Monday, January 25, 2010

This is now the second JUF mission which I have been a part of. It presents a unique opportunity as it brings together rabbis from the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform movements, fostering achdus and collegiality.

We embarked yesterday on the first leg of our journey from Ohare to Frankfurt en route to Kiev. Unfortunately, we were delayed for a few hours in Frankfurt due to some inclimate weather. This did however present us with an interesting experience; davening shacharit, donning tallis and tefillin in Germany. My thoughts went to the Jews who had been there before me, who were not granted such freedoms, to say the least. I caught myself before removing my tefillin to take a moment and truly contemplate the enormity of the moment and the significance of a minyan of Jews davening in the Frankfurt airport.

At last, we arrived in the Ukraine, and were off the the first stop in Kiev, the Sholem Aleichem memorial. Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich, the popular Yiddish author and playright from Ukraine who lived at the turn of the previous century. Sholem Aleichem's popular charachter Tevye the Milkman eventually became the basis for the famous 1964 musical, Fiddler on the Roof. We saw the building in which he lived and a monument erected in his memory.

We then went to the Brodsky Synagogue, originally built in the end of the 19th century by a wealthy merchant named Lazar Brodsky. Brodsky pursued higher education to learn how to extract sugar beets, through which he made his fortune. Brodsky had personally financed much of the needs within the Jewish community. The Nazis ravaged the synagogu which was rebuilt in the year 2000, and is currently run by the local Chabad.

After helping to make a minyan, we finished the evening with a dinner at Kiev's one and only kosher restaraunt, the King David Restaraunt. In case you dont believe me that there is actually a kosher restaraunt, I have attached a picture of myself and Rabbi Vernon Kurtz outside of the establishement.

Over dinner we met with Zena Kleinman, Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine. We learnt about the state of the current political elections and the possible impact on the relationship with the State of Israel as well as upon the 400,000 + Jewish citizens in the Ukraine.