This week, as my family has lit the Hanukkah candles, I have placed
the Soviet Jewry Movement and Boston’s participation in the Dnepropetrovsk Kehillah
Project alongside the rededication of the Temple as miracles to be thankful for.
This inclusion is especially appropriate
because last week, we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the March on
Washington for Soviet Jewry.
On December 6, 1987, over 250,000 people, representing 300 Jewish
Federations, Community Councils, synagogues, youth groups, and other Jewish and
non-Jewish organizations, rallied at the Washington Mall to urge President
Reagan to prioritize human rights in his upcoming meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev.
The March was the culmination of the
struggle to free Soviet Jewry and it succeeded. Like present-day Maccabees,
Jews came together against mighty odds and contributed to the ultimate fall of
the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Jewry Movement was about more than rescuing Jews from
the USSR. It was about the freedom of Jews to celebrate their culture and
religion. Over the following months and years, more than one million Jews
emigrated from the USSR to Israel, Europe, and the United States.
At least as many remained behind in the Former Soviet Union, a place where generations of Jews
were forbidden to practice Judaism and where many hid or even forgot their
Jewish identity. With the fall of
Communism, however, came the opportunity for renewal, even as Jewish life remains a
challenge throughout the region.
Amid the heroic efforts of many individuals and agencies, we in Boston
were fortunate to partner with Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where a thriving Jewish
community has risen out of the ashes of the Holocaust and Communism to become one
of the most important communities in Europe.
Through JCRC's 20-year
partnership in the Dnepropetrovsk Kehillah Project, which thrives thanks to
generous funding from Combined Jewish Philanthropies, many Jews in Greater
Boston have been privileged to play a small role in the miracle that has
happened there: the rebuilding of Jewish life. In the process, our partners have inspired many
of
us to reengage our own
Jewish identities.
Today in Dnepropetrovsk, 400 students attend the Jewish Day School,
Dnepropetrovsk Hillel recruits the largest Birthright delegation from the FSU,
and the largest Jewish communal center in Europe has just opened.
At the same time, the community continues to honor its obligation to the
heroes and heroines of the past. With Boston’s support and expertise, they have
opened the assisted living facility Beit Baruch and the new Jewish Medical
Center to care for elderly Jews. Ida Tzypkina, one of the first residents of
Beit Baruch (and known to many in Boston as “Yiddishe Mama”), now lives her
life in dignity and safety, celebrating her Jewish heritage in ways she never
thought possible during the war.
Challenges remain, and Jews
in Dnepropetrovsk and beyond still struggle with antisemitism, poverty,
alienation, and the lingering effects of the Soviet suppression of Jewish
life. But this year we recall our partners in Ukraine, along with the countless FSU Jews in other
lands, who have accepted these
struggles and have dedicated themselves to rekindling Jewish life. For this blessing,
we thank the heroes of the Soviet Jewry Movement who helped bring this miracle
to reality. We will strive to follow
their example.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukkah!
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