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

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The city is highly Russified, a product of its location near the Russian border and the
key role of its industrial and educational institutions in the former Soviet Union.
At left is the main building of the Kharkiv
National University of Radioelectronics, one
of many highly regarded institutions of higher
education in the city. It currently enrolls
about 12,000 students in 34 specialties.
Photo and other information:
http://www.kture.kharkov.ua/opencms/opencms/K
NURE/ index.html?__locale=en.
Retrieved July 11, 2011.
29. The Jewish population of Kharkiv probably is between 15,000 and 30,000
according to the Israeli Law of Return, although the writer has heard both higher and
lower estimates. Jews are prominent in almost every sphere of Kharkiv life, including
government, business and industry, education, and culture; most openly identify as
Jews and are friendly to Jewish organizations. However, as is the case in most post-
Soviet large cities, only a small proportion of local Jews participate in any form of
Jewish life.
Jewish Education and Culture
30. The Chabad Jewish day school (School #170) enrolls a total of 352 youngsters, a
significant decrease from its maximum of 502 in 2003. The largest single number –
pupils in grades five through 11 – convene in the upper two floors of a general public
school building. A renovated kindergarten building accommodates the Chabad
preschool and lower school. Also included in the pupil census are a small machon for
girls in grades five through 11, which meets in classrooms in the choral synagogue, and
a yeshiva katana for boys in grades five through 11, which meets in a partially
renovated smaller synagogue.
Grigory Shoichet, School 170’s veteran and highly respected principal, was quick to
emphasize the academic achievements of School #170, a seriously underfunded
institution in a city known for its strong school system. Of the 260 schools in the city, he
said, #170 ranks 32nd. It is especially strong in mathematics, physics, and biology;
School #170 has done very well in academic competitions in all of these subjects, he
observed. The great weakness of the school, he continued, is in computer science;
JDC managed to divert an ORT computer laboratory intended for the school to its own
Jewish community center (where it was used for a fee-based adult education program)
some years previously and School #170 has been unable to muster resources to
replicate the ORT school program on its own. The school currently has five computers.