Jewish Ukrainians mark festive holiday with commitment to community and in better spirits than last year, when invading Russians sparked fear and worry about uncertain future
JTA reports that In a historic building in the most industrial part of Podil, the hipster district of Kyiv that was once the heart of the Jewish trading community, a passionate Esther seduces a much younger Ahasuerus. She flirts with the handsome king to the raucous giggling of the audience, which breaks into applause when the Purim performance comes to an end.
A year and a few days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Jews in Kyiv and the rest of the country have celebrated Purim in precarious circumstances, under the continued threat of Russian attacks. Still, many of them are in much better spirits than in 2022, when the Jewish holiday found Ukrainian Jews in a frantic state of worry and uncertainty about their immediate future.
“A year ago you could see the fear in people’s eyes. Now they are very proud because Ukraine has resisted, and Jews are fully involved in the cause,” Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency during a Purim celebration in Podil. She is an Israeli rabbi who is the executive director of the Masorti movement-affiliated Schechter Institutes and periodically travels to Ukraine to serve the country’s Masorti communities. Masorti Judaism is similar to the Conservative movement in the United States.
“Last year it was very, very hard, because people were in shock, afraid, and they didn’t know what to do,” said Ariel Markowitz, a Kyiv rabbi from the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, which held its own Purim celebration Monday night. “But now we know that we have a strong army, that we have a chance, and many people have actually returned to Kyiv.”
The year-old war has shaken up Ukraine’s Jewish community, with members leaving the country or moving within it to avoid Russian attacks and their effects.
“Everyone has pretty much made a decision on whether to stay or to leave and we are reorganizing our community,” said Gritsevskaya.
Although at least 14,000 Ukrainians have moved to Israel since Russia’s invasion started, and many thousands more have found refuge in Germany and other European countries, Gritsevskaya wanted to focus on those who stayed. Estimates of the Jewish population in Ukraine ranged before the war from just under 50,000 to up to 400,000.
Source - JTA/Twitter - Image - Marcel Gascón Barberá via JTA