In addition to programs for teenagers and young adults, the Israel Culture Center offers a number of Israel-oriented activities for adults, including free ulpans.  It also sponsors various interest clubs.

86.  The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC, Joint) office in Kyiv supervises Joint operations in central and western Ukraine.  The writer spoke with Dani Gekhtman, the head of these operations; Mr. Gekhtman, an Israeli, has many years of experience in the country. 

Mr. Gekhtman believes that the current crisis in Ukraine is still in its early stages.  The inflation rate is reported officially at 25 percent, but real inflation is closer to 50 percent, said Mr. Gekhtman.  Unemployment is reported officially at nine or 10 percent, he continued, but probably is between 20 and 25 percent.  Banks have many bad loans on their books and are short of cash; depositors are undable to withdraw funds, and wire transfers are delayed.  Mr. Gekhtman noted that local banks are delaying JDC wire transfers to various purveyors; not surprisingly, he continued, the vendors are complaining.

Dani Gekhtman, right, is the director of JDC operations in central and western Ukraine.

Photo: the writer (in 2005).

The Ukrainian government, said Mr. Gekhtman, has no endowment fund for pensions; it is dependent on tax revenues for the payment of retirement benefits, but the declining economy has led to lower tax income so pension payments are delayed.  Mr. Gekhtman fears that pension payments may be terminated entirely in the future. Ukrainian migrant workers in western Europe boosted foreign exchange reserves and supported their families in Ukraine by transferring their wages to relatives in Ukraine, but the economic downturn in western Europe has deprived many such migrants of employment and they have returned home, jobless with few prospects.

JDC is receiving many more requests for assistance, said Mr. Gekhtman.  Among those who are having difficulty are young families, including middle-class families in which the primary breadwinner has lost his or her job.  At the same time, many forms of assistance have become more expensive, especially medicines, which have doubled, tripled, or quadrupled in price.  Joint has had to “recalculate” all categories of assistance, he continued.  They are now offering less assistance to fewer people.  Approximately 7,000 people received some form of food assistance several years ago, he said; now, only 3,000 are receiving food aid through Joint.[130]

A modest improvement in Joint capacity to assist Holocaust survivors is on the horizon, said Mr. Gekhtman, because the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the German government have agreed to increase monthly payments to survivors who lived in Nazi camps for at least 18 months.  About 30,000 elderly Jews in Ukraine will be the beneficiaries of this new policy, Mr. Gekhtman noted.

In response to a question, Mr. Gekhtman said that several wealthy local Jews contribute to the hesed, but none perceives it as a major responsibility.  Each has his own cause, he stated.  Several of them, he added, have lost significant money in the crisis so their philanthropic capacity has declined.  Perhaps, he mused, the current crisis will generate Jewish communal leadership, but no evidence of such a development is visible.

Antisemitism has decreased, Mr. Gekhtman said, observing that MAUP is no longer generating antisemitic propaganda.  However, he continued, anti-Jewish bigotry is part of the local culture and it probably will increase as the economic crisis deepens.

Miscellaneous

87.  The Victor Pinchuk Foundation was established in 2006 by Victor Pinchuk, a Dnipropetrovsk industrialist, whose 2009 net worth is estimated at $2.2 billion.[131] The current value of his foundation, said Valeriy Vakariouk, avice president, is $23 million.  Although the Foundation is reducing its allocations in 2009 due to decreased income, Mr. Pinchuk intends to enlarge its endowment base as the economy improves, said Mr. Vakariuk.

Victor Pinchuk, left, is one of several wealthy Jews in Dnipro-petrovsk who have moved to Kyiv.

Photo: http://pinchukartcentre.org/en/about_us/about_Victor_Pinchuk. 

Retrieved June 15, 2009.

The Victor Pinchuk Foundation supports Ukraine-focused programs in health (neonatal care and HIV/AIDS), education (stipends for graduate students, Kyiv School of Economics), culture, human rights and tolerance, local communities (Dnipropetrovsk, Jewish communities in Ukraine), and various programs that enhance Ukraine’s standing in the world.  Under the “human rights and tolerance” category, the Pinchuk Foundation co-produced (with Steven Spielberg) the documentary film Spell Your Name about the Holocaust in Ukraine.  The film has been distributed to many schools and theaters in Ukraine and has been shown on television in several countries.  The Pinchuk Foundation also supports the work of Father Patrick Dubois, the French Catholic priest who investigates the Holocaust in Ukraine.

The Jewish communities portfolio of the Pinchuk Foundation allocated $1.8 million in 2008, said Mr. Vakariouk, all of it disbursed through the Chabad Federation of Jewish Communities office in Dnipropetrovsk.  Specific programs supported include Shabbat meals for Jewish elderly, food for children in Chabad schools, and bookpacks (stocked with school supplies) for first graders in Chabad schools.  Due to the economic crisis and the reduction in value of the Foundation’s assets, Mr. Vakariouk continued, this allocation is being cut by 50 percent in 2009.  No other Jewish programs receive support from the Pinchuk Foundation, said Mr. Vakariouk.

Allocations are being reduced throughout the Pinchuk Foundation in 2009, Mr. Vakariouk stated.  The Foundation will undertake no new initiatives anywhere until its asset base recovers.

Asked about other philanthropic foundations in Ukraine, Mr. Vakariouk cited the Alexander Feldman Fund (Фонд Олександра Фелдмана, Ukr.),[132] which, he said is larger than the Pinchuk Foundation, and Rinat Akhmetov’s Foundation for the Development of Ukraine, which is somewhat smaller.[133]  Mr. Vakariouk also mentioned the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund of Yekataryna Yushchenko, wife of Victor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine.

Observations

88.  The Jewish population of Ukraine continues to decline, a casualty of assimilation, intermarriage, low fertility, high mortality, and emigration of younger age cohorts.  Emigration appears to be increasing, reflecting economic insecurity in Ukraine.  An intermarriage rate believed to exceed 80 percent creates complex situations for Orthodox groups that prefer to confine their programs to halachically Jewish individuals.

89.  Ukraine is undergoing an economic crisis more severe than that afflicting most Western countries.  Unemployment, officially acknowledged at under ten percent, may be twice as high if partial employment and uncompensated labor are considered.  Inflation exceeds 15 percent, banks are overextended, and the Ukrainian currency has decreased more than 50 percent in value against the United States dollar.  New construction has stopped.  Corruption impedes economic growth and corrodes public trust.  Crime is increasing.

90.  The economic crisis is accompanied by a political crisis in the Ukrainian national government.  The President and Prime Minister appear unable to work together and all politicians seem more concerned about positioning themselves for elections in early 2010 than about improving the lives of their fellow citizens.  The ineffectiveness of the current government has bred a sense of contempt  toward government institutions and a feeling of general despair.

91.  The domestic political crisis is exacerbated by a regional political crisis as a confrontational Russia increases pressure on Ukraine through its near monopoly on the supply of energy to its smaller neighbor.  Fear and resentment of Russia is growing, even in those areas of eastern Ukraine long considered sympathetic to Russia.

92.  To date, economic hardship in Ukraine has not been accompanied by a significant increase in antisemitism.  The extraordinary anti-Jewish bigotry spread by the MAUP academic institution has ceased, overcome by pressure from western governments and advocacy groups.  Nonetheless, almost all observers acknowledge an escalation in general xenophobia, fueled by Ukrainian nationalism and currently directed against people from the Caucasus, Asians, and other non-whites.

93.  Economic distress has forced the large international Jewish organizations, specifically the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel, to decrease programs and services to Ukrainian (and other) post-Soviet Jews. Chabad also has retreated, responding to financial pressure on its major donors.  The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, an important source of support for certain welfare programs, has withdrawn some of its funding.  Other foreign organizations also are reducing assistance.

The loss of funding is affecting multiple aspects of Jewish communal programming, including the provision of material goods (such as food and medicine for elderly Jews and educational materials for Jews of all ages), programs (including camps, seminars, Hebrew ulpans, and Jewish studies in day schools), and personnel (managers, trained teachers and leaders, and security specialists).  Although the crisis may generate some beneficial institutional consolidation, such as the merger of several Kyiv day schools, the short-term future for almost all Jewish institutions is likely to be painful.

94.  Indigenous lay leadership is emerging slowly, if at all.  Most major donors appear to be interested in individual projects, rather than in building community.  Few work collaboratively with others.  Resenting foreign control, they show little interest in assisting large international organizations.  Ukrainian tax policies discourage philanthropy and the development of donor-supported organizations.

95.  Professional leadership is advancing somewhat more rapidly, particularly among English-speakers able to observe and learn from Western counterparts.  Many more young Jews speak English than was the case under Soviet rule; these young people, if provided with opportunities to gain experience, may be essential to further Ukrainian Jewish community development.

96.   Rabbinic leadership, particularly that exercised by Orthodox rabbis, has been critical in certain communities where no other leadership has emerged.  The most successful rabbis possess organizing skills and are good fundraisers.  However, rabbinic leadership may be a two-edged sword.  Some rabbis seem more intent on building their own power bases than on building community.  The competition between two rabbis in Odesa yields few positive results for the Jewish population of that city.  Further, it is possible that the extraordinary leadership exercised by Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki of Dnipropetrovsk is suppressing the emergence of other, indigenous Jewish leadership in that city.

Kyiv presents another side of rabbinic leadership, with no rabbi in the Ukrainian capital currently providing local or national direction.  The part-time leadership of Chief Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich is ineffectual, both for his own small community and for Jews across Ukraine.

97.  In general, the mood in Ukraine was one of unremitting gloom.  Few individuals were optimistic about the future of the country or the future of Jewish life.

Betsy Gidwitz

Chicago, IL USA

June 18, 2009

Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs and translations are by the writer.  In most instances, modified Ukrainian orthography is favored over Russian orthography.