feature
IN UKRA I NE,
Chanukah Candles Are a Lifeline
in the Midst of Power Outages
Steve Lipman | JTA.org
Amid the power outages stemming from Russian
attacks, the volunteers brought blankets and
sweatshirts for the cold, as well as menorahs and
kippahs for religious observance purposes.

Some 300 boxes of Chanukah candles will also
do double duty.

These days, the power in Chernivtsi, a city
of around 250,000 (before the war) in Western
Ukraine, is more off than on. So the candles will
do more than allude to the story of the Maccabees;
they will help light Jewish homes across the city.

“This year, it’s really important” to have and use
Chanukah candles, said Lev Kleiman, leader of the
city’s Conservative Jewish community, in a recent
Zoom interview.

Although the need is urgent, “we will hold
onto the candles until Chanukah,” he added, his
Russian interpreted by Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, the
Russian-born and Jerusalem-based “circuit rabbi” of
the Conservative movement’s Schechter Institutes
18 DECEMBER 22, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
and executive director of its Midreshet Schechter
Ukraine. The organizations have been coordinating
the move of holiday supplies to Chernivtsi.

Among a few “couriers” bringing goods to Jewish
communities in Ukraine, Gritsevskaya has made
several trips there in the last 10 months. At the
start of the war, she urged Jews in other cities to
make their way to Chernivtsi, which was far from
the intense fi ghting on the eastern border.

Chernivtsi, which served as a place of refuge for
thousands of displaced people from elsewhere
in parts of the Soviet Union threatened by the
Nazi army during World War II, is again attracting
refugees from throughout the country. Earlier in the
war, Kleiman turned his synagogue into a refugee
center for some of the millions of Ukrainians
fl eeing their homeland. The city also became a
gathering site for worldwide faith leaders who have
denounced the violence and expressed solidarity
with the embattled Ukrainians.

Located on the Prut River, Chernivtsi (known
at one time as “Jerusalem upon the Prut” for the
strength of its Jewish community) is 25 miles north
of the Romanian border and home to one of the
country’s most active Conservative communities.

The city’s Jewish population before the war began
was estimated at 2,000, including many Holocaust
survivors. And today, following the invasion? The number
could be larger or smaller (no one is counting), but
some western cities have experienced population
growth due to all of the migration.

“No one knows,” said Kleiman. “Many left, but
many came.”
‘Th ere are a lot of parallels’
As in other Ukrainian cities, many Jews in Chernivtsi,
especially women, senior citizens and children
(everyone except draft-age males), have migrated.

But uncounted other ones have come to a place
of relative safety, either renting apartments or
staying in ones under the auspices of the Jewish
community. Most of the Jews in Chernivtsi now are
those exempt from military service, said Kleiman.

Others stayed to be with their husbands and fathers
who joined the Ukrainian army after the war began
or to care for their aged parents.

Despite real signs of war — rifl e-carrying soldiers
and policemen on the streets, empty shelves in
stores because of shortages, people hurrying to
Candles: Courtesy of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies; Glow: Vitalii Bondarenko/iStock/Getty Images Plus
In the days before Chanukah, which started on Dec.

18, a few men and women from two Conservative
institutions in Israel traveled to the small Jewish
community in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, with a supply of
needed items.

Flame: apomares /E+/Getty Images Plus; Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images;
Amid the power outages stemming from Russian attacks, the
volunteers will have blankets and sweatshirts for the cold, as well
as menorahs and kippahs for religious observance purposes.




the area, established a ghetto in Chernivtsi where
32,000 Jews, including many from the surrounding
region, were interned; from there, they were
shipped to concentration camps in the nearby
Transnistria area, where 60% died.

A third of the city’s Jews survived the war. The
population grew to about 17,000 when widespread
migration from the USSR began in the late 1980s.

Like many cities in the former Soviet Union,
Chernivtsi has experienced a modest Jewish revival
since communism fell and open expression of
Judaism was allowed again. It was largely spurred
Even though the need is urgent, Lev Kleiman
said his community will wait to use
by the arrival of Chabad emissaries and programs
the candles until the start of Chanukah.

sponsored by the JDC.

Though Chabad is the prime Jewish mover in
Ukraine, there is also a growing non-Orthodox
presence in the country. The Israeli branch of
the Conservative movement sent its fi rst full-
time representatives to Ukraine a decade ago.

The movement’s Jerusalem-based Masorti Olami
organization sponsors a network of synagogues,
schools, camps, youth groups and kosher-
certifi cation services across Ukraine. A few decades
ago, Kleiman attended the Midreshet Yerushalayim
day school in Chernivtsi and Camp Ramah Ukraine.

In addition, the Reform movement’s World Union
safety when they hear sirens — Jewish life there
for Progressive Judaism has established 10
has continued, said Kleiman. The most active
congregations in the country; the movement
organizations in the city are the local outpost of
estimates that 14,000 Ukrainian Jews identify
the Chasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the — and 24/7 lights and heat in the synagogue, he as members.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee- said. Until then, he and the other residents of
These are boring days in southwest Ukraine. TV
supported Hesed Shoshana Welfare Center and Chernivtsi will shiver. The temperature in the city and radio are only available when the electricity
Kleiman’s Kehillat Aviv Synagogue, which sponsors was 29 degrees during the Zoom interview, and a is on, and Internet and cellphone service is spotty.

light snow was falling.

daily Jewish activities.

Kleiman called the war a test of the people’s mettle,
Though no Russian missiles have fallen inside a spur to their growing national unity. As a form
The synagogue, located near the Chabad center
with which it cooperates on relief activities, is Chernivtsi itself, some have reached the outskirts, of solidarity, many have switched the language
housed in a small, two-story building that contains causing damage to the area’s infrastructure and of their conversations from Russian — the lingua
an offi ce, a kitchen and a large multi-function hall. utilities. Other parts of the country have not escaped franca during the Soviet days — to Ukrainian.

Kleiman said this Chanukah will be more important the Russian onslaught; two months ago, more than
Nobody in Chernivtsi’s Jewish community is
than ever because in addition to its ability to bring 4,000 Ukrainian towns, villages and cities had starving, said Kleiman. Kosher food is available at
people together, the holiday also asserts Jewish experienced outages, and 40% of the country’s grid the synagogue, and volunteers bring supplies to
survival. “There are a lot of parallels,” he said.

was crippled. The bombing of power stations is a people unable to travel. Overall, the morale of the
Electricity in Chernivtsi fl ows only a few hours major part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Jewish community is good, he says. Native-born
each day, and at night, no street lights are on, plan to weaponize Ukraine’s weather to bully members of the community “support each other,”
thanks to incessant Russian bombing of Ukraine’s the country into submission as winter sets in. while some people from other parts of the country,
infrastructure and to government-imposed (In addition to candles and other supplies, some separated from their families with fewer personal
restrictions designed to conserve available Jewish groups are sending generators and heaters.) connections, are depressed, he said.

resources. In the boxes of materials Gritsevskaya has
A holiday of lights sans lights? “We’ve never done ‘Support each other’
brought to Chernivtsi from Israel are some Israeli-
it before,” said Kleiman, adding that the Jews in his Home in past years to such prominent Jews as style dreidels, whose Hebrew letters stand for the
city understand the holiday’s symbolism.

actress Mila Kunis, the late Israeli writer Aharon words, Nes gadol haya po: “A great miracle happened
Some will come to the synagogue for a Appelfeld, former Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein here.” On dreidels used in the Diaspora, the last
communal candlelighting, Kleiman said. Others will and the late poet-translator Paul Celan (born word is sham, or “there.”
light their candles at home. Like all other buildings Paul Antschel), Chernivtsi has an honored place
The linguistic symbolism in a land under siege
in Chernivtsi, Kleiman’s offi ce and apartment are in the country’s history. On the eve of World War is clear, noted Kleiman, who plans to explain the
subject to periodic electricity blackouts, often II, some 45,000 Jews lived in the city, about a message to those taking home a dreidel.

third of the country’s total Jewish population. The
announced in advance.

“I understand; they will understand, too,” he says.

“With G-d’s help, we will soon have a generator” collaborationist Romanian authorities, who ruled “I hope the miracle will also happen in Ukraine.” JE
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