"No monument stands over Babi Yar. A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone...."
These words begin the famous Poem by Yevgeni Yevtushenko, "Babi Yar".
Without a doubt, the most sobering part of our trip thus far.
Babi Yar is a ravine in a park, named after the fact that Bubbe's would take their children to play in the park. It was also the cite of one of the most notorious massacres to take place in the Holocaust. In the end of 1941, as the Nazi's had encroached on Ukrainian soil, and in these Einsatzgruppen they went on killing sprees in every single city containing Jews. One of the largest of these massacres occurred on September 29–30, in which Jews were herded and killed under the observation of their Ukrainian neighbors. In the two days, 33,771 were murdered. All that remains today is a ravine, covered in snow, where the burnt ashes were dumped. There stands a small monument on the location commemorating the victims. We recited Av Harachamim, El Malei, and read Yevtushenko's poem. The most shocking aspect is that this mass grave is right next door to a home, and is right off of the main drag, ironically a strip of land which once housed a Jewish cemetary (since razed to the ground) and a building for the chevra kadisha.
We read some of the works of Isaac Babel, and walked in his footsteps on our way to Zhitomir - Babel became a writer who was appointed during the Russain revolution as a reporter for the Red Army. He spent six years away from any remnant of Jewish life, later encountering the Jewish community, and the Chernovitzer Rebbe. On Tisha Ba'av he is in Kozin and describes the plight of the Jewish people of Ukraine as a reliving the tragedies of the time of the destruction of the Temple. Babel had a complicated relationship with Judaism as it had become known to him, he often described the corruption and decay of European Jewry and predicted the final demise as he asked "can it be that this is the end of the Jewish people?"
In 1920 he is killed in prison, probably stopped writing as he found himself conflicted as a quasi Bosheivik and quasi Jew, most likely the cause of his assasination. It just so happens to be Babel's yarzheit this evening.
In Zhitomir , the first stop was "The Chesed" a project of the JDC, established in 1920's and because so successful in its work with the elderly that the word "Chesed" has now been entered into the Russian dictionary.
Currently there are 3,100 Jews in Zhitomir, down from 5000 Jews in the year 1991.
We visited the shul in Berdichev, and with Alexander Mar, an older man, who had a stroke 9 years ago, lives with his
wife in a tiny dilapidated apartment. Alexander has no hot water, and is unable to leave his 5th floor apt. They recieve money and food from the JDA on a regular basis.
We visited the grave of Rav Levi Yitzchak Mi'Berditchev, the great Chassidic master and "Defender of Israel". A Talmid of Rav shmelke of Nikolsberg, in the late 1700's and early 1800's, author of the classic work the Kedushas Levi. I have studied many of his Torah thoughts in the past, and was now able to do so in his hometown, a truly inspiring experience!
We came back to Kiev and had dinner with the Israeli Jewish Agency, and some local Ukranian students. Met a young man of 22 years, named Timyrbek. He is proud to be a Jew, even has a Magen David tatood onto his arm. To us this may seem halachically and socially appalling, but to Timyrbek it is the only way he knows to identify with his Judaism. We exchanged emails, I would try to recruit him as a member of KCT, but from what I gather Aliyah is more immediately on the radar for him.
till tommorow...
