opinion
The Years I Spent in Ukraine Taught Me
a Very Jewish Concept: Hope
B BY JEREMY BOROVITZ
a rabbi living in Berlin, a concept that would
have been anathema to most of my grandpar-
ents. I walk down streets every day that are
ERLIN – I watch what is happening in
littered with Stolpersteine, the brass plaques or
Ukraine, and I feel helpless, scared for
“stumbling stones” memorializing the Jews who
the state of the world, terrified for my
used to inhabit these buildings. But despite this
friends and former students and anxious about
obscene history, and despite my own encounters
the future of the place that I called home for
in Germany with violent antisemitism, we con-
nearly four years of my life.

tinue to live here, to build up Jewish life here, to
When I first arrived in Ukraine 12 years ago as a
believe that there is a future for Jews here, if only
Peace Corps volunteer, I didn’t speak the language,
we can will it to be. To live our lives as Jews is,
was intimidated by the culture and was plagued by
for me, a deeply resilient act.

stories of pogroms and mass shootings that had
It feels like the whole world is currently
penetrated the Jewish collective trauma.

Mikhail Zinshteyn’s family’s exit visa from the USSR and a picture of
mired in some sort of COVID PTSD, trauma-
Imagine my surprise (not to mention the him with his mother and sister. (Courtesy of Mikhail Zinshteyn)
tized by the isolation, by the loved ones we lost,
surprise of my family and friends back home in
Peace Corps volunteer.

by carefully
crafted and curated worlds that were
the United States) when it was Ukraine, and life in a
I asked him how he was doing, expecting to hear
small Ukrainian village, that led to my own spiritual a mix of my own trepidation and nervousness and turned upside down. And so we read of impending
awakening, which brought me closer to Torah, prayer uncertainty. Instead, he said he was doing great. The doom on the Eastern front and we want to shout out
and God, and which was the catalyst for the rabbini- winter thaw was dropping away, and he might even to our fellow Jews, “It’s time to run! It’s time to get
cal role in which I find myself today.

be able to plant potatoes in the next few weeks. War out!” And meanwhile they are busy kashering their
Ukraine has somewhere between 43,000 and lingers on the horizon, but the field must be sowed.

dishwashers. 200,000 Jews, a wide swing that depends on who is
One of my friends in Ukraine shared with me some
And when I spoke to some of my friends in Kyiv,
counting and how they count. The vast majority of
advice from his father regarding the current moment:
they were concerned about the Russian invasion
these Jews live in four major cities — Kyiv, Dnipro,
The biggest regret of his own relatives in World War
but were more worried that someone had put dairy
Odessa and Kharkiv — where one can find a vibrant
II was that they split up the family in the face of
dishes in the meat dishwasher and if everything was
and breathing Jewish life.

upheaval. No matter what, they will stay together. As
now treyf.

In addition, most large to mid-size Ukrainian cities
long as they are together, hope remains.

And while texting with a former student we dis-
have synagogues and/or cultural centers, and you
Can our Jewish family stay together? Both Russia
cussed her husband and their plans for a family and,
will often find in small towns across the country a
and Ukraine have strong, proud Jewish communities.

sure, she said, there are tanks at the border, but right
handful of elderly Jews who still gather from time to
And while I am decidedly pro-Ukrainian, it would be
now she was just trying to imagine her future.

time for holiday celebrations. One of my most trans-
wrong to suggest that the global Jewish community is
Some might call this naivete or denial. I call it
formative Jewish experiences was an impromptu
unanimous in its views on this conflict. Then again,
hope. And hope is the ultimate act of resilience.

Torah-reading for Simchat Torah celebrations in the
we never are.

Jews are no strangers to hope. Maimonides tells
town of Zvenyhorodka.

And yet despite our differences, despite our dis-
Kyiv, the city which I used to call home, is home us that one of the 13 principles of Jewish faith is the agreements, despite the despair I feel when I think
to multiple synagogues, a JCC, grassroots social and complete belief in the coming of the Messiah. Despite of the future of Ukraine and my friends there, I am
cultural movements, a Hillel, a Moishe House and a persecution, despite hardship, we are compelled to forcing myself to hope. There are moments when I
kosher bar, among other institutions. While many believe in a more perfect world. The national anthem feel a sense of déjà vu from eight years ago, when
young Jews left Ukraine in the past eight years for of the state of Israel is called “Hatikvah,” literally the world stood by as Russia annexed Crimea and
economic reasons, as recently as a few weeks ago I “The Hope,”’ its lyrics adapted from a 19th-century provoked war in Donbass. But the post-World War
spoke with friends excited to mark a post-COVID poem that expressed a longing tinged with optimism. II order has been more unified in its opposition than
“Od lo avda tikvateinu.” Our hope has not yet died.

return to Jewish life with a massive Purim bash.

it has seemed in decades. I’m not sure if these words
In fact, the Ukrainian national anthem captures and those sanctions will do anything to quell the vio-
I spent Tuesday night glued to my phone, unable
to sleep, counting Russian battalions on the border similar themes. The opening line declares “Shche lence. But for the moment, it does give me some hope.

and refreshing Twitter feeds in English, German and ne vmerla Ukrayiny,” which translates to “Ukraine
So I will pray for peace, and I will pray for a reso-
Ukrainian. I watched speeches by Russian President has not yet died.” Written in the mid-19th century, lution, and I will pray for my friends. Our hope isn’t
Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr this line is in defiance of history, a declaration that dead yet. Ukraine isn’t dead yet. And neither are we,
Zelensky. Early the next morning, after I got my kids an entity that had yet to exist (the first independent and neither is the future we have yet to build. JE
off to school, I called Vassil Ivanovich, the physics Ukrainian state wouldn’t come about until the post-
and math teacher at the school in the small village World War I era) had nevertheless refused to perish. Jeremy Borovitz is a rabbi and director of Jewish learning for
of Boyarka that I called home for two years as a
I think a lot about defying history. I am currently Hillel Deutschland.

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