An American volunteer in Ukraine
Archive for Holidays
May 14, 2009 at 12:00 pm · Filed under Holidays, Personal stories and tagged: alcohol, birthday, Ilya, JDC, Mila
As soon as I arrived at the office on the day of my birthday, I was greeted by full birthday wishes. What do I mean by a full birthday wish? I’ll give you an example. My friend and colleague Mila hugged me and looked me in the eye and said, “Congratulations! I wish you a life full of happiness and success and money, wherever you are (even if it’s not Ukraine). I wish you to always smile as brightly as you do now, and to stay young and beautiful. I wish you love and soon to be married and have children. May your life be complete and happy and may you have everything you desire.”
This was a comparatively short birthday wish.
Read the rest of this entry »
May 12, 2009 at 12:00 pm · Filed under Around the city, Holidays, Personal stories and tagged: Aharon Weiss, Dneprodzerzhinsk, Dnepropetrovsk, eastern Ukraine, Holocaust, JDC, Kaminetzky, Kharkov, Metsudah, Shy, Yom HaShoah, Yulia
Holocaust Remembrance Day is an extremely important and meaningful holiday for Jews throughout Ukraine. Guests came from all over the country– from Kharkov, Dneprodzerzhinsk, and other eastern Ukrainian cities– as well as from Israel. In addition to the JDC Jerusalem group, the Metsudah leader, Shy, also came to Dnepropetrovsk to commemorate the occasion.
We congregated around the memorial that commemorates where the Jews of Dnepropetrovsk were executed at the start of the Holocaust. There were speeches by Rabbi Kaminetzky, Aharon Weiss, survivers and their relatives, high school students, and others. Poetry was read, candles were lit, and Yulia and I sang a sad Hebrew piece, Eli Eli. We then laid carnations and stones on the memorial. It was a beautiful and moving ceremony. You can see the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish Community’s pictures of the event here.
May 10, 2009 at 5:15 pm · Filed under Holidays and tagged: Easter, Elena Alexandrovna, Food, holiday, intolerance, JDC, Paskha, Russian class, yolka
Like in many European Catholic countries, Paskha is a weeklong festival. For the very religious, there are church ceremonies beginning a week in advance, but the most important days are the last four: Great Thursday (also known as “Clean Thursday,” because this day is dedicated to a thorough spring cleaning), Friday of the Passion, Great Saturday, and finally Paskha itself on Sunday. For some, Saturday is a fast day, broken after the Paskhal vigil church service, which ends at midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning. After that, the Paskha feast can begin!
Read the rest of this entry »
May 7, 2009 at 5:43 pm · Filed under Holidays, Personal stories and tagged: Amir, Anya, Ben-Zvi, Chessed, Hillel, Ido, JCC, JDC, Kaminetzky, Lena, opera, Ori, Passover, photos, seder, Sharon, Sunday school, Sveta, synagogue, Yan
First night, first seder: There were several seders happening in the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community, including at the JCC, at Hesed, at the Yeshiva, one prominent private seder for parents of children in the kindergarten (ages 2-5), and the VIP seder in the synagogue, which I attended as a guest of the Ben-Zvi clan. Amir, Sharon, Ori, Ido, and I sat at a table near the bimah and the Kaminetzky table (“It must be nice to have your immediate family fill an entire table,” I commented to Sharon) at this most massive seder. You have to see the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish Community website pictures to understand the scope of this monster. It was not only the largest seder I’ve attended, it was also the fastest. It was so noisy in the cavernous synagogue, with every whisper echoing off its accoustically sound walls, and even next to the rabbi and Yan, who was leading the seder, I could barely hear a thing. Given the wide scope of participants, the goal was apparently to give everyone a small taste of a seder and then get them the food. It’s a shame it went by so quickly, because I know how much preparation went into it. Yan brought in the Jewish singers from the Dnepropetrovsk opera, and the Hillel kids were recruited to serve as helpers throughout the service. They stood in strategic locations and indicated which page we were on and which vegetable was being dipped at any given time. Believe it or not, they rehearsed for this several days in a row, for hours at a time. In any event, the seder meal was absolutely spectacular. There were five or six courses, featuring herring and salmon at each course, brought out by professional (goyishe) waiters and somehow served piping hot to all 200 or 300 guests. It was quite impressive.
Read the rest of this entry »
April 23, 2009 at 12:00 pm · Filed under Holidays, Personal stories and tagged: JCC, Purimspiel, Sunday school
April 13, 2009 at 12:53 pm · Filed under Holidays and tagged: alcohol, Hamentashen, Hanukkah, Holidays, JCC, photos, Purim, Purimspiel, recipe, Sunday school, synagogue
Purim is pretty much the same in Ukraine as in America, with one important distinction: whereas in America Hanukkah is the major Jewish fun holiday, here that award is split between Hanukkah and Purim. In other words, Purim is a very big deal. Just like they did for Hanukkah, each Jewish organization has their own big celebration. The staff of the JCC, for example, put on a large Purimspiel play the Sunday after the holiday, replete with Hamentashen and other treats, which the entire community was invited to. At Sunday School we made a silent Purimspiel film, which was shown at the school’s Purim celebration and at the JCC play (more about the film itself in the next post). Read the rest of this entry »
February 26, 2009 at 12:00 pm · Filed under Food, Holidays, Work and tagged: Amir, Anya, Dima, Hanukkah, holiday, Ina, Ira, JDC, Lena, photos, Sharon, Yana, Yulia
New s*** has come to light, man.
We began with Amir lighting the candles. Ina, standing next to him, is the most religious amongst us in the office, other than Amir and Sharon, that is.
Read the rest of this entry »
February 24, 2009 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Holidays, Work and tagged: alcohol, Amir, Anya, bubliki, fashion, Food, holiday, JDC, photos, Seriozha, Soviet Union, Stas, vodka
February 23 was a Soviet memorial holiday celebrating those soldiers who fell in World War II defending Russia against the Germans. Today it has become a sort of Men’s Day (to compliment Women’s Day, which takes place on March 8). Although many Ukrainians don’t celebrate this holiday, our office takes it very seriously and prepares an entire spectacle and feast for the men. The women transformed the office into a Ukrainian kolkhoz (a collective farm during Soviet times, basically a Soviet kibbutz).
Read the rest of this entry »
January 20, 2009 at 4:29 pm · Filed under Holidays and tagged: Amir, Anatoli, Anya, Beit Chanah, Chessed, Dnepropetrovsk, Do Good Ukraine!, Evreisky Kolombur, Hanukkah, Hillel, JCC, JDC, Kaminetzky, Ksyusha, Lecnoy, Lena, Liana, New Year's, Ori, Sachnut, Shabbaton, Sharon, Sunday school, Sveta, Tolik, yolka
Hanukkah in Dnepropetrovsk isn’t too different from Hanukkah in the States, really. We light the chanukkiah each night and say the brachot. We eat latkes and suvganiot (although here, suvganiot are much more popular than in the US, since “ponchiki,” as they’re called in Russian, are already a popular fried dessert). We sing songs and spin the dreidle, and although I didn’t see any gelt, I did see some Israeli dreidles that say “A great miracle happened here” instead of there.
Read the rest of this entry »
December 29, 2008 at 5:40 pm · Filed under Holidays, Personal stories and tagged: New Year, yolka
She’s little, but she’s still beautiful. As you can see, she’s a Christmas tree, except for the fact that there is no “Christmas” around here as we think of it in the States. New Year’s is Christmas and New Year’s, all rolled into one, but secular (there’s a religious holiday a week later, but really New Year’s is the big deal). Every family gets a yolka, whether Christian, Jewish, or other. I bought mine on Karl Marx Prospect (the main road of Dnepropetrovsk) off a street vendor for 20 grivnas (about $3). She’s really too small to decorate, but she fits nicely in my apartment, and she’s bringing me New Year’s cheer!
Older entries »
