Rabbi Kaminezki is widely recognized as the most
effective large-city community rabbi in all of the post-Soviet successor
states.
1. Symbolic of the role of Chabad in the city is
the Menorah Center, a Chabad Jewish cultural center that opened in
October 2012. Designed to appear as
seven-branch menorah (candelabrum associated with Jewish ritual), the Menorah
Center comprises 538,000 square feet (approximately 50,000 square meters). Although the complex has been referred to as
a Jewish community center - the largest Jewish community center in the world (крупнейший
в мире), according to Chabad
- it is a unique structure, bearing little resemblance to Jewish community
centers in North or South America. It
is, instead, an office complex, conference center, banquet hall, hotel, Jewish museum,
and small shopping mall. It hosts
offices and program centers of other Jewish organiza-tions, including the
Jewish Agency for Israel, the Joint Distribution Committee, and ORT. The
regional consulate-general of the State of Israel is located within its
premises. Construction costs, said to
be more than $60 million, were covered entirely by local oligarchs Ihor
Kolomoisky and Hennady Bogolubov.
Parking space is very limited.
The Menorah
Center overshad-ows the red-roofed Golden Rose Choral Synagogue in a busy area
of Dnipropetrovsk.
Photo:
Chabad of Dnipropetrovsk.
Although
the structure appears to have seven separate towers, it is a single L-shaped
building with an 18-story center and three progressively smaller sections
branching out on two sides from the center.
A long and wide ground-floor corridor extends through each 'wing' of the
building, meeting where the two wings join.
Multiple sets of small elevators are located along the corridor. Entries into small elevator vestibules,
shops, the hotel, and other functional areas are separated by stone replicas of
facades of former synagogues in the area.
Shops include an upscale kosher restaurant, a more modest kosher coffee
shop, a small kosher grocery store, Judaica shop, florist, an insurance agency,
and a bank branch. A wide stairway leads
to the Museum of Jewish Holocaust and History in Ukraine,
and a passageway connects the Center with the synagogue. Another passageway leads directly to the
conference space and banquet halls.
Security is visible, but unobtrusive.
Entrance
to the Menorah Center is gained most easily through street-side doors in each
of the two end-towers, although doors in the end-tower at left are accessible
only by ascending two flights of outdoor steps that are difficult for mobility-impaired
individuals to mount. Vehicular access
is available at the rear of the structure.
The
Menorah Hotel is a four-star facility accommodating 80 guests. Its elevators and door key system are
programmed to be Shabbat-compliant.
Because the hotel is connected to the synagogue through the Menorah
Center, some religiously observant individuals and families take advantage of
Shabbat package rates. A planned hostel
in a different section of the Menorah Center failed to attract guests and has
been converted into a 16-room two-star facility known as the 7-Days City
Hotel, featuring accommodations available at modest prices.
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.
As is the case
concerning other places names in Ukraine associated with the Soviet era, debate
ensues about re-naming the city to reflect its Ukrainian identity. A return to Ekaterinoslav is unlikely
as Catherine was an empress of imperial Russia.
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