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December 26, 2008
A message from Jewish Ukraine
Despite much economic hardship, the community is determined to hold on to their faith.
IRENA KARSHENBAUM
In the fall of 2008, a group of young North American Jews travelled to Ukraine to connect with the Jewish communities of that country. Coming from Calgary, Toronto, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and other centres, the experience was eye-opening to the realities of eastern European life. To Calgarian Jennifer Hadley (née Ezekiel), 27, the trip was especially meaningful.
Having just returned from her honeymoon in September, Hadley learned of the mission to Ukraine organized for Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni and immediately wanted to go. But she felt obligated to her business partner, her mother, and was worried because she would have to take more time off from running their business, a spa in Calgary. But, when she told her mother, who was born in Ukraine, about the trip, her mother immediately told her to go. Leaving her new husband at home, Hadley packed her bags with lots of gloves, hats, arts and crafts, stickers, learning aids and other stuff to give as gifts to the people she would be visiting and headed for New York, where other emissaries were meeting.
"As North American Jews who have a lot, we went to see where we all came from because most of us on the trip were all either from there or our families are from there," said Hadley. "For me, it was especially personal because I saw the house where my mother was born and grew up in."
Hadley returned with good news to report: "Jews can now be Jewish in Ukraine, where before they couldn't be Jewish." But overall life for Ukrainian Jews is hard. Most Ukrainian Jews live in poverty, are elderly and alone, or live in single- parent units struggling to provide for their families with small incomes, while facing the heartbreaking challenges of failing health.
Hadley visited two families. One was the Limonnik family of Kiev, made up of a grandmother, a 33-year-old daughter and her two small children. The daughter's husband died of a heart attack and the family now lives on two monthly pensions, the grandmother's of $105 and the late husband's of $110. The 33-year-old daughter suffers from cardiovascular disease and so is unable to find work. Hadley recounted how she visited the family in their run-down two-room apartment, where all four members live in one room and sleep on one bed. Hadley described how the grandmother's mentally ill sister is locked up in the second room because, "They can't afford to get help."
Despite these hardships, the family still clings to its Jewish traditions and community. The children attend a Jewish school and participate in various Jewish programs, all administered by Hesed (meaning "loving kindness" in Hebrew), which is supported by the American Joint Distribution Committee.
Hadley also visited 91-year-old Mila Goldfarb, who lives alone in Korostychev, near Kiev, a community with fewer than 100 Jews, down from 20,000 before the Second World War. Goldfarb was orphaned at the age of 10 and her fiancé was killed in the Holocaust. She never married and lives alone in a house with no utilities and an outhouse. She receives help from Hesed programs, which includes food and medical supplies.
"She has nothing. All she has are memories, photographs and stories from her father. She lights Shabbat candles and showed us Chanukah stuff. As much as she can do, she maintains the traditions she had when she was a child," said Hadley.
Hadley's roommate on the mission, Natalya Demberg, 24, who was born in Moscow and had been told as a young girl that it was essential to leave because most Jews had left the former Soviet bloc countries, was surprised to discover how many Jews were still living in Ukraine today. Their numbers are as high as half a million and, everywhere the mission went, they were told the same thing, "Yes, we are Jews, but we are also Ukrainian Jews. This is our country and we want to stay and rebuild our community." She added, "I found this to be very inspiring."
Demberg also visited two families, one living in Korostychev. The family was made up of two people: Bella, a mother in her 80s, almost blind, living wither her 50-year-old son who has cancer. Demberg visited them in their one- room house that has no running water, bringing them warm clothes and food. The family receives food and medical supplies delivered by Hesed-on-Wheels. Demberg was touched by the son, who ran after them as they were leaving, giving them a book of Ukrainian jokes. "These people have nothing and yet they still found something to give us as a gift," she said.
Demberg also visited a two-person family made up of a mother in her early 50s, who was not able to work, and her 16-year-old daughter, Vera.
Both Hadley and Demberg conveyed the same message that the Jews of Ukraine asked them to: "Tell everyone that there are still Jews here. Don't forget us." Both women are looking to tell the Ukrainian Jews's stories. Hadley said her family will be making a donation to JDC. Demberg, who is a consultant in Toronto, is seeking volunteer work to continue helping Ukrainian Jews.
Irena Karshenbaum was born in Kharkov, Ukraine. She now writes in Calgary and is the volunteer president of the Little Synagogue on the Prairie Project Society, www.littlesynagogue.ca.
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