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