A VISIT TO HILLEL
The Friday before at Irish Pub (the regular ex-pat hangout), I had met Abby, a Peace Corps volunteer, who talked at length about getting involved in the Jewish community in Kharkiv. She said it was the best thing she had ever done as a Peace Corps fellow. She said I have to get involved too because they would be so excited to meet another American, especially an American who was a full blooded Jew (she was only ¼ Jewish). I said I felt a little uncomfortable with that. Although I am Jewish by birth and had wanted to get involved in the Jewish community in Ukraine, I didn’t practice the Jewish faith regularly and I was sure there were things I didn’t know. I think what convinced me was when Abby described an outreach program to teach people about Pesach (Passover). I knew that the Soviets had prevented the Jews from observing Passover and having seders, but it didn’t occur to me that they wouldn’t know what Passover was or how to celebrate it. The other thing that intrigued me was that the rabbi of the synagogue is from Peru, and his wife is from Australia.
I agreed to meet Abby and a few other people on Sunday at 11:30, but they were late and I was underdressed for the cold weather so I went home. I called Abby that night and agreed instead to go with her on Wednesday to Hillel, the Jewish student/youth organization. On Wednesday at 4:30 I met Abby at the Lenin statue at Universitet. Abby’s boyfriend Souhail, a Moroccan, was with her. The three of us walked through Shevchenko Park but Souhail parted ways with us there. We walked out to Symska and to the main entrance of the Hillel building, but the main entrance was under “remont” (repair). So we went around to the back entrance.
Once we got to the third floor, I felt very comfortable there, perhaps more comfortable than I have ever felt in a Jewish Hillel in my life. They had very nice furniture and a computer and TV with videos of different Jewish ceremonies. They had three or four menorahs. Abby introduced me to one girl who said she spoke very little English. There was a guy in the room who said in English, “Wassup!” Abby and the girl talked for a minute, then Abby said I had a choice between going to Hebrew lessons across the hall or staying in the room and looking at pictures. I wasn’t thrilled about trying to learn Hebrew being taught in Russian, so I decided to stay and look at pictures. I told the girl to talk slowly, and I understood a lot of what she said, though she said some things in English like “Happy Birthday” and started talking more in English as she went. The pictures were amazing. There were Hillel trips to Moscow, pictures of Jerusalem sent by friends, pictures of a group from Washington that visited Kharkiv, pictures of Shabbats, birthday parties, beauty pageants, and Passover. They have several different seders on one day for different groups—the elderly, children, etc. I didn’t tell her this because I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep, but I hope I can come help at one of the seders. I told her as I looked at the birthday pictures that people usually lift someone on a chair for a wedding; I’d never seen that done for a birthday. We continued looking at pictures but we got interrupted eventually by young people who came in. Many asked me questions about where I was from, how long I had been here etc. Their English was horrible but I didn’t correct them. One boy spoke English pretty well. He asked me, “how long have you been in the Jewish life?” At first I thought he was talking about a bar mitzvah, a coming of age into Judiasm. For me it was hard to answer because I’m not sure I’ve ever fully been in the Jewish life. I said that I was born Jewish, my parents were Jewish etc. He said somewhat incredulously, “you’ve known since birth that you were Jewish?” Then he said he is now 16 years old, and he found out he was Jewish when he was 14. His parents kept his Judiasm a secret. I was shocked. I may not have been a very observant Jew, but I’ve never hidden the fact that I am Jewish. It was shocking to know that there were places in the world where this fact needed to be hidden. I asked how he felt when he found out he was Jewish; he said he was happy, feeling glad, and we both continued singing the chorus of the Gorillaz song “Clint Eastwood”: I’m happy, feeling glad, I got sunshine in a bag, I’m useless but not for long, the future is coming on.
Despite these differences in upbringing, some things are
universal. Many people at Hillel asked
if I knew Hebrew or if I have been to
After this chat time, Abby led me across the hall for “Lehrhouse”. The Lehrer, I mean teacher, was the same girl who was showing me the pictures before. She talked about Jewish weddings. I only know this because I recognized the word “chupa” and the act of stepping on the glass. Other than that I only caught words like “a day when,” “what”, “who”, “very interesting”, and some pronouns. I must take more Russian lessons. I felt bad for her—she was doing it completely as a lecture, and she seemed interested in what she was talking about but the other students looked bored. There was a break after an hour with lemon soda (very sweet), crackers, and cake. Abby took pictures of me and another Hillel member near the Sukkot house. Abby had to leave at 7:30, so I left with her because I couldn’t understand anything in Russian. But I am sure I will go back again soon.