65.  The writer was unable to visit the two other Jewish day schools in Kyiv. School #128 is a general public school with a Jewish division. The Jewish section was established in 1990 by the Israeli government in an effort to develop secular Jewish Zionist schools in major cities across the Soviet Union. Establishment of the Jewish section was attractive to the larger school because a relationship between the Israeli government and ORT led to the placement of 10 computers and related equipment in School #128 at a time when few other public schools had any computers at all. The ORT computer lab was available to all pupils in the school; an updated ORT program is in used at School #128 today.

Reflecting general demographic decline in Ukraine, total school enrollment in #128 has dropped substantially in recent years. According to those familiar with the school, the number of Jewish pupils has declined more precipitously than the overall enrollment, leading to suspension of the Jewish studies program in several grades. Few informed individuals in Kyiv believe that School #128 continues to provide a viable Jewish education option for Kyiv Jewish children.

The Mitzvah school includes preschool and elementary school sections that enroll a total of approximately 120 youngsters up to age 13. The school is sponsored by Rabbi Moshe Reuven Asman of the Brodsky synagogue.  The situation at Mitzvah is “not easy,” said Rabbi Asman in an interview.

66.  Two residential facilities for Jewish children operate in Kyiv, each of which enrolls its youngsters in day schools associated with the sponsoring rabbi.  As noted, Rabbi Bleich sponsors separate homes for boys and girls that now accommodate 32 or 33 youngsters, less than half of their capacity.  Rabbi Asman operates two group homes, each accommodating ten youngsters.  However, the future of the group homes appears to be in doubt; always dependent upon a single London-based sponsor, the sponsor has terminated funding and no longer answers Rabbi Asman’s telephone calls, said Rabbi Asman.[98]

67.  Iosif Akselrud is one of the leading Jewish community professionals in Kyiv, holding positions with several different organizations.  He spends about 80 percent of his time on matters concerning the Hillel student group, he said, devoting lesser time to Limmud and United Jewish Community of Ukraine.[99]  Mr. Axelrud directs Hillel activities throughout Ukraine as well as Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaidzhan, and Uzbekistan.

Hillel in these areas has lost about 50 percent of its budget during recent months, said Mr. Akselrud.  A large proportion of its funding had been provided by a donor whose funds had been managed by Bernard Madoff, Mr. Akselrud continued, and a collaborative agreement with the Jewish Agency failed, thus leading the Jewish Agency to withdraw its financial support.  In response, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, a traditional supporter of Hillel, has increased its allocation, as hasthe Joint Distribution Committee.  One of few accomplished non-rabbinic fundraisers in the post-Soviet states, Mr. Akselrud also has raised significant “replacement” funding from local individuals, including Ihor Kolomoisky of United Jewish Community of Ukraine.

Iosif Akselrud, right, is one of the most successful local fundraisers in the post-Soviet states.  His success outstrips that of his Hillel counterparts in Russia.

Photo: the writer.

Mr. Akselrud hopes that the Genesis Philanthropic Group, a foundation operated by wealthy Russian Jews, will support Hillel across the post-Soviet states, not just in Russia.  He was expecting a three-person GPG delegation on an exploratory mission shortly after the writer’s departure from Ukraine.

Notwithstanding additional support from the Joint Distribution Committee, Hillel is undertaking legal measures to separate itself from Joint – which had performed oversight and financial transfer responsibilities - and re-register as a local legal entity, said Mr. Akselrud.  Local donors, he said, do not want their contributions to be associated with Joint, which they regard as an alien and overly bureaucratic organization.[100]

Regarding local Hillel activities, Mr. Akselrud said that Kyiv Hillel attracts about 150 participants on a monthly basis and 350 for holiday celebrations.  Dance programs and Internet-based Jewish education programs are very popular, he stated.  Although the partnership with the Jewish Agency did not work on a formal basis, the two organizations continue to cooperate in the field and they both work together with Nativ in five smaller Jewish population centers where Hillel does not maintain a discrete presence.

Mr. Akselrud perceives four major changes in Hillel operations in Ukraine over the last five or six years.  First, he said, Hillel is raising more money locally and is less dependent on foreign support.  Separation from the Joint Distribution Committee is an important element of its increased independence.  Second, Hillel professional leadership is becoming more professional through more sophisticated hiring practices and improved training.  Third, Hillel volunteer projects in the general community generate support from local municipalities and may lead to municipal generosity in providing operational space.[101]  Fourth, he continued, Hillel is now working collaboratively with both the Jewish Agency and Nativ.

68.   An organization bearing the name of Aish Hatorah, the international Orthodox Jewish outreach organization, owns a small three-story building in an outlying district of Kyiv in which it conducts various Jewish educational programs.  The writer met with Igor Karasik, its current director, in the Aish Hatorah facility.  The premises include a synagogue and well-stocked and well-used Judaica library[102] on its ground floor, a dining room and kitchen and several small offices on its second floor, and an apartment and multipurpose (classroom/dormitory) rooms on its third floor.

Mr. Karasik stated that the Aish Hatorah central office in Jerusalem ceased funding its Kyiv operations several years ago.  He probably should not be using its name, but Aish has not complained.  JDC is its main institutional sponsor, providing $10,000 annually for utilities.  Five individuals who live in an upstairs apartment pay for security and certain other expenses.  Individual donors provide hot lunches four days each week for 40 Jewish elderly from the surrounding neighborhood.  These seniors also are treated to occasional Jewish films or other entertainment following their meals and receive monthly food parcels for consumption at home.  A wealthy observant Israeli businessman with commercial interests in Kyiv supports the distribution of kosher food to 42 observant local families.

Aish Hatorah operates the largest STARS program in the city, enrolling 80 young people in two separate groups, and sponsors a “brain ring” (KVN) group that competes by Internet with other teams in Kyiv and elsewhere.  The extensive library, said Mr. Karasik, is “our pride” (наша гордость).  It also manages about two Shabbatons every month as well as the Sholom Aleichem Society; the latter is a JDC-supported cultural program for the Jewish intelligentsia.  Members meet in a rented hall monthly or bi-monthly for programs in art, music, or general Jewish-related culture.

Igor Karasik manages an unofficial Aish Hatorah group in Kyiv.

Photo: the writer.

Mr. Karasik said that he also manages logistics for several groups that come to Kyiv and western Ukraine on Jewish history expeditions.  He also has worked with Jewish Agency youth groups.

Notwithstanding the precarious financial condition of his organization, Mr. Karasik said that he is optimistic about its future.  He and several colleagues learned in the original Kyiv Aish Hatorah organization and they will not let it die.  They seem to move from one crisis to another, but they always survive.[103] 

69.  International Solomon University, a proprietary institution, offers a number of Jewish studies courses in its curriculum.  The writer was unable to visit this institution.

70.  The writer met with Dr. Leonid Finberg, a prominent sociologist, in his office at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA  -Національний університет «Києво-Могилянська академія).[104] Dr. Finberg is developing a Judaic studies program within the Center for Studies of History and Culture at NaUKMA. The Center does not confer degrees in Jewish studies, said Dr. Finberg, but offers Jewish-focus courses that are taken by students majoring in Ukrainian history or other areas; these courses are in Jewish culture, history of hasidism, the Holocaust, Zionism, and Hebrew.

In addition to offering courses, continued Dr. Finberg, the Center conducts research, organizes archives, publishes, and works in communities (providing lectures and organizing seminars). The Center publishes ten to twelve books each year, including Ukrainian translations of Yiddish writers, original histories of Jewish life in Ukraine (including history of the Holocaust), and catalogues of Ukrainian Jewish art. Its Holocaust-related materials are reviewed by specialized institutes dealing with that chapter of Ukrainian Jewish history. It also mounts exhibits of Ukrainian Jewish art, Ukrainian Jewish samizdat (self-published Jewish dissident literature from the Soviet period), and various aspects of Jewish culture. 

Professor Leonid Finberg is a prominent Ukrainian sociologist.

Photo: Еврейский Обозратель, #162 (2007), page 1. Еврейский Обозратель was a publication of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, which is associated with Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich.

As a whole, the Center usually employs ten to 15 faculty members, although some of these individuals also are employed elsewhere concurrently.  In response to the economic crisis, Dr. Finberg said, the Center has increased its fundraising efforts; whereas it previously approached 10 foundations for grants annually, it now is submitting applications to 25 foundations, most of them in the United States and in Israel, and to foreign embassies in Kyiv.  Some wealthy local Jews, said Professor Finberg, are beginning to support academic Judaica as well.  However, he continued, it remains particularly difficult to raise money for research.

In response to a question about Ukrainian Jewish demography, Dr. Finberg estimated that only 30,000 to 50,000 Jews remain in Kyiv and perhaps 210,000 reside in the entire country.  Both figures are among the lowest stated in current estimates.  He also said that the incidence of antisemitic events has diminished substantially, almost certainly a reflection of the change of course by MAUP ((Міжрегіональна Академія управління персоналом or Interregional Academy of Personnel Management).[105]  The number of antisemitic publications issued annually in Ukraine has dropped significantly, he observed.

71.  Dr. Anatoly Podolsky is the Director of the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies, an independent non-governmental research and education institution.  The Center officially opened in 2002 and currently employs  six professionals in a two-room suite.  They are joined a by a young Austrian volunteer who works at the Center in lieu of military service in the Austrian armed forces.

Dr. Podolsky said that the work of the Center proceeds in two directions.  The first is continuing research on the Holocaust.  The second is education about the Holocaust; the primary tools in its education mission are bimonthly newsletters for teachers, seminars for teachers, and a scholarly journal that is published twice annually.

Several problems persist in Ukraine regarding the Holocaust, stated Dr. Podolsky.   Many Ukrainians, including prominent individuals in government and society, are reluctant to acknowledge that a large number of Ukrainians were collaborators in the murder of Jews.  The perception is widespread, Dr. Podolsky said, that the Holocaust occurred elsewhere, somewhere in an undefined “Europe” that does not include Ukraine.  More recently, he continued, the Holodmor – the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine in which more than two million people died of starvation as a result of forced collectivization[106] - is being equated with the Holocaust, thus diminishing the magnitude of the Holocaust.  In some instances, Jews are blamed for the Holodmor,[107] effectively absolving Ukrainians from any guilt regarding the Holocaust. Dr. Podolsky believes that such cant is not antisemitic in origin, but reflects Ukrainian nationalism.  The younger generation, he commented, is less likely to be susceptible to such notions because young people arereceiving an education that is more liberal; further, he added, many more young people speak English and thus are able to compare nationalist propaganda with more accurate information available on the Internet and in other media.

Dr. Anatoly Podolsky, a historian, directs the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies.

Photo: the writer.

Financial support for the Center comes from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Rothschild Foundation Europe, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, Yad Vashem, and several other foreign organizations.  The Center maintains collegial ties with Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam, and research centers/museums associated with the concentration camps in Belzec and Maidanek.

Dr. Podolsky stated that he expends great effort in maintaining the independence of the Center.  Unfortunately, he continued, some funding organizations act as if their subsidies entitle them to interfere in the work of the Center.  He observed that the Claims Conference transmits funds to the Center through the Joint Distribution Committee, which apparently requires as long as six months to complete such transfers.  Such uncertainty about the actual receipt of resources adversely affects the work of the Center.

Prior to beginning his tenure in Kyiv, Dr. Podolsky directed the Dnipropetrovsk-based Ukrainian Holocaust Research, Education, and Memorial Center[108] in 2000-2001.  That episode provided him with useful experience in institutional organization and management, he said, but he believes that his Dnipropetrovsk counterparts are too closely associated with the Joint Distribution Committee.  Dr. Podolsky stated that he will continue to avoid a close relationship with any Jewish community institution.

72.  The Jewish Fund of Ukraine was established in 1997 by Alexander Feldman, a member of the Ukrainian Rada (Parliament) from Kharkiv. Its principal activity is operation of Kinor, a basement-level Jewish cultural center in Kyiv comprising a large multipurpose room and several smaller conference rooms.[109] Arkadiy Monastirsky is the director of both the Jewish Fund and the Kinor Center.

Kinor offers 21 programs to its members, charging each a modest membership fee, said Mr. Monastirsky.  These programs include clubs and activities in various fields of Jewish culture (music, art, drama), a Jewish women’s club, children’s activities, and classes in different subjects, including Hebrew and Yiddish. It exhibits work of local Jewish artists and has published several books on Jewish subjects, Jewish sheet music, and audio cassettes of Jewish music. It coordinates Jewish cultural festivals and has organized traveling exhibits of Jewish culture. Kinor also has been active in Holocaust remembrance and in interfaith activities.