(Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Krivoi Rog, Donetsk, and Kyiv) Report of a ...

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summer camp, an assisted living residential center for elderly Jews, a matza factory, the
Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of
Ukraine, and the Kyiv Jewish Religious Community.
Rabbi Bleich’s native American English and familiarity with American culture have
facilitated easy access to American representations in the Ukrainian capital. He also
represents Ukrainian Jewry in the European and World Jewish Congresses as well as in
other international Jewish organizations. Yet he is increasingly an outsider, noted more
for his absence from the country while attending to family
matters, fundraising, and appearances at international
conferences than for local presence. Further, he is a
Karlin-Stolin hasid in a country in which Jewish religious
life is dominated by Chabad. His outsider status,
compounded by ongoing economic developments, is felt
within his own institutions in Kyiv. Several of his umbrella
organizations have shriveled, his publications have
ceased, his day school is withering, and his own
synagogue no longer is open on a daily basis.
Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine, no
longer resides in the country on a fulltime basis.
Photo: the writer.
In a meeting in his synagogue office, Rabbi Bleich told the writer that he has engaged a
fundraiser in the United States to seek support for his various community institutions.
Because the fundraiser is being compensated according to the amount of money he
raises, he has a strong incentive to work diligently, Rabbi Bleich noted.
The new community building to the right of the synagogue remains incomplete, Rabbi
Bleich acknowledged. However, he is confident that new sewage pipes will be installed
in the near future and that the structure will be ready for a grand opening in September,
in time for the yahrzeit (annual anniversary of a death) of the mother of the principal
donor, Aleksander Rodnyansky, a Kyiv communications magnate. As he had stated in
previous discussions, Rabbi Bleich will try to lease space in the community building to
an independent kosher restaurant operator and perhaps to another independent
individual capable of managing a small hotel to be located in the structure. Other
program areas to be located in the community building are a large multipurpose hall for
community events, a kosher food and Judaica store, and a mikveh.
About 50 young men are learning in a yeshiva that is housed in the Vladimir Shifrin
Educational Center, a structure located to the left of the synagogue. The yeshiva is a
“serious” learning institution, stated Rabbi Bleich, but smicha (ordination) is not a goal
for most students. Contemporary Ukraine offers few employment positions for [non-
Chabad Orthodox] rabbis, Rabbi Bleich continued, so it is anticipated that young men in
the yeshiva will remain there only a few years and then leave to teach, supervise