From the Chudo (Miracle) of Lights to the Chudo (Miracle) of Snow

It is hard to believe that I have been in Odessa almost a month and half, and even harder to know where to begin…

Arriving just in time for the Festival of Lights, Chanukah, I had an opportunity see to the Jewish Community and Jewish Organizations of Odessa at their most active and celebratory (though I can only imagine or have hints at the Festivities awaiting for Purim).

While dozens of events took place, the largest scale event that I personally took a role in was the first “maladushka”- evening for youth- that the Beit Grande planned and executed since its opening. The Beit Grande or the Jewish Cultural Center- is the brand new, beautiful, full block building, which was recently constructed and opened in Odessa. While there are many active, established, and quite impressive Jewish organizations in Odessa, the Beit Grande is very unique to Odessa’s Jewish Community.

Upon walking into the Beit Grande you immediately notice that above you there is a three floor, spiraling staircase sculpture (representing Jacob’s dream from Genesis), while below you, you find yourself standing on a piece of Jerusalem limestone in the middle of the lobby. Immediately you understand the goal of this massive and very beautiful Jewish institution; to reach and dream high for the future of their Jewish Community while remaining firmly planted in the values and traditions that have always held the Jewish People together.

[As a note, I must mention that my project in arriving in Odessa was to assist with Jewish Renewal programs at the Beit Grande and having a strong background in JCC work, I am quite partial to the Beit Grande and deeply believe in its mission].

Having only opened last Chanukah, the Beit Grande had double to celebrate this Chanukah with their first anniversary, and their “maladushka” was the crowning jewel on 8 day’s worth of events and commemorations. The “maladushka” involved over a hundred young adults, ranging in age from 17 to 30 in attendance, a fire show, performances by Ukrainian pop stars (who just happened to grow up in the Jewish community and attending Jewish camps in Ukraine), menorah give-a-ways, and lots and lots of ponichiki.

While Chanukah in Odessa was quite an experience, even the festival of lights could not keep the snow from arriving. Odessa, in matter of days had more snow and freezing temperatures than it had seen in over half of century. Being a Mediterranean city with long summers and short (mostly snowless) winters, the arrival of the first blizzard of the winter had completely paralyzed the city. As the city was not prepared, it had no choice but to shut down (schools, work places, and stores). The Heaps of snow had created terrible traffic conditions where drivers stood in traffic for 7-10 hours only than to be forced to get out and push their cars to side streets. Public transportation was temporarily suspended and many people had to spend a night or two sleeping at their jobs or friends close by, as they were not able to get out of the center of the city to get home to Odessa’s residential areas. Garbage could not be picked (and the usual several stray dogs problem- worsened). Trucks with produce deliveries were unable to get into the city and bread quickly became a valuable commodity as it could not be found in most stores for several days. Of course the weather conditions were not all bad, children were quickly spotted outside with the first signs of snowflakes riding their sleighs down snow hills, and I even spotted several people snowboarding down the Potemkin Staircase!

Overall, it took the city about a week and half to fully recover- going from a winter wonderland to an ice skating ring (with temperatures falling minus 20 Celsius and causing the entire unshoveled city to become frozen) to a swimming pool (with temperatures going to plus 10 Celsius, with no drainage system on the streets) and finally returning to the beautiful streets that I have come to know and love.

With the city being shut down by the snow and in preparation for the holidays, I took advantage and took a quick trip to Kiev to visit some friends and colleagues. While I only spent a few days in Kiev, I was immediately astounded by how large the city was and how very different from Odessa. While I have only been away from New York for a month and half, I had already forgotten the craziness of riding subways (Odessa does not have a metro system- as it build on catacombs used as a system of leaving and entering the city during wars in the previous century- the catacombs have caused parts of Odessa to be sinking as well as constant traffic jams due to lack of public transportation). As a side note, the subways in Kiev are quite deep underground and the escalators run very quickly causing a scary situation for first-time users.

Overall, Kiev is a very beautiful and impressive city, however walking around many of its famous and infamous sites (will post pictures soon) Baba Yar-site of the mass killing of thousands of Jews during the Second World War (the worst murder of Jewish residents occurred here, where in matter of two days over thirty thousand Jews were murdered and dumped at the now Public Park), Square of Independence, Mandarin, Andriyivisky Spusk, and of course eating at a Puzata Hata- I found myself missing not New York but Odessa…

With this I arrived back to Odessa, to spend my first New Year’s away from New York and home in what is beginning to feel like home with my newfound friends and city. Since I arrived in Odessa, many have welcomed me here with the idea that this city is my rodina (birthplace). Sometimes I find this concept a bit off, as in my month and half here I have been forced to discover how “American” I am in upbringing and mentality. Yet, every day I find myself more drawn to this city, its residents, lifestyle, and Jewish Community.

In the FSU and back home in Little Odessa, New Year’s is always a very big holiday and celebration. Whenever, I would sit as a child at the table with my family on New Year’s we would always begin by toasting good-bye to the Old Year. 2009 was a year of many changes, good-byes, and beginnings for me and 2010 will have many more. This New Year’s I find myself very grateful for all the love and support from my family, friends, and colleagues throughout this experience. Without it I know I would not be privileged enough to be on this journey. While I will be saying good-bye today to 2009 a whole seven hours before all of them, I also know that I bring all the support, memories, experiences, and people into 2010 as I move forward. To illuminate the path for me when it gets dark…

HAPPY New Years!

Odessa...Winter Wonderland

From Little Odessa to ODESSA

“But Odessa is just a town like any other…the problem is that you are extremely biased…Well, fine. So I am biased, I admit it. Maybe I‘m even extremely biased, but parole d’honneur, there is something to this place!” Isaac Babel, Odessa.

Having been born and raised in a community/neighborhood know as “Little Odessa” (as least as it was when my family first immigrated and when I was a child- in the 70’s and 80’s), I have sat around many family dinners listening to stories, anecdotes, and nostalgia on ODESSA. Thus, getting off the airport at Odessa, a little over two weeks ago, was quite a surreal experience. I would have believed I had arrived anywhere but ODESSA. India, China, Rwanda, or Paris but not ODESSA.

At first sight the street I live on could be mistaken for a street in the heart of Greenwich Village, NY- I am surrounded by trendy cafes with people sitting drinking lattes and surfing the web, fashion stores that are my favorite stops in SOHO, cobble streets, and oh so fashionable pedestrians. However, with a second look, a bit deeper, you realize you are not anywhere near the streets of NY. Could it be the language of the store signs (Ukrainian) or the Russian slang that people walking by are using (making the language I have spoken all my life become almost indecipherable), or perhaps it is the huge German Sheppard eyeing me as I walk into my “dvoar.”

My first weeks in Odessa, have been a whirlwind of visiting and getting to know the Jewish Community of Odessa. It was immediately clear how diverse, vibrant, sophisticated and complicated this community is. The professionals who work in the over half a dozen Jewish organizations/institutions in Odessa, led, collaborated, and jointed together by the Joint, are more than impressive in their abilities as they are in their dedication to the Jewish Community here. It is wonderful to be around colleagues, similarly to myself, who view their job not only as a job but a lifestyle. The commitment, talent, and dedication of these professionals (and active involvement in all aspects of their community) is what creates and sustains the Jewish Community here.

The Jewish Community of Odessa is estimated between 30-45,000 out of a city of a bit more than a million residents. However, as the joke goes in Odessa, “everyone in Odessa has at least one Jewish grandparent”. This anecdote attests to the rich Jewish history of Odessa, which prior to the Revolution, nearly half of the residents were Jewish. Walking the streets of Odessa, I can almost imagine great Zionist leaders like Dizengoff and Jabotinsky walking on the same cobbles streets as I am now (specifically not removed in certain parts of the city for historical preservation). I can see Pushkin (only a resident of Odessa for 13 months, but one of the most famous residents with a large monument fundraised and built by the citizens of Odessa) and Babel sitting on a bench on Primorski Boulevard looking out into the sea and writing poems and stories about Odessa, herself.

In my few weeks here, I have already had dozens of experiences that have expanded my scope of what a Jewish Community can be and is. While Odessa has always had a large Jewish population and history, I find myself amazed and constantly reminded that organized Jewish life has only existed for a little over twenty years. Prior to that, Odessa as the rest of the FSU lived under the Communist Regime for almost a century.

Thus, the amazingly active Jewish Community here today is that much more precious and inspiring. In many ways the Jewish Community here is struggling with many similar challenges as the community I arrive from, as the populations have similar backgrounds. Fore example how to bring in and engage youth (teenagers), the next generation and future, who are unexplainably missing from the picture of services for many Jewish Organizations in Odessa. As well as, how to create local self-sustaining Jewish Organizations. On the other hand the Jewish Community here faces its own unique challenges both in terms of welfare and renewal, the greatest of which seems to be defining and shaping what the next twenty years of Jewish life in Odessa will look like.

ODESSA has always had an almost mystical hold on my imagination and heart. However, everyday that I spend combing the streets, sitting in restaurants, and meetings, I find myself discovering the real city. Slowly, the city that was once Little Odessa, or ODESSA to me is becoming Odessa…

The Commencement of A Very Rigid Journey…

Welcome to the commencement of my journey as the Ralph I. Goldman Fellow for 2009-2010. Almost half a year ago I walked into the JDC NY Headquarters for the first time for my interview as a candidate for the Fellowship. A few months later in September I took one step closer towards my journey as I began my time in the NY office. With my departure to my first overseas placement- Odessa, Ukraine - my rigid search commences.

My blog title is borrowed from one of the chapters of one of my favorite novels/movies- Everything is Illuminated. The movie (as the novel is much more intricate) consists of a young North American man, a collector of his family’s past, who travels to Ukraine to search for the woman who rescued his grandfather from Nazis. Or so he believes, however along his “rigid search” the man and his guides’ stumble along various illuminations on the Jewish connections between themselves.

I have always found the movie/novel very relevant to myself- as it explores the various definitions and identity conflicts of being an American Jew of Soviet heritage- which I am. A little over thirty years ago my parents (teenagers at the time) along with their extended families, each began a long and difficult immigration process, traveling from Odessa to Rome to Austria to finally settling in New York City. My parents and their families were not alone in this journey, but were joined by tens of thousands of families on the same path.

I have spent much of my professional career, up to now, working with these families, their descendants, and the hundreds and thousands of families that would follow my parents in the opening of the Iron Curtain. Searching for the connection between us all and trying to understand my own identity through this community.

More than thirty years after my family made the long journey to New York City, I am about to embark on a journey back to Odessa. While my journey will consist of a quick plane ride, with one lay-over in Kiev, nothing like that of my parent’s almost whole year in transition – I am beginning my own search.

Always stuck between two worlds that of the American and Soviet- my strongest link between the two has always been being Jewish. Now I am searching to uncover and create other layers to my Jewish identity. I am also looking forward to expanding my knowledge and scope of the possibilities of Jewish Communities- by being a part of those different from my own.

As a concluding “illumination” in the movie, the main character ends by saying: Everything is illuminated in the light of the past.” Thus, the appropriate starting point for my rigid search for professional and personal illumination is Odessa.

My dear friends and colleagues, I hope you will join me on my rigid search through my posts and blog. I hope this is away for us to stay connected this year and I hope to hear your own illuminations in response to my experiences.

Miss you all already,

Violetta