How I Helped Revive Jewish Life in Ukraine

This summer I was a participant on the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) Short Term Service Program to Ukraine with Hillel students from the University of Central Florida and University of Florida. I expected this opportunity to be a great time and thought it would allow me to travel with friends for a short summer excursion. What I never expected was that this 10-day trip would be the most unbelievable Jewish cultural and spiritual experience of my life.

In 1941, the outbreak of World War II in Kharkov, Ukraine caused the Jewish population in this community of 150,000 Jews to dwindle to a mere 1,000 Jews. The years after World War II were extremely difficult for Jews in Kharkov due to communist persecution and growing feelings of anti-semitism. After the end of communism and the start of Ukraine’s independence, Jews in Kharkov began the long journey of restoring and reviving its Jewish life. The JDC opened an office in Kharkov in 1997 to assist these efforts, building a Jewish Community Center, a Hesed Welfare Center and educational facilities in order to help strengthen and rebuild a self-sustaining Jewish community.

Before we left for Ukraine, students from both UCF and UF collected donations from friends, family, synagogues and local community centers. These donations consisted of clothing, adult diapers, Jewish paraphernalia, toys, books and games. We collected a total of one dozen duffel bags (over 600 pounds) full of goods to bring to Ukraine and donate to the Jewish community in need.



Our volunteer projects highlighted important ideas in Judiasm including tikun olam and tzedakah. Most of the individuals that we were helping were Jewish senior citizens. Many of them were destitute World War II survivors, widowed, and without families. They were all being helped by the JDC’s welfare centers, Hesed, which means “charitable deeds” or “acts of loving kindness” in Hebrew. Hesed offers multiple social services including hot meals, food packages and home care for those left with immobility, medical equipment, and winter relief for thousands of individuals. In addition, we also had the opportunity to work with JDC's program Children at Risk. This program offers Jewish education, psychologists, food packages, medical services, and winter relief for Jewish children who may be hungry, and lacking basic care.



Having gone on Hillel’s Alternative Spring Break in New Orleans, I expected to be doing similar work in Ukraine, such as insulating homes and installing drywall. However, most of the homes we visited were small, dilapidated, one-bedroom wooden houses and in need of help far beyond the abilities of 14 college students. We spent most of the time painting homes and fences while engaging in conversation about life during World War II and communism. While I didn’t realize it at the time, the small efforts of giving our time, showing interest in these individuals, and painting their homes and fences allowed me to give a gift greater than any I have ever given; our act of socializing and improving the exterior of these homes gave these individuals a feeling of importance and the opportunity to live out their final years with dignity.



While in Ukraine, we also had the opportunity to spend time with the students of Kharkov Hillel and the Jewish Community Center Beit Dan. Many of these students did not learn they were Jewish until they were teenagers, as their parents and grandparents were forced to hide their Judaism during World War II and communist rule. Many of their parents and grandparents are still fearful of practicing Judaism and are not accustomed to Jewish life. Therefore, the only Jewish education and culture these students receive is through Hillel and the JCC, which host Shabbat services, holiday programs, and cultural events. In addition, the concept of volunteerism and service to one’s community is new in Ukraine. Hillel and the JCC often help these students learn the importance of helping our community through opportunities to assist Hesed clients and Children at Risk.



This experience opened my eyes to the power of the Jewish community. As a community, we are connected to one another through the Jewish religion, history, and culture. Therefore, we have the responsibility to help one another in any way we can. Jewry has grown and flourished in the United States allowing us to forget that sometimes our fellow Jewish communities living across countries, across oceans, and across the world continue to need assistance and relief.

This program showed me just how much we are connected. We learned that the senior citizens were just like our own grandparents - kindhearted and full of endless hospitality. However, unlike our grandparents, most of these individuals were extremely poverty stricken. Despite their hardship, they did not cease to offer all they had, even if it was just two small tomatoes or a piece of candy. In addition, we learned that the children were like our own siblings or cousins, ready to have fun and full of laughter and cheer. However, unlike our own siblings and cousins, they have had to overcome below zero winters without jackets and blankets, long days without anything to eat, and years without medical care. Regardless of what they had been through, they were still loving and gentle, holding out a hand for us to hold.

Finally, our connection was strengthened and highlighted at Shabbat services as we overcame the language barrier as English and Russian were forgotten and Hebrew linked us as members of the Jewish community. We may not have the same national culture, language, or lives but we do have the same prayers of gratitude, peace, and most of all, hope.

Coming Home - Reflection

A few weeks ago, I participated in an incredible Tikkun Olam (translated from Hebrew as ‘repair of the world’) experience, which changed the way I view myself as a Jew. With funding from Florida Hillel’s and The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), an organization that has served as the overseas arm of the American Jewish community since 1914 with a mission to serve the needs of Jews throughout the world, I, along with 14 other UF and UCF students, journeyed halfway across the world to Ukraine, an unlikely place for a group of young American Jews.

“Why on earth would you go to Ukraine?” was often the question asked while I was raising funds for this trip. Ukraine, which received its independence from the USSR and communism in 1991, is a country filled with Jews in desperate need of our help if the Jewish communities are
to survive. The Jews of Ukraine represent the third-largest Jewish community in Europe and the fifth largest in the world; the city of Kharkov alone has an estimated 50,000 Jews. Once a major center of Jewish life, most Jews in Ukraine lost almost all of their ties to their heritage during the Soviet era. Since 1988, JDC, with help from its funding partners, has been enabling the Kharkov Jewish community to implement social welfare programs for elderly Holocaust survivors and to expand a range of communal services that bring the joys of Jewish life to all generations. There were two ages of Jews we focused on- the elderly, who have had extremely difficult lives through the holocaust and communism, having to keep their Judaism a secret for many years, and then the youth, who are just discovering Judaism and what its all about.

The elderly in Ukraine are mostly alone, poor, and in need of medical care which they cannot afford. The JDC has created many programs such as centers called Hesseds, meal plans, medical assistance, and most importantly, they have provided a community outlet which helps the elderly Jews reconnect to their Judaism and culture. They have so many stories, experience, lessons-and now, with help from the JDC and volunteers like my group, they have a place to hare those stories and histories. On our trip, we went to the homes of many of the Hessed clients and visited with them, did housework like gardening or painting fences, and asked them questions about their lives. Some of the answers were very saddening, while others left us wide-eyed with fascination. We visited one man who at first was very upset because we could not speak to him in Yiddish. Eventually, after we began painting his fence and pulling his weeds, he warmed up and started telling us a bit about his life. But he never smiled. When I asked him why, he said, “My wife is gone and my son died in Israel. What do I have to smile for?” I was left speechless. But then, after I grabbed his hand and took him to see his newly painted wall, a beautiful thing happened- he smiled. Before I left he kissed my cheek. Our being there really meant something to these people, even if we were just painting their fences.

The JDC has also made a great effort to give the younger generations a chance to embrace their Judaism. One of my favorite memories took place when we shared Shabbat with our Ukrainian Peers. Try to imagine a Friday night Shabbat service in your temple. Think about the children and the teenagers-what do their faces look like? From my experience, boredom is often the expression on most young reform American Jewry while in Shul. That is what was so inspiring about the Ukrainian youth; They sang at the top of their lungs, shouted the prayers like I’d never heard, and, strangely enough, most of the 18-year-olds we met had just found out they were Jewish three years prior. Yet, they embraced Judaism with such passion, learning the prayers, taking Hebrew and Yiddish lasses, going to their Hillel’s. It was a passion which both saddened me for American Jews and reminded me what prayer should be about. These young people are the hope for a Jewish future in Ukraine and the way they looked at us Americans, with such a desire to understand how we do things, was so beautiful and refreshing.

One of the main things this trip brought to light for me was that all Jews truly are responsible to each other and unmistakably connected to each other. I enrolled in Hebrew class at UF in the fall because, for the first time, I’ve seen firsthand that Hebrew is our universal language. But more than that, I’ve seen that one person, even myself, can make a difference in the lives of many and play a significant role in my Jewish community- and so can you. The JDC’s ultimate goal is to provide the Jews they assist with the tools, skills, and resources to become self-sufficient. We believe our Ukrainian Peers are the hope for change. The students of the Florida Hillel’s are currently raising money to help in the education of our Ukrainian peers so they will be able to one day take over for the JDC and sustain their Jewish Communities on their own.

--DANI ROSENKRANTZ