The Jewish Home | JANUARY 27, 2022 The Jewish Home | JANUARY 27, 2022
With kindergarten children in Odessa
I was up at 6 AM on Thursday, May 26, and left from Malaga, Spain, with a direct flight to Kiev. Since I had a few hours to spare, I took a taxi into the city and went to the beautiful Brodsky Synagogue which I had never seen before. I met Rabbi Reuven Azman, the chief Chabad rabbi of Ukraine, and we had a short conversation in his office at the shul. I also went to eat at the King David Restaurant, which is located in the same building. I then rushed back to board the small Soviet-era dilapidated airplane and flew into Odessa airport. Rabbi Korodovsky picked me up and took me to the cozy Hotel Mozart. After unpacking and finally catching my breath, I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. Friday was a mostly hectic day. Rabbi Baksht assigned two young men, Motty and Shmulik, to take me around and show me all the institutions that are part of his empire. We began our itinerary by going to daven at the beautiful Choral Shul that was refurbished by him. There, I met Nachman, who is the father of Leibel Simkhovich, who once learned in the Yeshiva of Kishinev and eventually married Leah, one of our students. Nachman does a lot of business in Odessa and comes to the city a number of times during the year. From there, we went to see the boys’ high school, where I ate breakfast, followed by a visit to the girls’ high school. Then we went to the kindergarten, where I joined in a Hadlakah in honor of Lag B’Omer. Later on, they took me to the grade school, where boys and girls are together in the classrooms. Our next stop was the
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With Rabbi Shlomo Baksht
girls’ dormitory. All of these schools were very impressive, and I was hoping that our Kishinev schools could be taken over by the efficient people who were running these Odessa institutions.
theless, I am glad to have seen this major port city which boasts the fifth largest population in Ukraine. I rushed back to the hotel to get ready for Shabbos and still managed to stop at the mikvah. Rav Shlomo
The babel of languages included English, Hebrew, Russian and Yiddish, but we truly understood what we had in common
A trip to this major city would not be complete without a stop at the Black Sea. Although this city is renowned as a vacation destination for Russian and Ukrainian tourists, the area where we walked around was quite decrepit looking. Never-
picked me up, and we drove to shul to daven Mincha and Kabbalas Shabbos. I ate the seudah at the home of the Kruskal family and was joined by Rabbi Baksht and Nachman Simkhovich and his wife. The food was delicious, the singing delightful,
With Motty and Shmulek at the Hebron Restaurant
the divrei Torah insightful, and the company charming. The babel of languages included English, Hebrew, Russian and Yiddish, but we truly understood what we had in common. We were all part of the revival of Jewish life in the former Soviet Union. Rav Shlomo picked me up from the hotel Shabbos morning for the fifteen-minute walk to shul. There were many people there including boys from the boys’ dormitory. The davening was nice, and as we exited the shul, the street became full of mispallelim – a sight that was rare in the former Soviet Union. I ate again with the Kruskal family, and our seudah took a long time, as Refael shared with me a lot of information about Jewish life in Odessa. After a mini nap in the hotel, Motti picked me up, and we went to the toddlers’ dormitory which serves abandoned or neglected Jewish chil-
At the Black Sea in Odessa
