RIG Fellow Shares Impression of FSU

Dasee Berkowitz travelled the Jewish world for JDC as the 2002-03 Ralph I. Goldman Fellow. She visited Jewish communal service settings in many different Jewish communities from Bombay to Tel Aviv. Here are two excerpts from the journal she kept:

I wanted to share two experiences from my time in Kharkov, Ukraine, and Bryansk, Russia. Some of the people I have met in the field - of different stripes and shapes - are just remarkable... both in their current and potential leadership. Here are two samples:

Mid January - Kharkov, Ukraine
The Jewish community consists of about 50,000, although the ones who are active are about 1/3 that amount. What strikes me about Kharkov is how the community is very much a product of the way in which Jewish organizational life has evolved over the last 10+ years. After the fall of communism, international Jewish organizations, namely, JDC, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Orthodox Union and Chabad entered the FSU to invest in assisting Jews and the small pockets of Jewish activity that existed. For JDC, assistance meant working with the local Jews that had been active during the communist period to develop social welfare services for the community, whereas for the Sochnut (Jewish Agency for Israel) and the Orthodox Union, it meant setting up infrastructure that could assist in the process of Aliyah. What I saw in Kharkov, is that the picture is still developing, even 10-12 years after the initial investments.

Recently there has been a lot of turnover for the Jewish community in Kharkov, but there are also some people who come from a long line of Jewish communal leadership. And the question of how to train future leaders is real.

I met Sacha when I was in Kharkov for about 3 weeks. He's 18 and he is now in charge of the teenagers club at the JCC in Kharkov. He is smart, enthusiastic, full of ideas and fun. He comes from a family of activists. Sacha's mother is a descendent of Isaac Babel, the renowned Jewish poet/writer from Odessa. His father, Boris, is a professor in Physics and has always wanted to start his own Jewish school. His academic expression, however, was severely limited during the Soviet era. Because he was a Jew, when he went to academic conferences in Moscow, he was not allowed to present his work. He is now vindicated, because in 1998, he founded the Kharkov branch of the Jewish Solomon University. Sacha's whole family has always fervently identified as Jews. In the late 1980's his brother demanded that Jews be allowed to return to pray in the Choral synagogue - which was blatantly against Soviet policy at the time. The Synagogue was a storage center under the Nazis, then a sports center during the Communist period - the Synagogue is currently in the process of being refurbished. I prayed there on Shabbat, and it is gorgeous - painted light blue and yellow - hopes for the coming of the Messiah stenciled on the ceiling (it's currently used by Chabad, after all).

When under Soviet rule, Sacha's brother fought against the regime, he was forced to leave home and hide out in the Kharkov Hotel (the hotel I stayed in) because the KGB were after him. Sacha remembers standing on the Kharkov train platform with his father, waving goodbye to his brother who was escaping to Israel. At that time, they thought they would never see him again.

Sacha's desire to be involved in the Jewish community is quite natural, "I know that I just really want to be involved now," he tells me this on our walk to my hotel. There is about 3 inches of ice on the sidewalk... and we take turns sliding along. We grip each other tightly when we reach a part of the street with no streetlights, and then continue on our way. "There are other people who want to be leaders too. They go on the JDC leadership training seminars, and then leave the community, they want to take the training to advance themselves." This is the risk for any leadership training program, I assure him, not everyone will be a star. But coming from a family of stars certainly helps.

February - Bryansk, Russia
Bryansk, about 6 hours from Moscow, was easily within Moscow's sphere of influence during Soviet times. A strong tradition of communism still reaches out to these parts. Although its natural resources make this place quite beautiful, the hyper-industrialization during Communism ruined any natural beauty that Bryansk had to offer. The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 also did its fair share of damage.

Meet Ira. A woman who is 40-something, on the small side, blond, plush figure. Her voice is calm and her demeanor is professional. She used to run a department of a major repair company in Bryansk and fell into Jewish communal work quite accidentally when she was asked to be the acting director of the school for a short period. She is a dynamo. Ira founded the Bryansk Hesed in 1995 and has created an integrated community center (Hesed and JCC under one roof). The center is like a home, replete with plants and flowers, a wall of books (which serves as their library), a bookcase with photos and relics of Jewish life gone past (their museum) and another wall exhibiting the macrame handiwork of the elderly in the community. It is bright and friendly and brimming with activities. The theatre group is rehearsing for the Purim celebration in one room while members of the choir are perfecting harmonies in another. There is little space and they make the most out of each corner. When she took me on a tour of the building on Thursday, she walked me into one of the offices, a narrow room. "This is our computer center", she said pointing to the 4 computers. She then swept around and pointed to a desk with papers scattered about, "and this is our Hillel," she said smiling.

It is amazing what some leaders can do with so little.

Do these experiences make you interested in the Ralph I. Goldman Fellowship? To apply, or for more information, please click here.