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122

Detroit Jewish News

LANA GORDON IN THAILAND

Faculty members from the St.
Petersburg Jewish University lectured
about Jewish culture and architecture
in the area, which was first home to
abbi Adin Steinsaltz knows
Jews in the 15th century.
a lot about Jewish life in
The region's Jewish pppulation is
Ukraine.
now
less than 5,000.
But on a recent trip to
Since
most younger Ukrainian Jews
Jewish communities and sites in
have
emigrated
during the past
southwestern Ukraine, the acclaimed
decade,
Jewish
communities
here are
translator and commentator on the
predominantly elderly.
Talmud still found a few surprises —
Indeed, pensioners make up more
one being that a large number of Jews
than 60 percent' of Jews in smaller
here speak Yiddish.
Ukrainian communities, most of
In the small town of Shargorod,
whom
have found themselves in an
Steinsaltz spoke in Yiddish with Jew-
extremely harsh eco-
ish passers-by in the
nomic situation as a
old part of town. The -,,,'--
result of the econom-
town once had a thriv-
ic deterioration that
ing Jewish community;
has taken place since
...,
now there are only
Ukraine became
about 100 Jews here. -.-
independent after the
Steinsaltz, who usu- 8
breakup of the Soviet
ally lectures in
Union in 1991.
Hebrew, spoke to the
The Jews who live
communities he met
here
are not religious.
this time in Yiddish as
Few go to synagogue
well.
— if there is one in
While some of the
their town. And even
Jews in their 40s and
fewer know how to
50s here understand
daven,
or pray.
Yiddish, most of the
For
example
in
speakers of the lan-
Khmelnitski,
whose
guage of Eastern Euro-
Jewish population
pean Jewry in Podolia,
as this region is
Velvl Verkhovsky, a Chasidic Jew numbers more than
1,000, there are only
known, are older.
from Odessa, prays at the grave
three
men in their
For Steinsaltz, the
of the Baal Shem Tov, founder
70s and 80s who
lesson is clear: "The
of Chasidism, in the town of
know how to pray in
fact that Yiddish is
Miedzyboz in Western Ukraine.
Hebrew.
_widely understood here
"It's never too late to
means that the process
start with what a small Jewish boy
of assimilation in Ukraine is one gener-
starts," Steinsaltz told the attendees
ation behind" the process in most of
who gathered in a synagogue that was
the former Soviet Union, he said.
recently returned to the Jewish com-
Steinsaltz, a 61-year-old Jerusalem
munity.
rabbi and talmudic scholar who has
"Even when a man is very limited
served as a spiritual leader for Jews in
in
means,
this does not excuse him
the former Soviet Union since 1995,
from
not
being
a Jew," he said,
traveled through the region earlier this
responding to the claim that the
month with a group of 20 Jewish
younger generation should lead the
community leaders from the former
Jewish revival.
Soviet Union.
"I didn't expect that the rabbi
The group, known as Chaverim,
would
say such things," said a woman
Hebrew for friends, consists of indi-
in
her
70s
after the lecture. She added
viduals who take part in Steinsaltz-led
that
now
she
intends to light Shabbat
seminars throughout Russia and
candles
in
her
home — something she
Ukraine.
had never done in her life.
This time, most of the seminar was
Some of the sites the group visited
conducted on the bus, while the
are places whose memory still sears
group was traveling between the cities.
Jewish consciousness.
Steinsaltz told the students —
Never before had Steinsaltz visited
whose ages ranged between 25 and 52
the
Jewish community in the town
— about the life and writings of the
that
bears the name of Bogdan
Chasidic leaders who once lived in the
area. The students also studied parts
UKRAINE on page 124
of the Talmud.

LEV KRICHEVSKY
Special to The Jewish News