April 2019 Editor: Judy Patkin Assisting Jews in the former Soviet Union since 1975 Published by WARM HOUSE IN ZHOVTY VODY, UKRAINE Action for Post- Soviet Jewry (781)893-2331 FAX: (781)647-9474 E-Mail: Members of the Warm ActionPSJ House gather in Zhovty @aol.com Vody, Ukraine, in a new home and with a Website: ActionPSJ.org new host -Margarita Lebedinskaya. Member: Union of APSJ staff met for over Councils for 20 years with the Jews in the Former Soviet Zhovty Vody Warm Union (UCSJ) House in the home of our dear friend, Lydia Affiliated with Grimberg, who recently CJP’s Dnipropetrovsk died. Kehillah project A Letter from the Warm House in Zhovty Vody, Ukraine: “Dear American friends!” “Once again, our Warm House gathered, which this year changed its place. The Want to travel hospitable, skillful mistress, Lydia Stepanovna Grimberg, suddenly passed away. We with our staff were coming to her for pleasant communication and wise advice, tasty treats and to to Ukraine or admire the creation of her skillful hands - embroidery and knitting. We are grateful to Belarus? her for the warmth she was giving us. We are grateful to all those who helped her maintain the warmth of this house. We hope for further cooperation with Tatyana and Want to visit and talk with Yan Sidelkovsky, who are sincerely interested in our life, share our joys and our grief. members of We are confident that the traditions of the Warm Grimberg House will be multiplied our Adopt-a- and preserved in the hospitable home of Margarita Sergeyevna Lebedinskaya. She is Bubbe an interesting, sincere, energetic person, a wonderful organizer and promoter of program? Jewish culture and Jewish traditions. Contact our We thank our American friends for your participation and all support. We wish you office for details on up- health, peace and success, and look forward to a new meeting with you.” coming trips “On behalf of the Warm House, Trip reports Lyudmila Yevseevna Buryak” available at our office Zhovty Vody Warm House Page 1 Bobruisk Yiddish Club Page 2 Update on Antisemitism Page 3 Adopt-a-Bubbe in Bryansk Page 4 1 POST-SOVIET JEWRY REPORT BOBRUISK, BELARUS, YIDDISH CLUB Members of the Bobruisk Yiddish Club celebrate their 10th anniversary in December, 2018. Solomon Gorash, who signed the letter below, is in the front row, third from left. “We, the Yiddish language circle, congratulate you For three years he wandered under occupation, and your loved ones on the New Year 2019. We then an orphanage. Blonde hair, blue eyes wish you health and well-being! We have always saved him, and, most importantly, he was not appreciated your friendly attitude towards us. circumcised. He always attends wanting to know the language of his ancestors. Therefore, on our anniversary - 10 years of the circle - we are glad to tell you about our work and Misha Erenburg came into the circle to hear the achievements. We began by studying our traditions language spoken by his grandmother. We also and spending Jewish holidays together. We have a music director, Raisa Zelenfroyd and we celebrated the birthdays of circle participants, read sing with pleasure in Yiddish. and translated poems by Yiddish poets. We prepared and performed at city events in which the city’s The main consultant of the circle is Solomon Jewish community participated. Last year we read Gorosh and his assistant Sofia Privalskaya. On short stories in Yiddish based on a book about the the same day we celebrated the 90th birthday ancient history of Jews. And of course the most of Felix Yakovlevich Shklyar, the oldest impressive and unforgettable event for us was the member of the circle. He told the audience a celebration of the decade of our Yiddish circle, lot from Bobruisk life. which took place in December 2018. Once again, congratulations on the upcoming New Year! We do not allow the Yiddish light to die out in our old Jewish Bobruisk!! With respect and Circle of Yiddish Conversation Language. gratitude, Faina Paley, head of the circle.” On behalf of the circle participants, Solomon Gorosh Action for Post-Soviet Jewry participates in Amazon Smile by receiving a small donation whenever you enter Amazon’s Website using Members of the Conversational Yiddish Circle are the following link: of different ages and with different levels of http://smile.amazon.com/ch/51-0137190 Yiddish. So, Anatoly Markovsky was three years Use this link for your Amazon purchases and old when the WWII began. Leaving occupied APSJ benefits. Bobruisk, his mother left him in the nearby village. 2 POST-SOVIET JEWRY REPORT UPDATE ON ANTISEMITISM The following items are part of October 24, 2018 June 1941, was recently declared a e-mail messages received on Fastiv, Ukraine: national holiday by the parliament in antisemitism and human rights Yuri Gorbinko, regional leader of the Kiev. On the very day Poroshenko in the FSU. Svoboda far-right party, posted a picture visited Israel, a new statue was unveiled on Facebook of a Cossack beating a Jew in Kiev for Simon Petliura, who October 9, 2018 with a bloody flail along with a poem historians blame for the murder of Omsk, Russian Siberia celebrating the threshing. The Jew, 50,000 Jews in the 1920s. Eduard The Supreme Court in Omsk dressed in Hasidic style, is on his knees Dolinsky, head of the Kiev-based determined that the Chief Rabbi of looking up in horror. A second figure, a Ukrainian Jewish Committee, told the Siberia, Rabbi Asher Krichevsky and disfigured blond-haired man, possibly “Times of Israel” that just before that a his family, would be expelled from representing Polish people, is seen lying book by Sweden’s Anders Rydell which Russia because of “Harm to state in a pool of blood. A third person, simply mentioned Petliura’s pogroms security.” The process, which was possibly Russian, is holding up his arms was banned for import into Ukraine. held behind closed doors, remains in defense. Gorbinko wrote in the confidential. summer of 2017 that he regretted that January 23, 2019, Europe (not Hitler did not “finish the job.” Eduard Ukraine): Jews have a bleak present October 14, 2018 Dolinsky, head of Ukrainian Jewish Kiev, Ukraine: and future in Europe because of Committee, stated, “These are the results anti-Semitism. That was the unusually Ukrainian nationalists and members of of impunity, passivity and the far-right radical groups marked the pessimistic view outlined by the irresponsibility of law enforcement. continent’s Jewish community leaders Defender of Ukraine Day with a procession with as many as 10,000 at the European Parliament’s annual January, 2019 International Holocaust Remem- participants. Extremists from abroad, Visit of President Petro Poroshenko to lincluding Germans, Norwegians, brance Day event. European Jewish Israel: Congress President Moshe Kantor in a Swedes and Italians from the extreme Leading Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff has right, flock to Ukraine to take part. speech read for him raised the possibility criticized Ukrainian President Petro of Jews leaving Europe amid rising On October 15 they gathered in Kiev Poroshenko for ignoring Ukrainian for the Paneuropa conference extremism. And it wasn’t just European complicity in the Holocaust during his Jewish leaders. Jewish Agency organized by the Ukrainian neo-Nazi visit to Israel, and for urging Jerusalem Corps party. Political analyst Anton Chairman Isaac Herzog called the reality to recognize the Holodomor, a for European Jews “ a raging crisis.” Shekhovtsov said, “Kiev has now man-made famine in the 1930s that killed become one of the major centers of millions of Ukrainians, as a genocide. European far-right activities.” Speaking to the “Times of Israel” in the February 15, 2019 wake of Poroshenko’s trip, Zuroff also Kolomyya, Ukraine: Far-right sentiments exist in Ukraine, took the president’s Israeli hosts to task Unidentified individuals painted but these ultranationalist groupings for not having challenged him publicly anti-Semitic cartoons on a memorial wall attract little public support. Polls on Kiev’s policy of honoring Ukrainian in Ukraine that was made of ancient show that the combined vote of nationalist wartime heroes, many of Jewish headstones destroyed by Soviet far-right presidential candidates whom were involved in massacres authorities. Graffiti found in the amount to around 4 percent. Casual against Jews before and during WWII. western city of Kolomyya shows a man antisemitism and Jewish stereotypes tossing a Star of David in the trash. The persist in everyday life, but not a The birthday of leading Ukrainian memorial wall commemorates one of single recorded violent attack against nationalist Stepan Bandera, whose three Jewish cemeteries that existed a Jewish person has occurred in associates were involved in the murder of there before they were razed and Ukraine since October 7, 2016, when Jews following the Nazis’ invasion in plundered. a visiting Hasidic rabbi visited Zhitomir was beaten. Officers & Board of Action for Post-Soviet Jewry 2018—2019 October 15, 2018 OFFICERS Susan Brown STAFF President: Barbara Karchmer Carol Clingan Executive Director Kazan, Russia: Vice-President: Genya Doktor Judy Patkin Mikhail Skoblionok’s office in Kazan Carol Clingan Tatyana Goldwyn Associate Director was targeted with an exploding parcel. Treasurer: Barbara Anatolev Melinda Harrison Galina Zilberstein Secretary: Shirley Hurwitz Shirley Hurwitz Marina Javits Both he and his female assistant were Roz Kaplan Assistant hospitalized. Skoblionok is president BOARD Barbara Karchmer Zeya Krasko of Jewish Cultural Autonomy,