Ms, Misyuk observed that interest in local Jewish history is strong and is growing.  Two groups, each consisting of 25 to 30 individuals, are seriously engaged in study of Jewish history, she said.  Many in the first group work (full-time or part-time) as professional tour guides.  The majority are “more or less Jewish”, said Ms. Misyuk, explaining that some are entirely or partly Jewish (по родству) and others perceive themselves at least partly Jewish because most of their friends are Jewish (по дружеству) or because they live or work in a once-Jewish neighborhood (по соседству).  Many of those with Jewish family roots, she said, had denied their heritage until becoming active in a Jewish history study group; then, she continued, they will comment within the group that they recall a grandparent speaking of a particular incident or a custom. 

The second Jewish history group, Ms. Misyuk stated, is organized by the Migdal Jewish Community Center (see below), which advertised in Jewish newspapers for new members.   About 60 people responded to the ads, said Ms. Misyuk, although not all of them are Jewish and not all became active in the study group.

Another vehicle for studying Odesa life, continued Ms. Misyuk, is reading local Jewish newspapers.  In general, the Odesa publications are of higher quality than local Jewish publications in other cities and each Odesa Jewish newspaper has its own following, she stated.

Speaking about Beit Grand, the JDC Jewish cultural center, Ms. Misyuk said that she has organized classes there for people desiring to become tour guides to Jewish Odesa.  However, she observed, Beit Grand hosts few Jewish programs, perhaps because high participation fees make the Center inaccessible to the majority of Odesa Jews.  She also believes that its high visibility and high operating costs absorb the majority of Jewish philanthropic funds in the city, thus harming other Jewish organizations.

The conflict between Rabbi Baksht and Rabbi Wolf also is detrimental to Jewish life in the city, said Ms. Misyuk.  People lose respect for Judaism as a religion when rabbis battle with each other for turf and influence, she noted.

11. A former employee in Ukraine of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, Alexander Biderman speaks several languages fluently.  He currently teaches Hebrew at Odesa National University and has taught Jewish literature at two different universities in Germany.  He was raised in a Yiddish-speaking home by Holocaust survivors.  Mr. Biderman is an amateur historian and leads German tour groups in Odesa. 

Mr. Biderman estimates that 20,000 Jews live in Odesa.  Most are well-educated, he said, and enjoy middle-class lifestyles, although some doubtless are suffering during the crisis.  He believes that many Jews wish to remain in the city and that few are concerned about intermarriage.  No serious antisemitism exists in Odesa, he said, but he sees little likelihood of a robust Jewish life developing in the city. 

Almost all Jewish life in Odesa, he continued, has foreign roots.  There is little local money or Jewish leadership.  [Foreign] Hasidic control has replaced Soviet control.  The two Jewish day schools supervised by rabbis are too religious, but the ORT school is acceptable, he said.  The competition between Rabbi Baksht and Rabbi Wolf is unbecoming, and the Beit Grand Jewish cultural center was planned by JDC without community input or support.  It is unlikely that it will generate a sense of community among Odesa Jews.

Although he is not enthusiastic about the newly elected Netanyahu government in Israel and finds Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman offensive,[22] Mr. Biderman believes that local Jews should emigrate to Israel.  He has been to Israel on several occasions and is very comfortable there because he is not in a minority in the Jewish state.  However, he also is comfortable in Ukraine and it is unlikely that he will leave anytime soon.  He is 60 years old, he said, and it would be difficult to find employment in Israel.  His wife is not Jewish and their two young adult children would not be considered Jews in Israel.

12.  The Migdal International Jewish Community Сenter (Международный Еврейский Общинный Центр «Мигдаль») operates almost 100 programs in the two-story former synagogue of the Union of Kosher Butchers.  Constructed in 1909, the building was closed by Soviet authorities in 1925 and subsequently used by the KGB.  It was returned to the Jewish Cultural Society (Общество еврейской културы), a cover organization managed by Chabad Chief Rabbi  Avrum Wolf.  Rabbi Wolf  “leases” the building to Migdal free of charge.[23]

 Migdal uses the 100-year old former synagogue of the kosher butchers union for its many programs. 

 Photo: City Guide of Jewish Odessa (Odesa: Migdal, 2007), p. 41.

According to Kira Verkhovskaya, Director of Migdal, about 1,000 families participate in the various Migdal programs, which include extensive cultural activities (art, music, dance, theater) for all age groups, fitness classes, a Jewish library, publishing ventures (monthly journal, a newspaper, books), Shabbatonim, celebrations of Jewish holidays, concerts, various excursions, clubs for different age groups, summer and winter camps, activities for pensioners, and the JDC Beiteinu and Mazal Tov programs. It also sponsors a Jewish museum (Shorashim) in a different building and its own comprehensive website (www.migdal.ru).[24]  Jewish content is integral to almost all of its work.

A City Guide of Jewish Odessa has been published in pocket-size format by Migdal.  Available in several languages, it is richly illustrated and includes a pull-out map of the city and its Jewish sites.

Migdal is supported by funds from the Joint Distribution Committee, a subsidy from Rabbi Avrum Wolf, an allocation from the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, and user fees for most programs.  A number of local Jewish families contribute funds for specific programs and for repairs to the building in which most of its programs are held.  Kira Verkhovskaya is respected throughout the Jewish community for her creativity, organizing skills, commitment to high-quality programs, and good relations with the various sectors of the Odesa Jewish population.  Nonetheless, the future of Migdal is uncertain.

The Joint Distribution Committee has indicated a clear preference for the new Beit Grand Jewish Cultural Center, where Jewish content is less visible.  Further, the old synagogue in which most Migdal programs are housed, has deteriorated over time and is now considered dangerous.  It probably is beyond repair; its foundation and walls are severely cracked and sagging.  Funds for its reconstruction are unavailable.  Migdal has been allotted two small rooms in Beit Grand.

13.  The Community Home of Jewish Knowledge “Moriah” (Общинный дом еврейских знаний <Мория>) has occupied four rooms in an Odesa public library since 1994.  The premises include one small computer center and three rooms containing a 10,700-volume multilingual Jewish library plus a collection of Jewish artifacts.

The Judaica library and museum, said Gennady Katzen, Director of Moriah, are all that remain of a once comprehensive roster of activities that included Jewish literary and musical salons, a scholarly journal, a youth program (acting studio, literary and video clubs, volunteer experiences), children’s clubs (chess, computers, puppetry, story hours, others), a variety of computer classes, and a program of memorial-izing prominent Odesa Jews with monuments and markers.

Gennady Katzen, a graduate of two different Melton programs in Israel, and Director of the Moriah Jewish center in Odesa, stands near cases housing some Moriah exhibits.

Photo: the writer.

Moriah, Mr. Katzen continued, was dependent on the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for most of its financial support.   The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore has provided funds for acquisition of certain contemporary Jewish books and specific Jewish artifacts.  However, JDC recently withdrew its subsidy, leaving Moriah with no money to pay for rent, salaries, or programs.  Mr. Katzen fears that the library will ask them to leave the premises; Ukrainian law, he said, permits eviction if the renter is three month in arrears, a time limit already exceeded by Moriah.  The two most highly-qualified professionals on the Moriah staff have left and most programs have been suspended.  Acknowledging that other organizations sponsor various Jewish activities for children, Mr. Katzen said that Moriah played a unique role in accommodating and bringing together Jewish intellectuals, artists, and journalists.  He is trying to raise funds to sustain Moriah operations; the annual costs, he stated, are about $25,000.  Mr. Katzen noted that annual expenses are increasing due to inflation.

 14.  Beit Grand, a new centrally-located Jewish community center, opened during Chanukah 2008 after nearly seven years of construction in which building plans were changed frequently.  Supported by a large gift from the Grand family in the United States, the structure accommodates the Odesa hesed (welfare center), a Jewish community/cultural center, and commercial offices.  Rental income from the latter is intended to support community programs in the building.

Hesed Shaarey Zion, the welfare center (see below), occupies a large portion of the ground floor, along with an auditorium seating 220 people and a large gymnasium with locker room facilities.  Access to the second floor, which contains a number of activity rooms, small offices, and a day care center, may be gained by stairs or an elevator.  The majority of program space appears unused.

According to Tatiana Sergeev, Director of Beit Grand, the target population of the new JCC is middle-class unaffiliated Jews who will not enter synagogues.  She perceives the JCC as a Jewish cultural center, rather than a community center, because she believes that the word community might deter those Jews who do not care to be associated with a formal Jewish community.  To that end, the facility is emphasizing cultural activities, especially art, music, and dance.  Some programs will have some Jewish content, but Jewish content is not the focus of Beit Grand.

Tatiana Sergeev emigrated from Odesa in 1988 and resettled inToronto, where she pursued a business career.  She returned to Ukraine in 2004 to care for her elderly parents.

Photo: the writer.

The day care center is intended to attract affluent families who will pay high fees for a Montessori program; not yet in operation, its capacity will be 30 youngsters in a full day session and 60 children in half-day sessions.  Ms. Sergeev readily acknowledged that the program is not a formal pre-school.

Ms. Sergeev stated that the development of Beit Grand is a JDC project, not a community project.  No lay leadership has been involved in planning the facility and none has been recruited to oversee its program or general management.  Fundraising will be essential for operations, she observed, stating that $35,000 had been raised in the city by JDC for a recent klezmer festival.  The legal status of Beit Grand is that of a limited liability corporation, rather than a traditional non-profit organization, said Ms. Sergeev; limited liability status enables it to charge fees for service, whereas Ukrainian law imposes several problems for non-profits attempting to charge fees.

As is the case with a comparable new JDC-developed Jewish community/cultural center in St. Petersburg, Beit Grand appears to be a divisive force in the local Jewish community.  Although touted by JDC as community centers, little local community involvement was sought in planning the facilities and little is evident in their early operation.  Both have assigned potential activity space to commercial concerns in order to generate revenue for JCC operations, thus limiting premises available for community programs.  High user fees deter young people and other less prosperous population segments from participation in a period of economic crisis.  In Odesa, observers gossip about persistent visible conflicts between the managers of the commercial space and managers of the program space.  They also contrast the bustling and overtly Jewish agenda at Migdal with the almost empty and hesitantly Jewish Beit Grand.

Rabbinic Presence

15.  Rabbi Shlomo Baksht is the senior of Odesa’s two chief rabbis.  Arriving in 1993 under the auspices of Ohr Somayach, Rabbi Baksht has built a large Odesa Jewish infrastructure that includes a renovated Choral Synagogue, a Jewish day school and a university studies program, children’s residences for at-risk Jewish children, several assistance programs for Jewish elderly, and a kosher restaurant.  Although some of these programs now operate independently from Ohr Somayach, Rabbi Baksht remains responsible for all of them.[25]  He has brought some 27 families from Israel to administer his various programs; some work on time-limited contracts and others have been in Odesa for more than ten years.

The current worldwide economic crisis, said Rabbi Baksht, has had a major impact on his operations in Odesa.  Systemwide, his total budget is $13 million annually.  However, he continued, he has been forced to cut back to $8.5 million.  In general, he had become too dependent on too few donors; a major contributor in New York, who was associated with Lehman Brothers, is unable to maintain his gift of $2.5 million, and other supporters also have ceased giving or have decreased their gifts substantially.

The children’s homes, Rabbi Baksht stated, will soon begin an “adopt-a-child” campaign in the West, and several other programs have been terminated in order to reduce expenses.  The building housing Odessa Jewish University has closed; classes are now meeting in the synagogue.  A dairy restaurant, television program, and newspaper have all ceased operations.  Salaries have been cut for some employees. 

In response to a question, Rabbi Baksht said that his operations receive support from the Weinberg Foundation in Baltimore and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.  Neither The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore nor the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee provides any assistance.  Heattempts no fundraising in Odesa itself, stated Rabbi Baksht, because he does not want to create a conflict with Chabad, which is engaged in significant fundraising in the city.

Rabbi Shlomo Baksht is an Israeli educator who has worked in Odesa since 1993.

Photo; the writer.

The financial crisis will be overcome in due time, Rabbi Baksht believes.  Far more important in the long term, he continued, is the rapidly diminishing Jewish population.  He believes that the Jewish population of Odesa is about 40,000, reinforced by the return of some people who had made aliyah to Israel or had settled in other countries.  Ohr Somayach encourages aliyah, he asserted, stating that more than 400 young people from Ohr Somayach schools had settled in Israel.  However, he said, it also is painful to observe the Odesa Jewish population decline through intermarriage, assimilation, and the reality of small families.

Antisemitism, responded Rabbi Baksht, is not a serious problem; perhaps the high incidence of intermarriage precludes anti-Jewish bigotry.  However, the incidence of random vandalism is high; it is costly to repair the consequences of such acts.

Reacting to a comment by the writer that the STARS programs[26] operated under his auspices have achieved a reputation for excellence, Rabbi Baksht thanked the writer for her compliment and stated that he demands high quality in all of his programs.  The teachers in his STARS classes are experienced and very enthusiastic in their instruction, he said.  Nonetheless, he continued, enrollment in his STARS classes has diminished in size (from 200 participants in 2007-2008 to 140 in 2008-2009) because financial problems of sponsor Lev Leviev have led to a reduction in subsidized class frequency from twice weekly to once weekly and a corresponding drop in the stipend from $90 to $45 monthly.  Ohr Somayach, said Rabbi Baksht, uses its own funds to support a second weekly class, but they cannot compel students to attend two classes each week when they are being paid for participation in only one session.

16.  Rabbi Avrum Wolf, the second Chief Rabbi of Odesa, came to the city in 1998.  A representative of Chabad, he had been Chief Rabbi of Kherson prior to his Odesa assignment.[27]  He presides over a synagogue that was built in 1898 and then closed by Soviet authorities in 1937.  About 300 people attend Chabad services on Shabbat, he said, and representatives of Chabad read the megillah at four different sites on Purim.

Rabbi Wolf believes that between 35,000 and 50,000 Jews live in Odesa.  However, he said, the influence of Odesa’s rich Jewish past is so strong that sometimes it seems as if everyone is Jewish, just like it seems that every one in New YorkCity is Jewish.  The mayor of Odesa (Eduard Gurvits) is Jewish and the oblast governor is half-Jewish.  Jews are prominent in other areas of government, in business, and culture, said Rabbi Wolf.  Prior to the crisis, Rabbi Wolf continued, most of the Jewish populationhad good jobs and could be considered middle class. 

Rabbi Avrum Wolf, left, is the Chabad Chief Rabbi of Odesa.  A native of Israel, he is well-liked by local Jews and is respected in the local Jewish business community. 

Photo: the writer.