The jewish community of ukraine yesterday, today a

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF UKRAINE: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW
by Vladimir Matveyev

The present situation in the Jewish community of Ukraine and the role of Judaism in its development arouse a big interest as the life of Ukrainian Jews and the process of their self-identification undergone many changes. Some aspects of Jewish community development and self-identification of Jews have been studied by Y. Zisels, P. Rabinovich and others scholars but no comprehensive research of Jewish self-identification in Ukraine has been made so far.

Through the analysis of practical aspects of Jewish community development in Ukraine and the role of contemporary Judaism in this process, the author of the article has come to a conclusion that the twentieth century has demonstrated an existence of many forms of Jewish self-consciousness. The author believes that Judaism as a part of the cultural heritage of the Jewish people will play a bigger role in the life of Jewish community of Ukraine the future. This will bring the Ukrainian model of Jewry closer to the one of Western Europe and/or Northern America. The author assumes that the most probable model of Ukrainian Jewry is a specific Ukrainian model with different community branches which will be established after stabilization of Jewish community of Ukraine in 25-30 years.

The history of the Jewish community of Ukraine is very old. First information about Jews who lived on the territory of present Ukraine dates back to the first century B.C. Historical and architectural monuments in the towns of the Northern Black Sea coast confirm that Jews were quite an influential social group there. They were mainly craftsmen and traders. There are records on the Jews of Khersones and other towns of Crimea. It is known that the Khazar ruler and nobility adopted Judaism in the 8th century.
 
In the 10-11th centuries the Jewish community appeared in Kiev. Some scholars believe that it is the Jewish merchants who contributed to the development of Jewish community in Kiev and stimulated the development of Jewish trade in Kievite Rus in the following centuries. In that period compact settlements of Jews were established in East Galicia. In the 16th century Sefard families from the Osman empire and Italy settled in Ukrainian lands which belonged to Poland and Lithuania. The system of Jewish self-governance – kagals and land vaads – was established. In the 14-17th century the Jewish communities of Kiev, Lviv and Volodymyr-Volynsky played an important role in the spiritual life of European Jews.

In response to the mass extinction of Jews in the Gaidamaky people’s movement, a new branch of Judaism called Chasidism emerged in Ukraine in the second half of the 18th century. Chasidism soon became very popular in the country. Its founder, Baal Shem Tov (Besht), was from Podolia (Central Ukraine) and hence the center of Chasidism was located in Podolian town Medzhibosh.

In the end of the 18th century geopolitical changes on the map of Europe brought about significant changes in the development of Jewish communities. Development of the capitalist society and the market economy required reformation of many religions. Nations strived to introduce changes to the obsolete social structure. The Great French Revolution granted civil rights which were crucial for European Jews. European Jews wanted to share the heritage of European and the world civilization and make their contribution in it. This process was delayed by Orthodox. Many Jews, especially in Eastern Europe, didn’t rush for emancipation. They were afraid of the world, which surrounded them. Some Jews worried about strengthening of contacts with Christians and conversion into Christianity. However, representatives of Jewish intelligencia believed that some Jewish rites had become obsolete. They wished to update Judaism and make it flexible.

Efforts to update Judaism were called a “reform”. The reform aimed to comply “Judaism of ghetto” with the changes in society. It was an effort to introduce equality with other faiths and an access to secular education. Reformation of Judaism began in Germany and gradually spread to other European countries. It was based on modernization of religious ideology and Jewish religious practice. Reform? or Progressive, Judaism emerged as a consequence of inability of conservative Jewish tradition to meet the needs of new generations and challenges of the new situation in Europe. Reformism supported evaluation of religion according to the requirements of time. It proposed a new definition of a Jew as a person who confesses Judaism as mainly an ethical doctrine.

Antagonism between the reform and orthodox streams of Judaism led to an emergence of Conservative Judaism in the middle of the 19th century. Ideologists of this stream propagated a synthesis of traditions with gradual reforms. Like ideologists of Progressive Judaism, they argued that during the history Judaism had adapted to the changes in society and that the life in the modern world led to changes both in religious concept and practice. However, unlike reformists, they believed that changes should not destroy the main principles of Judaism.

The 19th century was marked by the ideas of Jewish national development. Political Zionism began to significantly influence the process of Jewish self-identification. It refuted the idea of Jewry being solely a religious community rather than a nation. At the beginning of the 20th century various Jewish parties and organizations demonstrated diversity of approaches to the further development of the Jewish world and Judaism. Difficult problems of Jewish self-identification became even more critical in the 20th century. The tragedy of Holocaust and creation of the State of Israel made a significant impact not only on demographic situation and migration of Jews but also on the political movement focused on Erez-Israel.

New conditions in Europe, the ideas of Zionism and religious tolerance began to influence the Jewish life in Ukraine. In the 19th century Judaism was no longer overwhelming. The process of secularization raised a level of freedom of choice and caused “segmentation” of religion. Religion became just one of the aspects of Jewish life. If in the beginning of the 19th century the Law and Kagal determined everything in the life of Jews of small Ukrainian towns (shtetles), in the middle of the 19th century the process of Jewish self-identification began to change. However, the community remained the main place of concentration of the Jewish life in Ukraine. After abolition of kagals, the community began to perform many important social functions: they helped the poor, maintained schools, synagogues, prayer houses etc.

In the Russian Empire the power of rabbi traditions turned the Chaskalah movement into an instrument of the Jewish national renaissance. Chaskalah acquired the national features under the activity of Peretz Smolensky (1842-1885). It is P. Smolensky who introduced the idea of national self-consciousness to the Jewish intelligencia of that part of Ukraine which belonged to Russia. Nationalism of Smolensky was the patriotism without Motherland. As a matter of fact, he showed the spiritual nationalism of Diaspora and believed that Jews should declare to the whole world that they were one nation despite the fact they did not have their own state.

Cruel reaction to an assassination of Russian tsar Alexander II and the first tide of massacre of Jews gave a new impulse to the further development of the Jewish national movement in Ukrainian lands of Russia. The book by L. Pinsker from Odessa (1821-1891) called “Self-Emancipation” was a response to Dreifus Affair, an anti-Semitic campaign in France. The famous book “The Jewish State” by Teodor Gertzel, a masterpiece of Zionism, was published in 1895. At that time Zionism faced a strong opposition from Orthodox Judaism. Orthodox Jews considered Zionism as “Defiance to the Heaven” and worried about its secular influence on Jews. At the same time, there were rabbis and synagogue leaders who actively supported the Zionist movement.

In the 19th century Progressive Judaism movement penetrated into Ukraine. Progressive Judaism came to Ukraine from Galicia and Lviv, its historical center, which was the biggest center of Jewish Enlightenment in the region. Another important center of Chaskalah was Odessa, which adopted many Jews from Germany and Galicia. While Chasidism attracted mainly ordinary Jews from shtetles, Progressive Judaism was popular among Jewish intelligencia and intellectuals. Dissemination of Progressive Judaism established a number of reform congregations and synagogues. However, the ideas of Progressive Judaism were rejected by Orthodox. Unlike in the United States, the ultra-orthodox traditions were (and continue to be) very strong in Ukraine. However, the Orthodox pressure could not stop Jewish emancipation and progressive movement. And Ukraine began to witness the Jewish national renaissance.

In 1846 Jews were allowed to enter secondary schools and universities. In schools organized by Zionists the teaching was conducted in Hebrew, there were courses of Hebrew and Jewish history. Jewish girls and boys began to read secular literature. However, the efforts to establish schools teaching secular subjects yielded little result, as the influence of Ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Ukraine remained very strong.

Speaking about the relations between the Jewish and the Ukrainian population of Ukraine, we must admit their complexity and instability. In fact, these relations were different at different historical stages. They also varied depending on the region. In the times of the Ukrainian people's struggle for independence under the leadership of Bohdan Kmelnitsky (1648-1654), the Jewish population in central and eastern regions was literally subject to annihilation, so that there were few Jews left on those territories. In the west, on the contrary, the relations between Ukrainians and Jews were tolerant and sometimes even warm and cooperative. Analyzing the Ukrainian-Jewish relations in the period of the West Ukrainian People's Republic (1918-1920), historian M. Gon wrote, “Ukrainians welcomed an awakening of the Jewish national consciousness and a struggle of Jews for creation of their own state in Palestine and saw a renaissance of the Jewish nation in the image of a new Jew" . Very soon, however, the years of cooperation and understanding between Ukrainians and Jews were changed to the tendency of Jewish separatism. And the Polish-Jewish agreement of 1925 was viewed by Ukrainians as a grave of the Jewish movement for emancipation.

In the first years after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia development of the Jewish culture in Yiddish and Hebrew and dissemination of Zionism continued. Later the Soviet regime supported only Yiddish schools teaching secular subjects. In the 1920-30’s Jewish primary and secondary schools (heders and yeshivas) were closed and Hebrew was outlawed. Contrary to discrimination in tsarist Russia based mainly on the Christian anti-Judaism, the Soviet power was creating a Soviet individual destroying religious and cultural roots of the peoples of the Soviet Union.

Passport of a citizen of the Soviet Union had the fifth column indicating a nationality. A Jew was considered to be the person whose mother and father were Jews. If parents were of different nationalities, a person could choose himself/herself whose nationality to have – mother’s or father’s.

In 1970 there were 777,000 Jews in Ukraine, of those only 13,000 lived in the village. Assimilation process of Jews was intensive in the Soviet Union. International marriages constituted 50-55%. Jewish national self-consciousness was kept mainly due to the state and everyday anti-Semitism. In the 1970-80‘s the number of Jewish population was decreasing. In the beginning of the 1980’s the Soviet regime increased the pressure on the Jews who supported the renaissance of national culture and secured immigration to Israel.

In the second half of the 1980’s due to the policy of “Perestroyka” associations of Jewish culture and other Jewish organizations were established in Ukraine. In the 1960-80’s some efforts were made to revive the Jewish culture and literature in Yiddish but their real renaissance began in the 1990’s in independent Ukraine.

Jewish organizations of the “Perestroyka” period had basically a form of associations or clubs of Jewish culture. The Lviv Association of Jewish Culture named after Shalom Aleichem and the Kyiv Association of Jewish Culture later turned into republican were established among the first. Jewish organizations of the same kind began to amalgamate. A number of “umbrella” Jewish organizations of all-Ukrainian scale were established: the Republican Association of Jewish Culture (1990), the Jewish Council of Ukraine (1992), the Association of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine (1992), Makkabi-Ukraine (1994). In 1991 the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine (Vaad-Ukraine) was established. It was contrasted by the pro-government Association of Jewish Culture of Ukraine. Israeli and international Jewish organizations such as the Jewish Agency Sochnut-Ukraine, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and others began to function. In this period emigration of Jews significantly intensified.

Therefore, the history of Ukrainian Jews is a continuous process of interaction of contrary ideas and antagonistic tendencies: ethics and ritual, cosmopolitanism and nationalism, selected nation and equality for all people etc.

Let us now look at the present situation in the Jewish community of Ukraine.

According to the latest census, in 2001 there were 103,600 Jews in Ukraine. To compare, in 1959 – 840,300; in 1970 – 776,000; in 1979 – 632,600; in 1989 – 486,300.

As stated by the Israeli organization “Nativ”, today there are approximately 200 thousand Jews in Ukraine, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel “Sochnut”, there are 215 thousands. However, Jewish organizations in Ukraine give another figure – 400,000, wishing to exaggerate the size and therefore the power of the Jewish community of Ukraine.

Anyway, the Jewish community in Ukraine is the biggest in the CIS.

It should be taken into account that in the Soviet years the urbanization level significantly increased. Now the Jewish population lives mainly in towns and cities. And this means that we will speak about the further development of the city Jewish community of Ukraine.

Representatives of national minorities constitute about 2,5 percent of religious organizations in Ukraine. According to the statistics, Ukrainian Jews have 285 religious organizations of different branches of Judaism. According to the Religious Panorama journal, most of the Jewish organizations are located in the Vinnitza region (22), the Donetzk region (20), the Kiev region (19) and the Zhytomyr region (17).

One of historical peculiarities of Ukrainian Jews is bi-nationality connected with their dualistic self-consciousness – "Soviet Jews" in the past, and “Russian Jews” or “Ukrainian Jews” now. It allows some experts to consider Jews of Russia and Ukraine as a special subethnic community different from Ashkenazi .In fact, the problem of national self-identification of Ukrainian Jews is complicated by a contradiction between a subjective ethnical perception (an internal identification of themselves as Jews) and objective national and spiritual characteristics (an external identification as representatives mainly of Russian and Ukrainian population) .

Renaissance of Judaism and possibility for Jews to return to their traditional self-identification through various branches in Judaism became possible when Ukraine gained its independence. However, a “traditional model” with mainly religious Jewish identification has been vanished for ever. If in the 17-18th centuries the Jewish origin was determined by Halahah criteria (having a Jewish mother and adoption of Judaism), emancipation changed the situation. Now the majority of Ukrainian Jews consider Judaism as an element of their national culture and proposed the Jewish cultural tradition as a basis for their national identity.

According to the Jewish Scientific Council (Moscow), religious Jews in Russia and Ukraine constitute not more than 3% of the total Jewish population (1 percent attend synagogue almost every day and another 2 percent pray at home). About 10 percent observe the tradition to some extent. A research on identification of Jews of the former Soviet Union conducted in the beginning of the 1990’s showed that less than 6 percent of the Jewish population belonged to religious Jews. About one third of Jews stated that Judaism was more attractive for them compared to other religions and 13 percent considered Christianity as more attractive (M. Chlenov. To Be a Jew: Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow //Problems of Living in Diaspora, Minsk, 2001). This supports the idea that representatives of one nation can follow different religions. In opinion of M. Chlenov the research confirmed a religious indifference fostered by the Soviet regime. Abolition of “nationality” column in the passports and other documents made religious self-consciousness a crucial factor of ethnic self-identification of Ukrainian Jewry. Today religious consciousness of Ukrainian society in general is increasing. This is also true for the Jewish environment. However, synagogues become center of the Jewish life only on holidays and only 5 percent of Ukrainian Jews observe religious traditions. Furthermore, synagogues do not play a single role in the Jewish community providing religious service – they are also involved in a number of other activities and clubs.

Therefore, it is very doubtful that there will be a secular city Jewish community in Ukraine which will integrate a synagogue. More realistic is an assumption about the development of a new type of city communities similar to those which exist nowadays in many western countries. These communities will unite both religious and non-religious Jews .

In the first years of renaissance of the Jewish life in independent Ukraine the Jewish non-governmental organizations played an important role in meeting the interests and needs of assimilated Soviet Jews However, since the mid-1990’s a new phase of development of Jewish organizations in Ukraine has begun. The Jewish non-governmental organizations decreased their influence on Ukrainian Jews. At the same time, Jewish business people began not only to support the community but also take an active part in its management.

Rabbis also have played a positive role in the development of community. Their work has strengthened the community and increased the effectiveness of its activity. Compared to executive directors and other community workers, the activity of rabbis is more independent.

The Jewish communities of Ukraine are characterized by a combination of secular and religious activities and cooperation with world “umbrella” organizations. There are principles of professional infrastructure in the communities such as Jewish education, social welfare and humanitarian aid, Jewish mass media and others.

The main activities of the Jewish community of Ukraine include:
- social and humanitarian aid,
- Jewish education,
- scientific researches in the sphere of Judaic,
- support of religious congregations,
- personnel development,
- youth programs,
- Jewish culture,
- preservation of the Jewish heritage,
- memory of the Holocaust.

In recent years the Jewish communities successfully combine communal and emigration activities.

Today there are over 200 Jewish organizations in Ukraine – religious, civil, cultural, educational and youth. Among them it is possible to distinguish two main types of organizations by the principle of its formation - community organizations consisting of physical persons (individuals) and unions or associations which consist of legal entities. Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish between these two types of Jewish organizations. Many Jewish organizations in Ukraine started as communities. That happened to the Kiev Progressive Jewish congregation established in 1991. Almost immediately it began to develop as an association. Then several Progressive Jewish congregations of Ukraine united into the Religious Union for Progressive Jewish Congregations in Ukraine (1998). The same happened to the Orthodox Jewish communities united into the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine.

There are about 100 Orthodox communities. The most active between them are Karlin-Stolynski Hasidim and Chabad-Lyubavich. The Orthodox are separated: part of them belong to the United Jewish Community of Ukraine and the Jewish Congress and the other are involved in the activity of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine. These ultra-Orthodox Jewish organizations cannot find a common language with each other which decreases the effectiveness of their activity.

As regards the Progressive Movement, it has failed to involve a large number of Ukrainian Jews. Today the number of people engaged in the activities of Progressive Jewish congregations in Ukraine constitutes 4,000-5,000. Many of those Jews, especially in big cities, such as Kiev, Kharkiv etc., are the members of two or three Jewish religious congregations and attend Kabbalat Shabbat service in several synagogues at a time. In 2001-2002 the number of Progressive Jewish congregations exceeded 40. However, in 2003, a cut in the financial support from abroad combined with the local problems, such as poor management and fundraising, led to a reduction of the Movement. The main monthly publication of the Jewish Progressive Movement in Ukraine – Open Door – was closed. "Kerch is one of the most biggest Progressive Jewish congregations in Ukraine. However, we get no support from the Religious Union of Progressive Jewish Congregations in Ukraine. There are two drawbegs, which have led to such a situation in the Progressive Movement in Ukraine: poor management and lack of fund raising," said Boris Kapustin, chairperson of Progressive Jewish Congregation in Kerch.

Before the 20th century the most important issues for Ukrainian Jews were struggle for religious tolerance, equality of rights and resistance to the Christian anti-Judaism. The 20th century was marked by the tragedy of Holocaust, state anti-Semitism on the territory of the former Soviet Union, assimilation, acculturation and atheistic identification of Jews. The biggest challenge of the 21th century is to find ways of further development of new Jewish community of Ukraine where Progressive Judaism should play an important role.

It should be said that the Jewish community of Ukraine does not experience a state policy of anti-Semitism any longer. There are some anti-Semitism feelings in the Ukrainian society, as in many other countries. There can also be some anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish publications in the Ukrainian press. However, these are the actions of separate small groups rather than influential political circles of Ukraine.

The relations between the Jewish community of Ukraine and representatives of other religions in Ukraine – Christians, Muslims and others – are generally tolerant. Moreover, the leaders of Progressive Judaism initiated and support the interfaiths dialogue. The meetings of Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny with Cardinal Lyubomyr Guzar (2002), and the leaders of Lutheran Church (2003) certainly have contributed into the better activity of congregations and life in society, cleaning the historical memory. At the same time, a contribution of the Step to Unity association which is a member of the International Council of Christians and Jews, into the development of inter-faiths dialogue in Ukraine has been insignificant since the establishment of this organization in 1999.

At the same time, relations within Judaism itself – between leaders of Orthodox, Conservative and Progressive movements in Ukraine – are tense. The recent public discussion of a construction site for the Jewish Community Center Heritage in Babiy Yar (the place of massacre of Jews by Nazis in Kiev) has split the Jewish community of Ukraine and spoilt the relations between different Jewish organizations. Differences in ideology is not the main reason of the conflict: there is a competition for property and people between communities and associations. Today, the majority of synagogues in Ukraine are run by representatives of Chabad-Lyubavich movement. In September 2003 Chabad Rabbi Azriel Chaikin was elected (Chabad) Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine. It is expected that the Congress of Ukrainian Jews scheduled for May 2004 (the date has already been postponed twice) will contribute into reconciliation and cooperation between leaders of different Jewish organizations in Ukraine. For the time being, the lack of consent between Jews of different organizations and religious communities, present financial shortages and elements of corruption complicate the further effective development of the Jewish community of Ukraine.

A great number of mainly assimilated and non-Halahic repatriates from Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union have been making a great impact on ethnic and religious situation in Israel where a dominant branch of Judaism is Orthodox. Therefore, there are constant disputes about the factors of Jewish self-identification in Israel. In March 2002 Knesset adopted a law which abolished “nationality column” in the passports of Israelis. However, the conservatives did their best to reject it. The Jewish origin after mother (blood identity), following Judaism or passing through Giur (faith identity) remains the criteria of Jewish national identity, stipulated by a Law on Return.

According to the State Committee of Statistics and the information of Jewish organizations in Ukraine the process of re-emigration of Jews, who earlier left Ukraine for a permanent living in Israel, the USA and other countries, has recently increased. Today we can argue that the predictions of Jewish organizations that almost all Soviet Jews would immigrate to Israel have not come true. In spite of mass emigration from Ukraine during 1989-2001, 6 532 Jews have returned to Ukraine, 2 534 of them from Israel, 292 – from USA, 335 – from Germany re-emigrants maintaining good relations with Israel and USA make a big contribution into development of the Jewish community of Ukraine. Israeli and international organizations give financial support to the Jewish community of Ukraine and control its development.

After the September 11th attack and terrorist acts in the Middle East the financial support of the Jewish communities in Ukraine substantially decreased. Naturally, the Ukrainian Jewish organizations seek to establish and maintain contacts with the Jewish organizations and twinning congregations in the USA, Israel, the UK, Canada and other countries. Contacts are also maintained with Ukrainian sponsors.

An important part of the cultural heritage is language. The language behavior of Ukrainian Jews reflects the present situation in the Jewish community of Ukraine. Most of Ukrainian Jews speak Russian and Ukrainian and some of them (in the family and synagogue) speak Yiddish. Modern Ivrit is mainly studied by scientists and those people who plan to immigrate to Israel . Hebrew remains a language of Jewish religious practice. Religious services in Ukrainian synagogues are led in two languages – Hebrew and Russian - and sometimes with English commentaries.

The recent changes in the Ukrainian society have led to changes in the Jewish identification model. National and cultural processes in the Jewish environment of Ukraine are complex and controversial. At the same time, the role of religion as part of cultural heritage of the Jewish people will increase.

Today it is possible to distinguish five models of the Jewish community of Ukraine:
- the Jewish community of the pre-war type,
- modern West-European model,
- North-American model,
- the Jewish community of the Israeli type,
- new model of post-Soviet Jewry.

Despite the fact that today the majority of Ukrainian Jews consider Judaism to be just an element of the Jewish national culture, the history of Jews and evolution of the forms of the Jewish national identification convince that the existence of the Jewish community of Ukraine is not possible without Judaism . Therefore, the religious component in the life of the Jewish community of Ukraine will grow. This means that the Ukrainian model of Jewry will be closer to the West-European model. Most likely that a specific Ukrainian model of Jewry with different community branches will be established after general stabilization of the Jewish community in Ukraine in 25-30 years. This new specific type of Jewish community will unite both religious and non-religious Jews.