Join Masorti Olami and The Schechter Institute for our Mission to Ukraine

 

Watch Rabbi Reuven Stamov invite you to join this mission cy clicking on the image above.
 

The most up-to-date version of the itinerary is available to download here.

 

Draft itinerary

 

Choose either :
7 Day trip to Odessa & Kiev, from July 11th to 17th, or
5 Day trip to Kiev, from July 13th to 17th

Tentative itinerary is shown below.

7 Day trip starts here:

Wednesday, July 11th  2012 – Odessa
* Arrive in Odessa in the morning (or before)
* Afternoon touring of sites in Odessa with Ukrainian guide and Scholar, to include scenic views of the City and visit a cultural museum (Art, Literature or Archaeology)
* Packed lunchbox
* Check into the hotel
* Dinner at the hotel
   Overnight : Black Sea Privoz Hotel, Odessa

Thursday, July 12th  2012 – Odessa
* Breakfast at the hotel
* Full day of touring in Odessa with Ukrainian guide and Scholar, to include Jewish sites – Synagogues, Jewish museum, Jewish Quarter, the story of Jabotinsky, Holocaust monument and Jewish community center
* Packed lunchbox
* Dinner at restaurant
   Overnight : Black Sea Privoz Hotel, Odessa

Friday, July 13th  2012 – Odessa to Kiev
* Early check out from the hotel
* Transfer to Odessa airport
* Breakfast snack box
* Early flight from Odessa to Kiev (flight included in price) to join participants of 5 day trip

5 Day trip starts here:

Friday, July 13th, 2012 – Kiev & Shabbat at Ramah Ukraine Family Camp
* Arrive in Kiev in early morning or on Thursday, July 12th in evening (transfer from airport to Radisson Blu Hotel on July 12th, plus accommodation available at additional cost)
* Half-day tour of sites in Kiev to include Old Town, Golden Gate, Independence Square, view of various cathedrals and architecture
* Packed lunchbox
* Travel to location of Ramah Ukraine Family Camp and check into guesthouse
* Getting-to-know you program with Family Camp participants
* Kabbalat Shabbat services, Shabbat dinner and Oneg Shabbat activity
  Overnight : Guesthouse near Vorzel, close to Kiev

Saturday, July 14th, 2012 – Shabbat at Ramah Ukraine Family Camp
* Breakfast followed by Shabbat morning services
* Dvar Torah discussions in Russian/English
* Kiddush followed by Shabbat lunch
* Q&A Session with the new Rabbi
* Afternoon lecture on the history of Jewish life in Kiev & Ukraine
* Shabbat Mincha
* Dreams & Vision – the future of Ukrainian Masorti life and Celebrating 20 years of Camp Ramah in Ukraine
* Seudat Shlishit
* Ma’ariv , followed by Havdallah
* Check out of the guesthouse and transfer to Radisson Blu Hotel in Kiev
  Overnight : Radisson Blu Hotel, Kiev

Sunday, July 15th  2012
* Breakfast at the hotel
* Walk from hotel to Installation Ceremony in center of Kiev
* Installation Ceremony of Rabbi Reuven Stamov with guests from Ukranian Jewish community along with local dignitaries, followed by lunch
* Afternoon tour of Kiev’s Jewish sites, to include Babi Yar, Sholom Aleichim monument, Brodsky Synagogue, Podol Synagogue
* Dinner at the hotel
   Overnight : Radisson Blu Hotel, Kiev

Monday, July 16th  2012
* Breakfast at the hotel
* Full day tour to Berdichev and Zhytomyr – important centers of Jewish life during the time of the Ba’al Shem Tov – and visit the synagogue, cemetery and Jewish Quarter
* Lunch at Jewish Community Center in Berdichev
* Return to Kiev
* Free evening
* Individual or group transfer to airport
  Overnight : Radisson Blu Hotel, Kiev

Tuesday, July 17th  2012
* Breakfast at the hotel
* Individual or group transfer to airport

Prices

5 Day trip to Kiev : $690 per person in double, $1,050 per person in single
7 Day trip to Odessa & Kiev : $1,290 per person in double, $1,750 per person in single

 
Click on the links above in the itinerary to read more about each of the places that we will visit during this trip.

 

This trip is a joint project of Masorti Olami & the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
 
 
 
Important Booking Information

Arrival in Odessa for the 7 Day trip should be on the morning on Wednesday, July 11th at the latest. Additional nights at the hotel and transfer from the airport for earlier arrivals are available.

Arrival in Kiev for the 5 Day trip should be early in the morning on Friday, July 13th, at the latest. Additional nights at the hotel and transfer from the airport to the hotel for earlier arrivals are available.

All food on the trip is kosher or strictly vegetarian. Please let us know if you have any specific dietary restrictions.

This itinerary is tentative and subject to change. A final itinerary will be published in April, 2012. Prices are tentative and in US dollars per person based on current exchange rates. Final prices will be announced in March 2012.

International flights are not included in the package – please book your flights now.  Hotel rooms, flight from Odessa to Kiev, transportation, airport transfers, tour guide and most meals are included - please see registration form for exact details.

Depending on space, some trip participants may spend Shabbat in Kiev rather than at Family Camp.
   
 
Additional information
* The itinerary above is a draft and is subject to change. A more detailed itinerary will be confirmed closer to the date.
* If you would like to download a flyer for this Mission, please click here
.
* If you have any questions, please email Marcus Frieze (marcus@masortiolami.org) at Masorti Olami.
 
* See the map below for an idea of the area in Ukraine that you will visit during the trip. Click on the map to view it in Google maps.
 

 
 

About the places you will visit on this trip :

 

Odessa

Odessa's main growth occurred in the 18th and 19th Century due to its important location on the Black Sea. Odessa's growth was interrupted by the Crimean War of 1853–1856, during which it was bombarded by British and French naval forces. It soon recovered and the growth in trade made Odessa Russia's largest grain-exporting port. In 1866 the city was linked by rail with Kiev and Kharkiv as well as with Romania.
During the second half of the 19th Century and the early part of the 20th Century, Odessa had the third largest Jewish community in the world. During this period, Odessa was home to many famous Jewish writers and Zionist thinkers, including Haim Nachman Bialik, Ahad Ha'am and Ze'ev Jabotinsky. However, Jews were repeatedly subjected to severe persecution, with pogroms carried out in 1821, 1859, 1871, 1881 and 1905. Many Odessan Jews fled abroad, particularly to Palestine.
Still, by 1920, more than 40% of the city was Jewish. During the period of the Holocaust many Jews were killed or deported. Most of the atrocities against the Jews were committed during the first six months of the occupation of Odessa which officially began on October 17, 1941, when 80% of the 210,000 Jews in the region were killed. After the Nazi forces began to lose ground on the Eastern Front, the Romanian administrators of Odessa changed their policy, refusing to deport the remaining Jewish population to extermination camps in German occupied Poland, and allowing Jews to work as hired labourers. As a result, despite the tragic events of 1941, the survival of the Jews in this area was higher than in other areas of occupied eastern Europe.
In 1991, after the collapse of Communism, the city became part of the newly independent Ukraine. Today Odessa is a city of more than 1 million people. The city's industries include shipbuilding, oil refining, chemicals, metalworking and food processing. Odessa is also a Ukrainian naval base and home to a fishing fleet. It is also known for its huge outdoor market, the Seventh-Kilometer Market, the largest market of its kind in Europe.
The main points of interest in Odessa are : Primorskiy Boulevard, Monument to Duke de Rishelye, Potemkin Steps, Monument to Catherine the Great, Opera House (pictured above left) and Deribasovskaya street, the Brody Synagogue, the Holocaust Memorial (pictured lef), Jewish Community Center, Yevreiskaya street (Jewish Quarter), The House of Bialik, The House of Jabotinskiy, and The House of the Palestine Committee.
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Sholem Aleichem

Sholem Aleichem was born on March 2, 1859 into a Hasidic family in Pereyaslav, Ukraine and grew up in the nearby shtetl of Voronko, Poltava Governorate (now Kiev Oblast, Ukraine). Sholem Aleichem was the 'pen name' of Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich.
His father, Menachem-Nukhem Rabinovich, was a rich merchant at that time, however, a failed business affair plunged the family into poverty and Sholem Aleichem subsequently grew up in reduced circumstances.
Rabinovich's first venture into writing was an alphabetic glossary of the epithets used by his stepmother. At the age of fifteen, inspired by Robinson Crusoe, he composed a Jewish version of the novel. He adopted the pseudonym Sholem Aleichem, a Yiddish variant of the Hebrew expression shalom aleichem,  meaning "peace be with you" or "hello".
At first, Sholem Aleichem wrote only in Russian and Hebrew. From 1883 on, he produced over forty volumes in Yiddish, thereby becoming a central figure in Yiddish literature. Most writing for Russian Jews at the time was in Hebrew, the liturgical language used largely by learned Jews. Yiddish, however, was the vernacular language of nearly all literate East European Jews. It was often derogatorily called "jargon", but Sholem Aleichem used this term in an entirely non-pejorative sense.
Sholem Aleichem was an impassioned advocate of Yiddish as a national Jewish language, one which should be accorded the same status and respect as other modern European languages.
His narratives were notable for the naturalness of his characters' speech and the accuracy of his descriptions of shtetl life. Early critics focused on the cheerfulness of the characters, interpreted as a way of coping with adversity.
He did not stop with what came to be called "Yiddishism", but devoted himself also to the cause of Zionism as well, with many of his writings presenting the Zionist case.
Sholem Aleichem died in New York in 1916, aged 57, while working on his last novel, Motl, Peysi the Cantor's Son.
In 1997, a monument dedicated to Sholem Aleichem was erected in Kiev, and a special museum inside the Kiev Museum of Books opened in 2009.
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Podol neighborhood - Jewish Quarter

The Podol (sometimes spelled Podil) neighborhood of Kiev is one of the oldest in the city, and is the birthplace of the city's trade, commerce and industry. It still contains many architectural and historical landmarks, and new archeological sites are still being revealed. Until the Holocaust, the Podol neighborhood was home to many of the city's Jews, who lived in cramped conditions.
Podol was a district of handicraftsmen and dealers, many of whom spoke a special "Podol trader's language", a mix of Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian. The Podol neighborhood was essentially a Jewish Quarter, and was an important centre of Jewish religious, cultural and economic life in Kiev.
Today, the Podol Jewish Quarter is found in one of Kiev's main business, transportation and industrial districts.
The Masorti community center in located in the Podol Jewish Quarter.
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Babi Yar
Babi Yar is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and the site of a series of massacres carried out by the Nazis during their campaign against the Soviet Union. The most notorious and the best documented of these massacres took place on September 29–30, 1941, wherein 33,771 Jews were killed in a single operation. A special team of German SS troops supported by other German units and local collaborators carried out this massacre, which is considered to be "the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust".
It took two days and nights to complete the massacre, during which the victims were machine-gunned and their bodies hurled into the ravine.
The commander of the Einsatzkommando later reported about this operation: "Because of 'our special talent of organisation', the Jews still believed to the very last moment before being murdered that indeed all that was happening was that they were being resettled."
In August, 1943, as the Soviet Army began its march westwards the decision was taken to erase all evidence of the mass killings, and a group of Russian prisoners and Jews were forced to dig up the bodies and cremate them in wood-fueled pyres built on gravestones taken from a nearby Jewish cemetery.
Other victims included thousands of Soviet POWs, communists, Gypsies (Romani people), Ukrainian nationalists and civilian hostages. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 more lives were taken at Babi Yar.
After the war, commemoration efforts encountered serious difficulty because of the policy of the Soviet Union, but a memorial was created at the site of the massacre.
In 2006, President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine hosted a major commemoration for the 65th anniversary of the massacre. This event was attended by President Moshe Katsav of Israel as well as other dignitaries. Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau pointed out in his speech at the event, that if the world had reacted to the massacre of Babi Yar, perhaps the Holocaust might never have happened.
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Brodsky Synagogue

The Brodsky Synagogue is a Moorish design synagogue built between 1897 and 1898. A merchant named Lazar Brodsky financed its construction, and the synagogue was designed by Georgij Szlejfer. The building was devastated during the Second World War by Nazis and was subsequently used as a puppet theatre for a long period. It was renovated in 2000 and is now back in regular use as a synagogue and community center.
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Reuven Stamov

Reuven (Roma) Stamov was born in 1974 in the Ukrainian town of Simferopol in the Crimean region in the South of Ukraine. Even though he always knew he was Jewish, as a young boy living in the time of the Soviet Union, he and his family were not able to openly practice Judaism.
When the Soviet Union came to an end in 1991, many Ukrainian Jews made their way to Israel, but Roma and his family decided to stay. Roma studied engineering at the University in Sevatsopol also in the Crimean region, and later began to attend Jewish/Zionist programming at the Jewish Agency's community center in Simferopol. Roma went on to become a madrich (leader) of activities at this Jewish community Center, and in 1997 moved to Kiev to study Jewish spiritual leadership at a special academy there. Roma became closely affiliated with the Masorti community in Ukraine in the late 1990s and ran local educational activities for youth and students in the Crimean region as well as being a counselor at Camp Ramah Yachad.
In 2003, Roma and his family decided to try out life in Israel, and used his background in engineering to start a manufacturing business. However, the process of exploring his own Jewish identity which had begun back in Ukraine made him become more religiously active, and search for deeper Jewish meaning to his life. While living in Israel, he travelled once or twice a year to Ukraine to run seminars and camps for the Masorti community, meeting his wife, Lena, at a summer camp in 2004. Throughout their time in Israel, Roma and his wife (pictured above left) have travelled to Ukraine to work on the summer camp or similar Jewish seminars that the Masorti community runs each year.
In 2005, Roma began the long process of strengthening his Jewish knowledge and skills in the Hebrew language in order to be complete the Rabbinic program at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem. At this time, Roma was also accepted to the Masorti Olami Schorsch Fellowship, and committed to use his skills as a Rabbi in Ukraine upon the completion of his Rabbinic training.
Reuven Stamov is currently in his final year of the Schechter Rabbinic training program, and hopes to graduate the program and complete the necessary Bet Din by the end of 2011. In 2012, along with his wife and 2 children, Reuven will move to Kiev, Ukraine to take up his post as the first Masorti Rabbi in all of the Former Soviet Union.
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Berdichev

According to the census of 1789, Jews constituted 75% of the population in Berdichev (also spelled Berdychiv). Jews were a major driving force of the town's commerce in the first half of the 19th century, founding a number of trading companies, banking establishments and serving as agents of the neighboring estates of Polish nobility.
By the end of the 18th century, Berdichev became an important center of Hasidism. As the town grew, a number of noted scholars served as rabbis there, including Lieber the Great and Joseph the Harif and the Tzadik Levi Yosef Yitzhak of Berdichev (the author of Kedushat Levi), who lived and taught there until his death in 1809.
In its heyday, Berdichev accounted some eighty synagogues and batei midrash, and was famous for its cantors.
In 1847, 23,160 Jews resided in Berdichev and by 1861 the number doubled to 46,683, constituting the second largest Jewish community in the Russian Empire.
In early 1919, the Jews of Berdichev became victims of a pogrom and in 1920 the advancing Soviet troops destroyed most of the city by the artillery fire.
Most civilians from areas near the border did not have a chance to evacuate when the Nazis began their invasion on June 22, 1941. An "extermination" unit was established in Berdichev in early July 1941 and a Jewish ghetto was set up. It was liquidated on October 5, 1941, after all the inhabitants were murdered. The Nazis killed about 20,000 to 30,000 Jews who had not evacuated.
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Download documents below

Attachment	Size
Ukraine-2012-Mission-Itinerary-Flyer-.pdf	564.82 KB
Ukraine-Mission-Registration-Form.doc	212.5 KB
Suggested flight options for travel to Ukraine	365.3 KB
Ukraine Mission Itinerary - update May 7, 2012	246.4 KB