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May 2001 Trip Report

by Judy Patkin

UKRAINE

Overview

Dnipropetrovsk still looks prosperous and increasingly so. New shops are opening up on the side streets off Karl Marx Prospect. People still talk about 80% unemployment, though, in many cities, so it is hard to know just what the situation is. Pensions and salaries seem to be paid in a more timely fashion, and I didn’t hear any stories about a three-month, six-month, or year’s delay in pensions or salaries, which I had heard in the past. Also, pensions had recently been increased – not to a livable amount, but significantly. Potholes have been repaired, too, and some streets have been resurfaced. It looks as though someone is running for public office, but I didn’t hear of any upcoming elections. The out of the way streets are still bad, but centrally the roads are much better. There are more traffic lights and walk lights with red and green figures to indicate when you can walk. There is much more traffic along Karl Marx Prospect, but at least you can safely cross the street.

We went into a couple of food shops, which reminded me of the best American grocery stores where everything imaginable is available in all stages of preparation. One of the stores was located near where Yan and Tanya Sidelkovsky live on the opposite side of the river. It was open 24 hours a day and had a 24-hour bank, too. There are ready-made salads, cheeses from all over the world, all kinds of meat and fish, liquor and candy, fresh vegetables and fruit, as well as fresh bread. While we were in Dnipropetrovsk, we were served large boxed juices, which are packaged in Ukraine. The packaging was sophisticated and it tasted very good. We sampled grape, orange and apple juice. This is the first time I have seen a Ukrainian product which measures up to European standards. There was nothing like this in Belarus, unless it was imported. Interestingly, tea was usually served to us as tea bags. Most people used hot pots imported from Scandinavia, similar to the one in our office. Coffee seemed extremely expensive compared to all other foodstuffs. A small jar of instant could cost $20. Sugar substitutes are readily available, but pensioners lack the money to purchase them.

The underground Metro system is under construction again. Last year it seemed stalled. It is functioning from several out-lying stations and work is going on along Karl Marx Prospect to complete the line. The buses and trolley cars are packed, and many still look like they have seen better days. The small white or blue jitney vans seem to have increased in number, though, and they take people all over the city on established routes. You pick them up at set stops, but you can get off at any point. There is a large stop for them near the circus, and another along Karl Marx Prospect, to mention just a couple of places you can find them. People say that they are more expensive (50 cents/ride instead of 10 cents/ride), but they are much quicker and more comfortable. Marshall Winokur, who traveled with me, used all of these types of transportation as he moved around the city and managed quite well with them. I also saw vans operating in most other cities, but the system in Dnipropetrovsk was larger and there were many more of them, probably because it is a fairly large city to begin with.

Everywhere I traveled there were large trucks on the road, more traffic than I remembered. This seems to be the major way goods are moved. There are modern vehicles with logos as well as old trucks which huff and puff up the hills. There are plenty of imported cars on the road as well, and many modern gas stations to serve them. If you have money, there is no shortage of gasoline.

Our Adopt a Bubbe program is doing well. We are dispensing more aid to more and more Jewish pensioners in different communities. In addition, we have begun to reach out to younger people who are in desperate circumstances. The people who travel the circuit to the rural settlements are delighted to be able to offer more than the standard food package from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Joint). Medical aid is really appreciated, and several communities rely heavily on what we send them, as well as funds to meet specific medical needs. A small amount of money still goes a long way to give people a better life and the hope that they can make ends meet.

I traveled to two places I have never been before – Melitopol and Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. Melitopol is one of the poorest communities I have seen and really needs whatever help we can provide. In addition to the usual problems of very small pensions, this city lacks a decent transportation system, which greatly hampers the recruitment of volunteers and the delivery of aid.

Saturday, May 5th - Dnipropetrovsk

Sanctuary of Dnipropetrovsk Golden Rose Synagogue, which opened for Rosh Hashanah, 2000. The new Jewish Community Center which adjoins the Dnipropetrovsk Synagogue.

Went to Golden Rose Synagogue for Shabbat services in the morning. There were many more people in attendance than I had remembered in the old building, which was much smaller. There was also a Bar Mitzvah, and someone handed out lollypops to throw down from the balcony at the right time. Chany Kaminezki, the rebbitzin, found prayer books and a torah with commentary for myself and Betsy Gidwitz (a fellow Soviet Jewry activist from Chicago) in Hebrew and English. Chany was there with the older girls – Yehudas, Mushkie, Risha and Rivka. Risha is already reading the Hebrew prayers.
Visited with a group of 32 first graders meeting in the library, which is on the first floor of the four story Jewish community center attached to the synagogue. They were being led through remarks, songs, were asked for examples of mitzvot, and were very engaged. Parents, mostly mothers, were there as well. The children sat around a large table, which had plates of apples and muffins. It was well organized by the Jewish Day School teachers. Anna Kaplunskaya, the Jewish Day School principal for younger children, was there, too.
Yan Sidelkovsky, our Adopt a Bubbe coordinator, has an office in the basement of the JCC. He has two rooms – one with two desks and some shelves, the other mostly for storage, although he said he is making a sound studio out of it. His wife, Tanya Sidelkovskaya, uses one desk, and Yan the other one.
Several boxes of medicine from our office were in the storage room. Some had just arrived.
He has medicine in cabinets which can be locked and said that he has plenty. This is the supply which he gives out to the smaller cities. He also supplies the synagogue clinic run by Dr. Evgenia Cherkasskaya and Rabbi Kaminezki with a few items.
Yan needs help with the distribution of medicine. It is time consuming to log in everything and to fill out the forms for what is given out and how the physicians are utilizing it.
Some medicines which were repacked in bottles did not list the number of pills in a bottle, so they needed to be recounted. Yan is required to list every pill and how it is distributed. I think this is a requirement of Rabbi Kaminezki, but I am not totally certain.
By the end of my stay in Dnipropetrovsk, I had authorized Yan to hire an assistant to work with the medical program for $30/month. I don’t know who he will hire.

Sunday, May 6th - Dnipropetrovsk - Physicians' Seminar

A Physician’s Seminar to bring together physicians who are distributing our medicine to Jewish communities in eastern Ukraine, was held on the third floor of the new Jewish Community Center, attached to the Golden Rose Synagogue. It was in a large attractive room with large windows and a door leading onto a patio, which connects to other rooms and a flight of stairs which is the fire escape system. People were seated around a U- shaped table. The building has an elevator.
Physicians in attendance - 19:
Igor Darievsky (not a physician, but coordinates Adopt a Bubbe), Novomoskovsk
Ludmila Harchenko, Novomoskovsk, born in 1956
Eugenia Mikhailovna Cherkasskaya (the head of the clinic run out of the Dnipropetrovsk Synagogue), Dnipropetrovsk
Kirolina Feodorovna Kaminskaya, Kirovograd
Valeria Simenistaya, Rubezhne
Maya Aronovna Dun, Poltava
Alexander Iosifovich Maystrovsky, Dniprodzerzhinsk, sits on city council
Larissa Mikhailovna Feodotina, Dniprodzerzhinsk
Andrei Mikhailovich Shularov, Berdyansk
Lydia Solomonovna Rashba, Dnipropetrovsk
Andrei Anatolievich Posnikov, Mariupol
Tatyana Sergeevna Dorofievskaya, Melitopol
Tamara Borisovna Yaroshenko, Dniprodzerzhinsk
Elena Vyacheslavovna Birukova, Dniprodzerzhinsk
Inna Alexandrovna Yaroshenko, Dniprodzerzhinsk
Feodor Mikhailovich Yasenko, Dneprodzerzhinsk
Valeria Evgenievna Yasenko, Dneprodzerzhinsk

Physicians attending the seminar. Judy Patkin is in the center in a light blouse. Yan Sidelkovsky, our Adopt a Bubbe coordinator, is next to her in a light jacket. Dr. Michael Maysky, a Boston cardiologist who led the seminar, is second from the right.
3. I met most of these people for the first time. Several traveled long distances to reach us, and a few stayed overnight to reach the seminar on time.

4. Dr. Michael (Misha) Maysky, a Boston cardiologist, led the session which went for several hours, broke for a tour of the Golden Rose Synagogue and lunch at Beit Baruch, and resumed in the afternoon for another couple of hours. The session was videotaped and shown to people later. Also on audio tape.

Points addressed, questions from physicians:
Want to use local medicines effectively – often much cheaper (M. Maysky). Not good to use the most expensive U.S. medicines. The high cost of medicine and the low pensions of clients came up over and over again.
Chernobyl is a big health problem.
Elderly have multiple health problems.
Big problem to obtain medicines without serious side effects, like making patient sleep.
Some medicines cost $6 for whole course – much cheaper than U.S. medicines.
Cholesterol lowering drugs are the same price in Ukraine as in U.S. It is possible to obtain cholesterol-lowering drugs for one course, but not for your whole life – it’s impossible.
Many medicines are not available in Ukraine.
Medicine for Parkinson’s disease are very expensive in Ukraine. It costs between 60 and 70 hrivinas for two pills: $12 - $14. Quality of those medicines is also not high.
More than a month’s pension is required for a few pills. Even cheaper medicines are still too expensive.
Diabetics face a terrible situation. Many children are suffering. Have a new factory here which is producing animal insulin, and this is available for adults. If they can get some human insulin, it is saved for young children. Insulin comes from different sources and diabetics are not treated well. Formerly obtained insulin from the Netherlands, but now get it locally. Insulin is free for those who need it. What government gives is not enough. The city only gets 10% of what is needed. If you send us 30 batches of insulin, it will not be enough. We will protest if it is not available for children, i.e. it shouldn’t be saved only for pensioners. Fifty strips (strips for measuring blood glucose levels) cost 200 hrivinas - $40. Polyclinics have no way of testing for blood glucose levels. Have so many good professional physicians, but don’t have equipment.
Almost all kinds of medicines are in the stores.
Are only Jewish people involved in this program? I answered that we cannot serve whole cities. Do serve non-Jewish family members and can make exceptions for particular cases.
Discussion of medicines for heart disease.
Ulcers: Pepcid: 100 pills can cost 112 hrivinas ($22) – very expensive, but effective. Average pension is 60 – 70 hrivinas/mo. ($12-$14). New way of treating ulcers with antibiotics.
Interferon – incredibly expensive.
Anti-arrythmias: have Amilderon(?) here. Eight pills cost 20 hrivinas ($4). Only a few patients can obtain it. Not very available.
Warfarin (blood thinner, prevents clots). If we can provide it, will people use it? Yes, very useful. Not everyone knows it by name.
Mentioned cardiac drugs not used in U.S. According to Michael Maysky, many medicines used in Ukraine and Russia and also in Europe have been tested in the U.S., but are not acceptable.
Need medicine for adenoma (?).
Inhalators cost 118 hrivinas ($23) each in Melitopol. Some produced here are quite good. Inhalants can cost 18 ($3) hrivinas.
Allergies are a big problem, especially this time of year. Claritin is the most useful, also, Allegra and Zyrtec. The generic is produced here, but is not effective.
M. Maysky urged the physicians to give enough medicine from the samples we provide to last one patient for a year. Don’t give out a few pills here and a few pills there. This way is not effective for anyone and is just wasting the medicine. Can’t continually switch a patient from one medicine to another and expect a stable result. Cherkasskaya disagreed with this. Several argued, “What can we do, turn away patients?”
How much does Sinemet (for Parkinson’s disease) cost in the U.S.?
Talked about Trental, which is not really used in U.S. It costs 30 hrivinas/packet ($6).
Physicians would like to receive journals. M. Maysky thinks that obtaining them on CDRom is the best way to distribute. He has a friend in Moscow who is translating much information into Russian and putting it on CDRom.
Medical refresher courses are given, but there are not many and they are expensive and of questionable quality.
How can they treat a patient with Warfarin if they are sent home from the hospital? Patient won’t or can’t take the medicine. In the U.S., a nurse would come to the house. Here, it might cost $2 - $3 per visit. Not practical for people who live in small towns. M. Maysky felt that we need to change their way of tackling procedures like this. It is possible to organize home visits for people who need them. Nurses would be happy to earn a little extra money.
Blood glucose monitors and strips should be sent to the physicians, rather than directly to the patients.
Alex Momot would like to obtain information on new medicines on a regular basis. Need to obtain medical journals regularly.
Are there personal cases who need specific help? Of course, there are many such cases. If someone has a special need, let us know the particulars and we can try to fundraise on their particular situation.
Treatment of pensioners should also include spa (Berdyansk). (I have heard this request before through Yan.) Can get a nurse to come to house for therapy after heart attack. Question of money. Andrei still wants a spa. Have woman in Dneprodzerzhinsk who gives massages. Joint’s Chesed prevents home workers from giving injections.
Physicians here are not allowed to prescribe unknown medicines. M. Maysky – Have to be willing to take risks and made your own decisions.
Asked M. Maysky about his own situation, his salary, age, where trained, etc. How does physician training in U.S. differ from that in FSU?
Discussed thyroid/synthroid.
How do you clean the blood? M. Maysky: This is nonsense. Said that M. Maysky is quite conservative in his treatments. Not conservative - have to be within bounds of good medical practice. M. Maysky: In the U.S., we are studying everyday because medical practice and medicines change.
Discussed statins for lowering cholesterol – Lipitor, Pravachol, etc.
Discussed antidepressants – Zoloft
Amount of medicine we can send is limited. Have to choose how to use funds.

5. Michael Maysky was the ideal physician to conduct the seminar. He was able to speak directly in Russian, understand where these people were coming from and answer their questions, while injecting his own ideas. It was very low key, but a great deal of information was exchanged and everyone who wanted to was able to participate in the discussion. No one was cut off. All comments were taken seriously. The physicians quickly understood that Misha was a very competent physician. Whether or not they accept his suggestions, remains to be seen. I was getting the main points of the discussion through a translator, so I probably missed many items, but you can get some idea of the breadth of what was discussed. We had plenty of time. Of course, many people spoke with Misha individually as well, and some discussed their own personal medical problems.

Dr. Michael Maysky from Boston addresses the Physicians' Seminar. Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki welcomes the physicians. With him are two of his daughters, Sarah and Rivka, and two physicians from Dniprodzerzhinsk.
6. After the seminar, Yan and Tanya Sidelkovsky went to their office in the basement to hand out some medicine to physicians and to collect reports and letters from some of the smaller cities.

Rear: Yan Sidelkovsky (center) hands out medicine to Dr. Valeria Seminstaya from Rubezhnoe (left), while, on the right, Dr. Maya Dun from Poltava waits for her turn. In foreground, Dr. Kirolina Kamentskaya from Kirovograd, hands in her report along with letters and pictures of the Adopt a Bubbe program in rural Kirovograd to Tanya Sidelkovskaya, partially hidden on the right. Left to Right: Tanya Sidelkovskaya, Adopt a Bubbe coordinator, goes over the report from Dr. Kirolina Kamentskaya, from Kirovograd. She was shown a picture of a man in his, who cried when food was brought to him. He was incredulous that someone in America could know about him and help him out.

Tanya works quite hard on Adopt a Bubbe, filling out forms for the cities who bring in lists of people helped, but don’t fill out the forms. Both Yan and Tanya do a great deal of record keeping. It looks simple, but it can eat up a lot of time and patience. There is also much energy spent just handling all the different personalities.
b. We definitely need to hire some help for Yan with the record keeping. We are sending much more medicine and dealing with more and more cities and regions. The medicine alone is a huge task. The record keeping is being handled well, but it is very time consuming.

c. Kirolina Feodorovna Kamentskaya, brought in a picture and a letter from a 94-year-old woman, who had lived through the Revolution, two World Wars, and more. I think she lives in a small village in the Kirovograd region. She also showed me a picture of a man who was crying when she delivered food to him. People are incredulous that someone who doesn’t know them at all would care about them and send help. This is what makes all the hard work worthwhile.

d. As Yan was giving out medicine to a new physician from Melitopol, another physician was listening in, asking questions and wanting to get the same medicines for her city. This was hard to take after such a long day.

e. Time is spent explaining what the medicines are for, etc. Dr. Maysky walked in at one point and commented on a particular medicine for arthritis which was specifically meant to be soothing for people with stomach distress, i.e., it had a double function. Yan said that he needs better information like this.

Monday, May 7th - Dnipropetrovsk

Saw Elena Grigorievna Bogolubov, in her third floor office. She is the mother of the super-wealthy businessman who owns Privat Bank and lots of other businesses. Rabbi Kaminezki said that Bogolubov has 70,000 employees under him. Elena manages the Synagogue Emergency Fund. This is a brand new function (having a specific person manage this fund) and has only been in existence about a month.

People in need come to plead their case and she either refers them further or fills out a form for consideration of their situation. It may be money to purchase supplies for hospitalization, home repair, money for medicine, etc. The home repair is done by people already under contract who are honest and available when needed. Right now there are 20 people waiting for assistance. Elena’s office hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 on. The woman we saw being helped was Maya, someone Yan knew. She had been turned down by Chesed for medicine, so was trying here in tears. She was asking for a particular medicine and had become depressed and worried, which just exacerbated her condition. At Yan’s suggestion, she was sent to Dr. Eugenia Cherkasskaya, who was holding medical clinic hours on the fourth floor. They try to help people right away, whenever possible.

Elena Grigorievna Bogolubov at her desk in the Jewish Community Center. She manages the Synagogue Emergency Fund, which assists people who approach the synagogue with particular needs.

Dr. Eugenia Cherkasskaya, physician who heads a free clinic at the synagogue.

Dr. Misha Maysky was with Cherkasskaya when I arrived. Misha had watched her examine a couple of patients. Her cabinets are stocked with the medicine we send to the synagogue, and there seemed to be a plentiful supply of several types – blood pressure, inhalators, ibuprophen, etc. Michael feels that more medicine should be purchased locally. It is much cheaper and quite available. For this, Cherkasskaya will need a budget. I discussed this with her, with Misha and later with Yan. We estimate that she will need around $100 per month.

Dr. Eugenia Cherkasskaya with Dr. Michael Maysky from Boston in her office in the Jewish Community Center. Behind Dr. Cherkasskaya are medicines donated from Action for Post-Soviet Jewry.

Funds also need to be spent on lab tests and procedures. Most pensioners cannot afford them. A blood or urine analysis is inexpensive – around 4 or 5 hrivinas ($1) per test. Something like a cardiac catheterization might cost 80 hrivinas ($16). One of the patients seen this morning needs specialized cardiac testing (echo cardiogram) and care, which Misha felt he could not get through the synagogue clinic. The eventual opening of Avtzon’s American Jewish Medical Clinic might solve some of these problems, but that is still about a year away.

Cherkasskaya sees 18-20 patients a day, three times a week. Yan feels that it might be a problem if word gets out that funds are available for medical tests and medicine. We will have to proceed slowly with this. The downside is, if we do not provide funds, people will remain very ill.

Michael was upset to see a supply of Nephedipine (?). It is no longer used in the U.S. because it is linked to an increase in heart attacks. I asked him to talk to Cherkasskaya about this, but it wasn’t clear that she would remove it.

Beit Hana
I visited Beit Hana, the Women’s College. It is amazing what new things have developed since my last visit a year ago. Tamara Olshanitskaya and her daughter Inna were in Washington, DC. Olga Markovna Lakhovitskaya was my guide.

The Resource Center for handicapped children was busy and full of new equipment. A group of mothers were meeting with a psychiatrist for a counseling session. A couple of children were drawing with markers and another boy was having his legs exercised and stretched. There were many more works of art on the wall and even clay figures on a shelf. Another child was having a one on one session in another room. I was shown the new van which was provided by the Women’s Division of CJP, Boston. Olga said that they took the children to the circus and were planning picnics now that they have transportation. It has made a huge difference.

Olga showed us the new resource center for teachers, which is where she works. On my last visit, this was a bare room with empty shelves and tables. They have post-graduate training here and print their own materials, including small books, with their computers. They keep in touch with some of their graduates via e-mail because they are often posted to far-away locales. One graduate is in Novosibirsk, Siberia. The graduates are not only filling posts in Ukraine.
Edward Mosakovsky is in charge of a new computer center for the college. They have 14 computers plus one for the teacher, and do a variety of things with them, including cartooning, video, and publishing books. The center was started with the help of ORT. They entered some kind of competition with a computer project with a center in St. Petersburg, one in Odessa, and another in Kiev, and won first prize.

Pesach: I asked Yan about Pesach and what they did for seders. Yan helped the rabbi with planning and said that there were large group seders for the first two nights in several communal buildings, which served in total about 2,000 people. A seder was held in the Golden Rose Synagogue for the Federation people, another in the Joint JCC for the volunteers and staff, and in the Jewish Day School and Beit Hana, Girls’ Home, Boys’ Home and Yeshiva. There must have been other home seders because the Jewish community has around 50,000 people, so 2,000 is an enormous task, but not a large percentage.

Tuesday, May 8th - Zaporozhe

Traveled by van to Zaporozhe with Yan Sidelkovsky, Judy Patkin, Betsy Gidwitz, Dr. Michael Maysky, Marshall Winokur, and Lydia Kis, translator.

The entrance to Zaporozhe is very dramatic – along the top of an enormous dam on the Dniepr River which gives power to all the factories spewing smoke. On the other side of the dam is a park with a large statue of Lenin with his arm outstretched, clearly visible from the road. There is a lot of pollution in Zaporozhe and little of the new stores and businesses which give so much color and life to Dnipropetrovsk. However, there are still expensive cars on the road – BMW, Daewoo, Mercedes, etc. I am told that there is another large dam like this one above Dniprodzerzhinsk.
Visit to Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Day School

This is a new school, which was created by Rabbi Nahum Ehrentroi with a lot of help from his wife, Dina. The school began with the school year last September and has about 120 students in grades one through five. Already 15 students are leaving for Israel, but there is a waiting list of around 50 for next year.
According to Rabbi Ehrentroi, a representative from Sochnut (Jewish Agency for Israel) came to visit all the Jewish Day Schools in the FSU, and considers this school the best.

There is also a kindergarten in another location with 50 students.

They start with six-year olds, according to new Ukrainian regulations, rather than seven-year olds. When we arrived, the students were outside, participating in a ceremony honoring veterans of WWII, since tomorrow, May 9th, is a big national holiday – Victory Day. About 10 veterans were seated on chairs wearing all their medals and holding large bouquets of flowers. The children formed a large square and were singing songs and listening to speeches over a microphone. I was asked to speak, too.

The school has a wonderful atmosphere of which they are very proud. Dina made a point of telling us that each ethnic background is appreciated and no one feels superior or inferior. Students take pride in who they are as Jews and as Ukrainians. Apparently, this is unusual in Ukraine. The students are not all halachachly Jewish, but have a Jewish parent or grandparent and are committed to bringing up the children as Jews. They are in a former nursery school building and have the option of taking over more of the building as the school grows. They plan to add a class each year until they cover grades one through 12. It is quite spacious and light and airy. It is located on the left bank of the Dniepr, which is a less polluted area and serves a community which cannot easily reach other Jewish buildings, like the synagogue or Chesed Mikhail. Apparently, this is a very long city, so it is difficult to get from one section to another.

They have hired very good teachers and have seven now, some of them medal winners in their fields. One teacher was pointed out as the best in Ukraine for her subject. The classes are small in size with 10 to 15 students in a class. Both English and Hebrew are taught five days a week. We had a demonstration of the English class. Students are given a hot breakfast and a hot lunch every day. This is quite necessary due to the poor economy of the region. Rabbi Ehrentroi commented that many children in this community are sickly and need nourishment and fresh air. They hope to make them stronger by attending this school. Misha Maysky had a discussion with one teacher about obtaining vaccines locally for the children. There is no charge for children who attend and many parents are surprised by this, because private schools often charge tuition, which can be quite high. A few parents have offered to pay and were told to spend their money on their children.

There is much original art work on the walls, some of which changes often and some of which is a permanent display. All of it was created by either teachers or students at the school and not by outside artists. There was an interesting wall of famous chabad rabbis and the cities where they came from in Ukraine. One display had a series of questions which students were expected to answer and then place their answers in boxes provided on the wall. The halls and classrooms seemed to express creativity.

Many activities include the parents of the children as well, since many have a very tenuous connection to Judaism.

This is the second Jewish Day School to open in Zaporozhe in recent years. Rabbi Ehrentroi was quite disappointed with the first one because they were anti-Zionist and did not include Jewish content. There is some feeling that when the chabad lubavitch school opened, they were harassed by some people connected to the other school. There is no proof of this, but many ugly rumors were circulated to try to keep students away. Obviously, it didn’t entirely work.

Meeting at Synagogue with Boris Esterkin, president of the Jewish community, Vera Kiss, our Adopt a Bubbe coordinator, and Mikhail Rozet, the hazan at the synagogue.
Two physicians were also there, invited by Boris Esterkin to meet with Misha Maysky. They worked at a plant which produces motors. After a short time, they left to meet separately with Misha. 1) Genya Mikhailovna Kofman, an endocrinologist. 2) Boris Mikhailovich Oberhof, a urologist. 3) Semion Yefimovich Charny, who never showed, was also supposed to be there. Charny is a surgeon at a military hospital, used to be head of the hospital, and does circumcisions.

The Adopt a Bubbe program has served about 80 people since November 1st. The program has been in existence since 1995, and has served around 200 people. About 30 people receive parcels and attention every time funds are released. Approximately one third of the clients are housebound. Aid is given as food or clothing. They do not distribute eyeglasses or any type of medical equipment. Apparently, no one in the community is providing eyeglasses.
They do not receive medicine from Yan because they are not working with a physician, so we are not comfortable giving them prescription medicine at this time. They have received vitamins and acetominophen (generic Tylenol). One woman who was hospitalized, a difficult case, did receive help from Yan.

There are three Warm Houses, which meet only on holidays in different parts of the city. Last time I was here, there were no Warm Houses, so this is a big improvement, although I wish they would get together more often. Vera provides $10 for each Warm House session to cover food expenses for around 10 or 12 people. For instance, for Pesach they had chicken soup and knadlach, fresh fish, chicken, matzah, etc. and Haggadahs. Some old men help with transportation. Vera takes materials from the synagogue library to the Warm Houses, since she is the synagogue librarian. Vera has pictures from Pesach for us to take back.

Vera needs additional help. This was Boris Esterkin’s comment. She doesn’t get paid much and could use more money.

Yan has a new form for them to fill in for each person helped. It provides additional information on their background and pension.

Vera’s aim is to especially help people born before 1940 who live alone and whose pensions are very small. Also, to help childhood invalids and invalids from WWII. As part of a discussion of medical help, Misha Rozet mentioned two people who come to the synagogue who have blood disease and no money for medicine. Vera mentioned Tamoxifen and whether she could get it through Yan. We need to set up a fund to provide eyeglasses and hearing aides and find someone to administer it and decide who really needs the help.

Home Visits in Zaporozhe

1. Raisa Vladimirovna Granovskaya, born in 1919, very little eyesight in one eye and none in the other. Raisa’s daughter, Bella Simonova, born in 1941, lives with her and takes care of her. Raisa lost another daughter at age 36, and her husband died 10 years ago. It took very little to start her tears flowing. She has very little and is grateful for meals, which are delivered three times a week by the Joint. Raisa has had surgery five times – on her eyes and in other areas. Those who made a home visit with me for the first time, found this a particularly sad situation, but I have seen much worse. However, it is very sad. I was disappointed that Vera had no relationship with the people we visited and wasn’t sure of where they lived.
2. Two sisters – Asya Naumovna, born in 1922, and Nadezhda Naumovna Sidelnikova, born in 1912. Asya’s pension is a little over 100 hrivinas/mo. ($20) and Nadezhda’s is 81 ($16) hrivinas/mo. Half of it goes for rent. They share their apartment with another woman and child. It is a two-bedroom apartment in a high rise building with each taking one room and sharing a kitchen and bath. Their parents died in the Holocaust. They originally came from Nikolaev.

Wednesday, May 9th – Thursday Morning, May 10th – Kharkov
The purpose of the trip to Kharkov was to try to set up our Adopt a Bubbe program there. There is a large Jewish community and, like most places, the needs are tremendous. It is a three-hour drive from Dnipropetrovsk on good roads.

Met with Rabbi Kaminezki at the synagogue to talk about Rabbi Moishe Moskowitz, the chabad rabbi in Kharkov who will be my host there. He and his wife, Miriam, have been there as long as the Kaminezki’s have been in Dnipropetrovsk – since 1990. Rabbi Kaminezki urged me to work through the rabbi and the synagogue in Kharkov. They would lend credibility to our program and it is the center of the Jewish community, especially as the synagogue renovation is completed (it’s a work in progress). Miriam Moskowitz is from Austrailia, and Chany met her there when she was a student and they are good friends. In fact, while I was in Dnipropetrovsk, the Kaminezki’s three oldest girls were going to Kharkov to stay for a weekend overnight.
The Jewish community is large in Kharkov – around 50,000. The city has a population somewhat larger than Dnipropetrovsk and a Jewish population a little smaller. Exact numbers are hard to come by, since Jews emigrate and more seem to join the Jewish community for the first time.

Twelve thousand are on the Chesed list for meals. The Joint is canceling 50 Warm Houses – ending the program because it is losing money. This sounds odd because they have been such a popular program, gathering people together in apartments on a regular basis for a meal and discussion of Jewish topics or holiday celebrations. I don’t quite understand what is going on.

Most of the children in the Jewish Day Schools seem to come from broken homes with no father in sight.

Betsy Gidwitz arranged for me to stay with the Moskowitz family, as she was doing. The rest of us – Yan Sidelkovsky, Marshall Winokur, Natasha (my translator) and Gena, the driver, stayed at the Kharkov Hotel in the city center. We had also invited Faina Teplinskaya to come in to Kharkov from Poltava, only two hours away, so she could talk about our Adopt a Bubbe program. Faina stayed overnight with a friend. Betsy had separate arrangements for driving to Kharkov and arrived much later.

Drove to the Kharkov Synagogue and met Rabbi and Miriam Moskowitz and Faina Teplinskaya coming down the steps. The synagogue was closed because of the holiday – Victory Day – so we drove to their home. The apartment is the first floor of an old two-story building which has been completely redone. The first floor was originally four apartments and is now one. They have the basement level and the first floor. The second floor has been sold to a wealthy businessman. The ceilings must be around 10 feet high.

They furnished the basement as a dormitory for the young women who come to teach in the girls’ Yeshiva and the Jewish Day School. There seemed to be two young women there when I visited.

Their living room is enormous and is used on Shabbat to set up folding tables for 50 - 70 youngsters who come for dinner. They have a large dining room table and couches around the walls. The rabbi has a generous book-lined study where the computer is placed. The children also have a computer with instructional games in a hallway. They have seven children. The oldest and youngest are boys and the rest are all girls, including four-year-old twins. Here they are in order of age: Mendel (~12), Rivka (10), Chaya, Nahama, Shoshana and Devorah (4), and Shlomo (1). Rivka has a birthday today, her 10th. The children are very well behaved and delightful to talk to - the house is actually calm most of the time. Mendel attends the Yeshiva at the synagogue in the morning and then the boys go to the Jewish Day School for secular subjects. Rivka and Chaya attend the Jewish Day School, but they have started a girls’ Yeshiva, which they will eventually attend. Mendel is taking tennis lessons and Rivka participates in an outdoor program for track and some other exercises. The kitchen is also large and there is food preparation going on almost all the time during the day. There is a long, narrow table against one wall with lots of seating for the children.

The rest of our party checked into a hotel and then we took a short walking tour of the center of the city. It is actually quite lovely with very wide streets and many plazas and parks. Yan had attended university here for music studies and he was familiar with the area. As in Dnipropetrovsk, there are plenty of new expensive shops, cafes, and fancy cars on the road.

On Thursday morning, we all went to the synagogue for breakfast. Its address is ul. Pushkinskaya 12. It was quite a spread which Miriam had ordered for us – blinzes, buns, slices of orange, stuffed eggs, juice, tea, etc., etc.

We toured the synagogue, which is a large building with a huge dome. It was built in the early 1900’s and functioned until 1914. The sanctuary was apparently never finished. It became a sport palace under the Soviets, and many people in the city remember it for this. The sanctuary is considered seven stories high from the floor to the top of the dome. It has been completely gutted and there is work going on all over. There are lovely large windows on each side with a Magen David. They hope to have it ready by September. There are rooms on either side of the sanctuary, four stories of them, plus a ground floor which has many windows above ground level. The only part of the building which is useable is the entry hall, now used as a sanctuary, and the rooms on either side. The rabbi’s office is on the right side and the boys’ Yeshiva uses most of the other finished rooms.

Part of the ground floor is finished and is used as a kitchen and dining area. They feed around 2,000 people, including those who come to the synagogue, meals on wheels, which are prepared here, and meals at the Jewish Day Schools. Rabbi Eliezer Avtzon has contributed new kitchen equipment, and they were waiting for the new stoves to arrive from Italy. When we were visiting, they were preparing food in enormous pots – kasha, soup, chicken, bread, and more. There was a lineup of seven or eight apartment stoves, all in use.

There are plans for exercise rooms on the upper floors, and a dormitory for the Yeshiva. It is an interesting building with many nooks and crannies as well as large sized rooms. Twice a week a group of pensioners come to the synagogue for a meal and to study. They are very poor and are given a small stipend and hot food. Eighty men come on Mondays, and around 50 women on Thursdays. After Shabbat services on Saturday, around 150 people stay for an oneg of bread, sardines, egg, zucchini, salad and fruit.

As in Dnipropetrovsk, many people approach the synagogue for emergency help. We observed Miriam giving some hrivinas to one person as we were getting into our van.

The synagogue has only been entirely useable by Rabbi Moskowitz for the last two years. It was previously shared with a very disreputable Jewish man, Hodes, who led a progressive group there. It is widely believed that he set fire to the building after he was evicted by the city and the damage was extensive. I don’t think he leads any group now. That is why it has taken so long for the reconstruction to begin. Hodes is now handing out a book he wrote which denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He stands somewhere in the city and gives out free copies. He seems to divide his time between Kharkov and Kiev, but is not giving the synagogue any more trouble. Rabbi Moskowitz believes that many people stayed away from the synagogue while Hodes was there because there were always fights breaking out.

Adopt a Bubbe: We interviewed a woman who works for Rabbi Moskowitz as a secretary (he has at least two), whom he suggested would be a good candidate to coordinate our Adopt a Bubbe program. Her name is Polina Yakovlevna Rutchenkova, born in 1949. We had an extensive discussion with her, myself, Faina and Yan about how our program works and what we would like her to do. Polina does not have a phone at home, but she is available through the synagogue most days. She seemed quite capable and willing. She is a little afraid of doing just what we want, but she is very willing to try. Rabbi Moskowitz says that she likes elderly people and loves talking with them about their problems. We urged her to start slowly and see how it works. Faina Teplinskaya is available in Poltava to talk with her as she gets going.
We toured the two Jewish Day Schools which Rabbi Moskowitz has established. One is the high school and the other building holds the elementary school and kindergarten. They are quite a distance from the synagogue. They have 500 students. The high school has a large computer lab which is connected to the internet. They have not received help from ORT for this. The computers were donated by George Rohr. Children were in attendance on the holiday, Victory Day, except for the kindergarten.

Stuart Ferency came to meet us at the synagogue in the morning. He comes from Hingham, Massachusetts and I have known him and his ex-wife, Susan, for several years now. Stuart is an employee of the U.S. government in Kharkov, working on the de-militarization of Kharkov in exchange for U.S. dollars (I think this is his job – I don’t always understand just what he does). It is not going well. He is disgusted by the extent of the corruption which stifles any attempt at change or progress. Stuart feels that Ukraine has bungled its chance at independence due to corruption, and will have to return to Russia to get anywhere. Money which should have been spent on energy production, pensions, education, or other necessities is continually going into someone’s private pocket. He finds the situation much worse than that in Russia, where he also spent two or three years working in Vologda. He said that the wealthy in Kharkov are far wealthier than anyone in the U.S. and the poor are desperate. There is no middle class. The people who work for the oligarchs earn enough to pay present expenses, but are unable to save anything, so they never get ahead. They can’t even save to send their children to the university. His tour of duty is up this July. It was a holiday, so I asked him about taking time off. Stuart said that every day was a working day for him – there are no days off and he is at the beck and call of many officials. I had called and left a message on his phone the night before, but he didn’t get home from work obligations until after 10:00 P.M.

Thursday Afternoon, May 10th – Poltava
We drove two hours to Poltava to Faina Teplinskaya’s apartment.

Poltava’s Chesed has around 800 people on its list who are fed by the Joint. Three warm houses were opened by the Joint. The last time I was in Poltava, there were no warm houses. Thirty Five to Forty people are helped by Adopt a Bubbe.

Marshall Winokur will be staying with Faina for the week after this, while Judy is in Belarus. He is researching his family and has a great deal of information on the old buildings which were Jewish. Faina pointed out several to us in the short time we were there, including a charming small synagogue which had a lovely façade. The Jewish community has no buildings of their own anymore. A chabad rabbi has been recently posted there, though. Apparently, Poltava is under the jurisdiction of chabad in Kremenchug, so Rabbi Moskowitz didn’t know much about who the person is or when he would actually be there.

Home visits in Poltava:
Rosa Iosifovna Mikhailevich, was born in 1924 in Poltava, and her daughter, Elizaveta Moiseevna Mikhailevich, was born in 1950, also in Poltava. They have lived in their apartment for 20 years. Rosa was evacuated to Kazakstan during the war and worked in a factory which made thread. Rosa worked for 20 years, until she became an invalid. Her pension is small – 58 hrivinas ($10/mo). Elizaveta still works in an institute as an accountant. Her salary is 150 hrivinas ($30/mo), and she usually does get paid. Because Rosa is a veteran, they have a discounted rent and utility bill which is 52 hrivinas/mo ($10). Rosa has not been outside of the apartment for the last eight years. She has very high blood pressure and cataracts. She often needs medicine and receives 10 hrivinas from Chesed, but it is not enough. She has a skin rash and once had a course of injections, but it didn’t help. They receive a package of food once a month from Chesed.

Four or five times a year they receive food from Adopt a Bubbe. This package contained chicken, sprats, oranges, lemons, butter, cheese, and canned milk. Usually Faina calls to ask what they need, but she didn’t have time to do this today because she was with us in Kharkov. Rosa didn’t want her picture taken and put her hands over her face. She was teary, but enjoyed our visit. It is interesting that here is a family where the daughter works full time and gets paid, and the mother receives a pension, but they still cannot make ends meet. They are really very poor. It’s a sad commentary on life in Ukraine.

Rosa Israilevna Slutskaya, born in 1923, in Lebeden, near Sumi. During the war, she worked in Kazakstan in a post office. Her whole family was there. Rosa’s pension is 130 hrivinas ($24/mo), a high one due to her service during the war, and because she is an invalid and living alone. She was married, but has no children. She has a brother in Sakhalin and another in Siberia – too far away to be of any help. She used to work at a drug store as a pharmacist. She can purchase herbal medicines at a low price because she is a veteran. Her rent and utilities are 15 hrivinas/mo. ($3), a 50% reduction because of her war service. She recently had a phone installed and talks to Faina now. The society for the handicapped pays whatever is owed after she pays 10 hrivinas/mo. ($2) for her phone. Rosa lives in a single home and gardens in the back. She is a good cook and served us her own cake and cherry jam and cherry juice. Rosa feels that she is not appreciated by Chesed for her war service. The people at her old job invited her for a Victory Day celebration and honored her with cards and a gift of 20 hrivinas ($4). Chesed didn’t do anything (this is Rosa’s comment). Rosa really enjoyed talking with us and serving us some of her home baking. She is very out-going and a pretty strong person to do the gardening and cooking at her age

Additional Home Visits in Poltava by Marshall Winokur, who spent his last week in Ukraine there, while Judy was in Belarus.
Daniil Borisovich Futerfas, born May 20, 1947, is a comparatively young man, who just happened to be marking his 54th birthday the day I arrived. He did not look well and did not stand or shake my hand when I walked in. He stayed sitting on his bed, somewhat hunched over during my visit. His complexion was sallow and his expression vacant. I had the feeling that mentally he was in another world.

Daniil lives in a small, bare apartment. The walls are cracked, no rugs cover the floors, and he has minimal appliances. There was a tiny refrigerator and a small radio, but no television. The radio did not seem to be functioning. He graduated from an agricultural institute with a degree as an accountant and an economist in 1970. He worked in his chosen profession for 18 years, but he never advanced because of his failing health. Early on he developed a weakness in his arms, legs, eyes, indeed throughout his entire body. The weather and the seasons affect his anatomy as well. He became a 2nd degree invalid, and he was forced to retire from his job 12 years ago.

He has an 86 year old aunt, who lives in one of Poltava’s micro regions. Neither she nor his 70-year-old brother, who lives in Kiev, can provide him with additional funds. These are his only close relatives. Daniil receives help from the Joint. While I was there, he requested additional assistance from Adopt a Bubbe since he spends a disproportionate amount of his money on medicine. He has very little left over for food or the apartment. His monthly pension is a paltry 66 hrivnyas/mo. ($11). The reason his pension is so ridiculously low is because he worked so few years and he never earned a decent wage while he was working. Faina delivered the following food items while I conducted this interview: one quart of prune juice, 1.1 pounds of sausage, a rich vegetable dish, two packages of butter (200 grams), two sweet cheeses, sweet bread and nuts, a box of chocolates, 1.1 pounds of milk, and ten eggs. Daniil receives more food from Adopt a Bubbe than do most of Action’s other clients because of his severely depressed pension.

Igor Petrovich Bass is a slightly built young man who has been paralyzed since birth. He was born March 2, 1967, in Poltava. He had great difficulty walking and even sitting. During the interview he constantly fidgeted. Igor had a broad smile and a friendly disposition despite his numerous physical handicaps. His mother, Ninel Borisovna (“Lenin” spelled backwards was a popular name for women back in the 1920s and 1930s), lives with and cares for her son. Mother and son live in a dormitory off a long, dark corridor (no lights were on the day I was there) in a two-room apartment. The kitchen measures six by six feet, at best. The bedroom holds two beds with a narrow passageway between them.

They have no relatives in Ukraine. Two great uncles live in Brooklyn, New York, one of whom is over 90. Their American relatives have no contact with them. Ninel’s father died in World War II. No mention was made of Igor’s father. Faina led me to believe that Igor’s parents never married or that the father had abandoned mother and son.

Igor completed high school, but he did not go beyond this level. After he completed his schooling, Igor did some light physical work for about ten years. His ability to work diminished with each passing year until he was unable to obtain any job. In any case, invalids have three strikes against them if they’re looking for employment in modern-day Ukraine. Igor receives 58 hrivnyas ($10.50) a month as an invalid. Both mother and son receive food packages from Adopt a Bubbe. In addition, Chesed assists them with food once a month. Leonid Teplinskii brought Igor a package of food containing chicken, 1.1 pounds of sausage, two packages of butter, sour cream, ten eggs, juice, buttermilk, and chocolate waffles. Both Igor and Ninel are very grateful to Adopt a Bubbe for the food they receive. Igor commented as we were leaving that “it’s very nice to have people who think about us and care for us.”

Tamara Saulovna Shilanskaya was born on August 14, 1911, in Poltava. She will soon celebrate her 90th birthday. She had the usual ailments, which seem to accompany the elderly at this age. Her eyesight was very bad. Mentally, she appeared to be sane, despite what her neighbor, Zoya Grigorievna, thinks. Her “girlfriend,” as Tamara refers to Zoya, cleans her apartment, cooks for her, and shops for her, but these chores Zoya performs for Tamara come with a price tag. Tamara must pay Zoya for doing these “favors,” which she can ill afford.

Tamara lives in a primitive, cupboard-like apartment. The kitchen has an ancient stove, which is used to heat her two rooms. She has no bathroom - there is an outdoor privy. None of her appliances seemed to work the day I visited. She has no living relatives anywhere. Except for the war years, when she was evacuated to Kazakstan, she has spent her whole life in Poltava.

Tamara is an educated woman with a degree from an agricultural institute. Although she received a degree as a livestock specialist, she worked as a chemical laboratory assistant in a hospital for more than 25 years. She retired in 1966. Her monthly pension is 127 hrivnyas ($23). The Joint provides her with one package per month. Faina brought her a package of food consisting of a chicken sausage, chicken, one package of butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and chocolates. Adopt a Bubbe provides her with less food than most because of her comparatively “large” pension. Just before I began my interview with Tamara, Faina noted that Judy had interviewed her within the last year or so. Faina had originally intended that I interview individuals Judy had never met.

Zinaida Borisovna Shtein was a small, frail lady, who had recently celebrated her ninetieth birthday in February. She was born February 18, 1911, in Poltava. She indicated from the outset that she was not feeling well the day I arrived to interview her. Despite that, I thought she had a good sense of humor, and, except for objecting to having her photo taken, she proved to be cooperative in every respect. Physically, she was weak and moved very slowly with a walker. Her memory was not strong on details, but good on general matters.

Zinaida lived in a tiny apartment consisting of a kitchen, large enough to turn around in, a bedroom, slightly larger than the kitchen, and a room with both a bath and toilet. She had a telephone. The exterior of the building was in rough shape with crumbling walls readily apparent. Her view of the large prison across the street from her apartment was anything but pleasant. I suspected she heard inmates once the weather turned warm and she was forced to open her windows.

She has living relatives elsewhere in Ukraine, but they are ill and rarely write. They cannot help her. She had other relatives, an aunt and an uncle, who emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, before 1910. She has not had any contact with their offspring since they failed to stay in touch with her. Before WWII, Zinaida lived in what is today called the October Region of Poltava. She was evacuated to Kazakhstan in 1941, and she returned to Poltava at the end of November 1943. With the exception of the war period, she spent her entire life in Poltava.

Zinaida is a well-educated woman with a college degree in teaching Russian language and literature on the high school level. For about ten years prior to World War II, she taught high school, but after the war she elected not to return to teaching because she said the conditions were extremely difficult. She became an accountant and remained one until she retired in 1966. Her monthly pension is 119 hrivnyas ($22) per month. Except for the package of food she receives from Adopt a Bubbe, she receives no other assistance. Leonid Teplinskii brought her a package of food containing a quart of apple juice, a can of sardines, chicken breasts, tomatoes, sausage, butter, and some cookies and candy. She was very happy to receive these items, and she expressed her thanks to the organization.

Friday Morning, May 11th- Meeting with Menachem Lepkivker, Head of Joint
Yan Sidelkovsky and I met Menachem Lepkivker at the Joint office on the 6th floor of the building on Krasnia Ploshad. He is in charge of Dnipropetrovsk and much of the region surrounding. He oversees areas as far north as small towns around Poltava and south to Donetsk. I don’t know the exact boundaries, but it is a considerable area and includes most of our cities, but not the Kharkov region and may not include Kirovograd.

Menachem’s secretary told us that he was very busy and had only half an hour to spend with us, but actually the meeting lasted for about an hour.

While waiting for him, we met Marina Guba, who now works as Menachem’s assistant. Marina speaks fluent English and is married to an American from Bloomington, Indiana. She is waiting for her visa to emigrate, which may take another year. The last time I saw her, she was working with the Dnipropetrovsk Medical Academy on their exchanges overseas. She came to Boston with a delegation of physicians and the deputy mayor a few years ago. She is very bright and personable.

I asked Menachem to tell me what is new in the Joint program. He mentioned Mazel Tov, which is run by Masha Kasner at the Chesed, but I haven’t visited there yet and was unfamiliar with this. I told him that I would wait to see it this next week. Apparently, Mazel Tov is run in many cities.

On June 1st, a day care center with mothers and children up to age three will open. It is a combined Chesed and JCC program. They know that there are 350 eligible children in that age range on their list. The program has already been advertised on TV and at the hospitals where new babies are born. Their contact with mothers begins before she goes to deliver at the hospital. They visit a doctor, and after the baby is born, they receive food, the first baby clothes, and milk from Chesed.

Chesed has a category of Special Cases, which is overseen by a Chesed committee. They accept non-Chesed members and there is no age limit. A person can write a letter or come in person before the committee to plead their case for extra help. It can be used for anything – an operation, medicine, dental work, repairs after a fire, etc. Some people can receive help the same day they apply. Others may take longer. Sharaganovich from Miami donated 3 million dollars to get this program off the ground. He no longer contributes, and they are looking for more funding (i.e. donors) to keep it going.

I asked about the current number of clients they serve, both in Dnipropetrovsk and in the region. They are not readily available, but he knows there are around 26,000 clients on the list in the region. Someone at Chesed can better inform me about the local numbers. The numbers seem to be quite stable over the last few years. In spite of the emigration figures, people are still coming forward, and the pensioners are less likely to be moving. This region is the only one not to have its budget cut this year and it has even increased a little. The funds from the Claims Conference are dependent upon the sale of unclaimed Jewish property in Germany, and most of the sales have now taken place, so this funding is decreasing.

There were nine winter family camps, which involved around 150 people. There are another 16 summer camps planned, which will involve even more.

The JCC’s have tripled their programming in the last year. They are a very active component of Jewish life in the community.

Population figures for Jews in several communities which Joint serves out of Dnipropetrovsk:

1) Krivoy Rog & Donetsk – 20,000 Jews each

2) Zaporozhe – 15,000

3) Kremenchug – less than 2,000

They now purchase all of their medicine locally. It may be slightly more expensive, but they no longer pay for shipping or for under the table costs. Medicine is still a big problem. There is never enough.
They have a new physician at Chesed, a young non-Jewish volunteer, who is a skilled surgeon. She originally operated on Danovich, the head of Chesed, and became interested when she heard about the program. Her name is Galina Nikolaevna, and she is in her 40’s. Most Chesed physicians are retired and no longer connected to hospitals.

The JCC in this region is financed by Boston donations through CJP. They have financed not only Dnipropetrovsk, but also Zaporozhe and Lugansk. 65% of Joints’ funds for this region are spent in the periphery, and the rest is spent in the cities. It used to be 80% spent in the cities, and the rest in the smaller places.

New York City is linked with Kharkov, and they are doing a great deal. Atlanta has a very successful link with St. Petersburg.

Menachem said that Dnipropetrovsk has been neglected because people in America are unable to pronounce the name.

His budget is now $7 million. Yan remembers when it was $1,000. There has been no increase in administration expense since 1997. It is only 5% of the budget.

Friday Afternoon, May 11th – Dniprodzerzhinsk

We drove to the Chesed center in Dniprodzerzhinsk, a small city less than an hour from Dnipropetrovsk. It is on the list of one of the 10 most polluted cities in the former Soviet Union, but a number of factories are closed now, so many smoke stacks are no longer spewing anything into the air.

Dniprodzerzhinsk has approximately 3,000 Jews. I think I have heard the number 2,000 in the past. The Chesed list has 700 pensioners. There are 18 volunteers who work out of Chesed, including physicians, social workers and musicians. They are working with children now with handcrafts and gave some to Maxine Lyons when she visited. They made a video of Dniprodzerzhinsk, which Yan has. It is a wonderful community for volunteers who are capable and work hard with compassion for their clients.

There was a Kabbalat Shabbat gathering going on while we were there on the back patio with about 20 pensioners. There was food, music and much singing. This happens every Friday afternoon.

I talked with Dima Tarnapolsky, the head of Chesed. Dima is tall and has red hair and a red beard. He is young, very out-going and eager to do the right thing for the Jewish community. Dima’s dream is to open a Jewish Day School. He has been offered a building by the government for a school which has very few pupils left. He knows that there are 300 Jewish school-age children in Dniprodzerzhinsk, so he feels that around 150 could be found to attend. He said that Or Avner is willing to help and he is busy negotiating. He wants to have it open by September of this year.

Dima spoke about a Lag B’Omer picnic in the forest which was attended by many people. Shabbat services are attended by 100 mostly older men and a few who are younger. Dima is also trying to get the one synagogue in existence back. He has permission from the city, but the occupants don’t want to vacate. It is a teachers’ club. He hopes eventually to be successful. They badly need more space. Their present Chesed is in a single home and the rooms are too small for group activities.

Dima spoke to me about the veterans of WWII who are invalids. He said that almost all of them suffered from frostbite during the war and most of them had adenoma (prostate problems). The two things they really appreciated receiving from us are Hytrin and Cardura. When the medicine was first offered, they were afraid to take it because it was unknown. Now they all ask for it by name and want to know when they can receive more. I told him that we had brought a large supply of Hytrin with us on this trip, and he should request some from Yan.

I spoke with Sasha Yakovlevich Bremgrav, who works for the Joint and travels around to the smaller villages in the region. Sasha has 64 people on his list in the 24 villages he travels to. Including children or grandchildren, the list expands to 89. He visits his clients twice a month and the distances vary from 40 to 140 km. His territory is 100 km from Dniprodzerzhinsk. He delivers food packages from the Joint and he also helps them with items through our Adopt a Bubbe program. Sometimes he arranges for a physician to go with him, so he can find out what they need in the way of medicine or care.
Only a few have a phone, so he asks them when he visits what they need, and brings the items the next time. Many villages have no phone service at all. Some larger villages have a single phone near the train station. He showed me several large plastic bags with things he has purchased for them. Sasha does the shopping himself. The bags had clothing, slippers, towels, bed linens, and a comforter for a ghetto survivor, named Tesler, who cannot document his horrible past, so receives no special treatment from the State or from Chesed. His Holocaust experience has left him an invalid and they look out for him. Sasha said that he used our fund for all kinds of items, like shovels, coal, gas payments, and axes to chop wood.

I mentioned the large quantities of sugar given to the people in small villages, which I thought was a wonderful idea. Dima said that these people made jam with the sugar and then gave jam to Sasha to be given to the needy pensioners in the city. They were helped and they wanted very much to do a mitzvah for others, which is something they are usually unable to even think of doing. They also often give Sasha some of their produce, like apples, and he shares them with the Dniprodzerzhinsk pensioners. I showed Sasha the series of letters I had from the sugar distribution last year, and he was so excited to see his clients’ pictures which he had sent to me. It meant a lot to see that we appreciate what he does and use the information.

The average pension is 64 hrivinas, about $12/mo. Pensions are smaller in the small villages, because people are expected to grow their own food. Of course this is not always possible for the frail elderly.

Adopt a Bubbe: We went with our Adopt a Bubbe coordinator, Maria Borisovna Zavelina, who has replaced Adela Kurzner, to visit two clients in Dniprodzerzhinsk and with Sasha to see one client in a small village nearby.

Our first visit was with Faina Solomonovna Volinskaya, born in 1924, who lives two houses away from the Chesed building. I have seen Faina before because she is so handy to Chesed. She has palsy on one side of her body and is unable to use her left hand. Faina had her leaky roof fixed, thanks to our fund. She showed us the wet cement on the inside. It is not yet finished, but the roof has stopped leaking. Apparently, there was a terrible mess when it rained. Her roof is tar over some other material and it took a fair amount of work. Faina has lived in this house since 1929.

Fainas’ brother died in the blockade of Leningrad in 1943. Another brother was a lawyer in Kharkov, and died in 1981. His son lives in Germany. There is no family left. Because Faina is an invalid from childhood, her pension is small – 51 hrivinas/mo. or about $10. Chesed gives her meals five days a week at a nearby café. Another man helps her to carry the food to her table, which she really appreciates.

The second visit was to Busia Samoilovna Fradkina, born in 1919, and 81 years old. Busia lives in a small apartment building. Maria Borisovna had a housecoat and slippers for her for which she is very grateful. Busia is a veteran laborer from WWII, so her pension is 120 hrivinas/mo. or about $22. She was evacuated to Magnitogorsk in Siberia where she worked in a military factory which made tanks. She started out in a simple job, but did so well that they soon gave her special permission to work at a better job in the factory and she received a medal for this work. She came back to Dnipropetrovsk before the war ended, in 1944, to the same house she had lived in. After the war, she finished her university education and became a physics teacher and worked with building materials. This was a much needed field after the war with all the re-building going on. The students and teachers both studied and built a new university.

Busia was born in Sofietka, a Jewish “colony” in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Her whole family was from there. The rest of the family left the village and came to Dnipropetrovsk, but the Germans intercepted them and they were probably killed at the ravine in Dnipropetrovsk which is now the site of a track for the university. Her whole family was wiped out. Sasha said that many Jews lived in Sofietka and Kamenka, two small villages. He found people in the Zvotneva region who showed him the Jewish cemetery. Very few survived the war.

Our last visit was with Tatyana Alexandrovna Rosina, 76 years old, who lives in Belovka, Dnipropetrovsk raion, a small village about 15 minutes outside of Dneprodzerzhinsk. She is married to a Ukrainian, who is 77 years old and was asleep inside, so we visited outside the house. Tatyana did not seem to have any teeth. Her 34-year-old daughter, Luda was visiting from a nearby town. Luda has a son. Tatyana’s pension is 71 hrivinas/mo. or $14. Gas costs 40 hrivinas/mo or $8, because her husband is an invalid. Otherwise it would be 120 hrivinas/mo or $24. Electricity costs 10 hrivinas/mo or $2. If they use more than their allotment, they are charged extra.
Tatyana has quite a garden. In the yard next to the house were beds of peonies all in bud, and roses. There was a large lilac bush in bloom in the front. Out back she has a larger plot about 30’x 60’. The entire area out back is divided into plots and areas belong to different people. She is quite strong and energetic for her age and does a lot of heavy work. She pointed to her bicycle and said, “ That’s my horse!” The living conditions here are rather primitive. They have gas heat and electricity, but no water indoors. There is a pump about five feet from the house and an outhouse, which smelled terrible from quite a distance. It looks as though the pump has replaced a well which still stood in the back yard. There also was some kind of root cellar and a small barn. A huge pipe ran from the house to the small barn for heat. She has a pet dog, but no other animals I could see. She had a collection of straw hanging outside, which she uses to make brooms. Inside the house was an old trundle sewing machine.

Tatyana’s brother graduated from the Hebrew Technion in Dnipropetrovsk and joined the navy. He died in battle at the Baltic Sea. Sasha brought Tatyana bed linens, and he took a picture of her holding them.

Sunday, May 13th – Melitopol
Melitopol is about a three-hour drive from Dnipropetrovsk. The route goes right through Zaporozhe. Melitopol is quite far south in Ukraine, but it is inland - not on the Azov Sea.

Melitopol has a total population of 200,000 and about 3,000 of these are Jews. Two years ago, the Jewish population was 5,000, but many have left for Israel, and many more want to leave. Not all of those who want to leave are Jewish - i.e., they have little or no connection to the Jewish community, but may have one Jewish grandparent.

Melitopol is by far the poorest city I have visited, although there are still a few BMW’s on the road here. There is a poor city transportation system and the delivery of food packages is quite difficult, both in the city and to outlying villages. Most people do not have cars, so the Chesed people take taxis everywhere they go, which is very expensive. They said that for the price of the taxis, they could have purchased a car by now. Their poverty is also reflected in the health of the pensioners and the difficulty of attracting more volunteers to do the work of Chesed. Many pensioners live on the 4th or 5th floor of a walk-up building, and volunteers don’t want to lug heavy packages of food so far and then climb up so many floors, especially when they have to walk a long way just to get to these people. Joint gives them a sum for transportation, but it doesn’t cover everything.

We drove to the Chesed building, which is in a complex of small Jewish buildings facing an inner square of grass, trees and a children’s playground. The buildings are small, single story. The synagogue, which needs “remont” or repair is on the street and is painted green and beige. The main Chesed building is in a former kindergarten (what else is new). There are a few steps up to a wide reception hall with rooms on either side and in the back. People were waiting for us. My translator for this city was Elena Nikolaevna Alohina, who taught English at an institute, but was more fluent in French, which she also taught. Several people spoke Yiddish here.
The Chesed worker in charge of food distribution is Anya. She is also on the Board of Chesed and was active on the Board of the Jewish community before the Joint came to Melitopol. Anya is helped by Elena, a young woman in her 30’s, who also works at Chesed and Ceilia, the wife of the head of the Jewish community and Chesed, Volodya Bogomolny. The Joint has recently told Ceilia that she can no longer work for Chesed, because they do not want husbands and wives to work together. This is sad, because Ceilia is capable and committed, and they don’t have enough workers. It appears that Joint lays down rules and regulations which are often counterproductive, and in this community, this is one of them. All of these people first worked as volunteers in the Jewish community and later became paid employees of Chesed.

One example of their difficulty with Chesed regulations: In one family the father left for Israel with his wife’s permission and he left 5 children and his wife behind. The mother became mad (mentally unfit). The oldest boy, who is 16 and not well, was enrolled in a vocational school, and he is often starving. Four children were placed in an orphanage. Chesed is not allowed to help any of them with food because they are not pensioners. I told them that our program could help them, and they should give them food and clothing or whatever they need. There are a few terrible cases like this where they want to help someone younger than retirement age, but are unable to do so, and it eats away at these workers who have compassion for their clients.

Their work began in 1996 as an offshoot of Chesed Mikhail in Zaporozhe. At that time they had three staff members, rehabilitation equipment (canes, walkers, commodes, etc.), and they worked with 50 people. Later their list grew to 100 people and now they work with 600.

Many people died this year – more than 20 people in three months. In one day, three people died. It was very difficult. Also, many have left for Israel.

A canteen feeds 130 pensioners 5 times a week. Meals on wheels feeds 36 people 6 meals a week, which is delivered 3 times a week with double meals for that day. One delivery is a chicken dinner, another has fish, and the third is milkhes. Each dinner costs 3 hrvinas, 40 kopeks (65 cents).

They have two Warm Houses – apartments where 10 to 12 people gather to celebrate holidays and birthdays, discuss Jewish topics, and have a hot meal together. There used to be three, but the hostess of one emigrated. They meet two to three times a month. The local authorities won’t allow the delivery of food to Warm Houses. This is some kind of health regulation about feeding groups of people in apartments. They get some food from Chesed. Not everyone wants to host a Warm House. Either they live too poorly, are too ill to cope with the commotion, or just don’t like dirt tracked into their apartment.

Anya also visits the smaller villages around Melitopol and she takes other volunteers with her. Twenty-seven people are seen this way, whom she is only able to visit once a month. The longest distance is around 180 km. each way. She uses taxis for these trips and pays 70 kopeks/km or around 100 hrvinas ($20) for the longest trip. Joint reimburses for these trips. I am not certain whether Joint reimburses for all the trips within Melitopol, though. When Anya goes to the small villages, she combines the two programs – Joint and Adopt a Bubbe. Sometimes the doctor goes with her and later they deliver medicine.

The medical program in this city is only able to function with our assistance. The Joint provides 35 hrivinas ($7) two times a year for the purchase of medicine. It cannot be combined into one 70 hrivina sum ($14).

Since we were there on a Sunday, Dr. Tatyana Sergeevna Dorofievskaya, was seeing patients who were sitting in a line in the hallway. Perhaps 10 people were waiting to be seen, and they all thanked me profusely for the help. The physician is young (40’s) and has a private room in the rear of one office. I don’t believe she is Jewish. The woman she happened to be seeing has ulcers and Tatyana was able to dispense antacid tablets and Pepcid. She also showed me a supply of Ranitidine which she could use. The client was delighted with the medicine and said it was very, very helpful. This client receives a pension of 107 hrivinas/mo. ($21) and can’t afford to have surgery she needs, which would cost 300 hrvinas ($60). I think she referred to eye surgery. This physician had been to our seminar in Dnipropetrovsk the previous Sunday, and found it very interesting and helpful. She wished they took place more often. She works in Polyclinic #1 and sees Chesed patients 4 times a week. She also visits two or three patients at home, so sees about 20 clients each working day. The Chesed leaders said that she is a very good doctor. Tatyana is a single mother and has a 16-year-old daughter who wants to be a lawyer, but Tatyana has no money to pay for her education.
I also looked in on a couple of children’s programs which were in progress Sunday afternoon. One was a small group being instructed in chess and checkers by a woman, Janna, who will soon leave for Israel. Janna’s daughters are champion checker players. At least one daughter of her four is already studying in Israel. Another daughter is living in Holland.

Another group of 8 or 9 children were painting pictures and gluing sticks on them with a theme of Shavuot.

A third group of around 15 youngsters, only three of whom were boys, were in another building with one large room for dance instruction. Two weeks ago, the older members of the group had performed in a dance contest for ethnic dancing (not just Jewish) in Zaporozhe, and had won first prize. They performed their winning piece for us and they were quite good, with lots of expression and great fluid movement. Someone commented that more children were here today because the weather was cloudy and cool.

We discussed the possibility of purchasing a used car for their use. They estimate the cost at $5,000. About $2,000 – 3,000 would buy a dependable used car, but repairs would probably be needed and gas and oil are expensive. This is badly needed in this community and it would improve the frequency of delivery of services, as well as making it easier to carry the heavy bags of food.

Chesed can only help people who are absolutely alone with no family. Some pensioners live with family who are not working or who are abusive, but this doesn’t matter. They all go hungry. We told Anya that Adopt a Bubbe would provide for both pensioners and younger people who are really hungry. Some live with children who steal their pension.

In April, their Adopt a Bubbe program was given $200, plus 300 hrivinas ($60) for an emergency fund. The $200 was an increase of $50 over the previous allotment.

One woman walked for two hours to get to Shabbat services because there was no transportation. Now she is too ill to walk. Another client is 103 and still volunteers. They celebrated his 100th birthday, and they have a video of his party. He received eyeglasses from Adopt a Bubbe. Prescription eyeglasses cost about $10 for a simple prescription.

They had a rabbi for a short time, but didn’t like him, so they sent him back. He didn’t pay attention to the people and was totally involved in ritual. He wouldn’t let them eat (probably criticized their lack of kosher food). He got the old men to dance and one fell and hurt himself badly. On Rosh Hashanah he lectured them for three hours. It wasn’t a good match for this largely secular community. However, they still would like to have a rabbi.

Jobs are available in this community, but the salaries are very low. A physician receives 219 hrivinas/mo. ($44). This was increased in March because it used to be 176 hrivinas/mo. ($35) and in the beginning she was paid 140 hrivinas/mo ($28). The Joint pays her 150 hrivinas/mo. ($30) for working five times a week. Her apartment and utilities cost her 140 hrivinas/mo. ($28). Anya’s home and phone cost her 120 hrivinas/mo. ($24). Teachers receive 107 hrivinas/mo. ($21). A bookkeeper in the government receives 170 hrivinas/mo. ($34).
Back when there was still a USSR, they earned 132 rubles/mo. And could take a vacation, buy clothes and shoes, etc. Now, for the last five or six years, they are unable to buy anything. They don’t die, of course, but it’s not a life. They are unable to subscribe to newspapers or magazines or purchase books. Some used to subscribe to 10 to 12 magazines and papers. Now, they don’t buy anything. The government tells them they are making some progress, but no one believes this. Meat is very expensive and pork is the most expensive. Corner apartments tend to be cold. There is usually heat, but often the hot water is turned off. It goes on for certain hours, so many people try to purchase water and they keep their pots and bathtubs filled. The local source of water is no longer keeping up with the usage. Elena, my translator, has a close friend in California who writes to her, but she doesn’t answer the letters very often because she has nothing to say. Her friend’s letters are full of their traveling, etc., but Elena’s life is stuck in one place. Nothing changes.

They made a video for me with an English description of several home visits. It was done in December, April and May. They showed it to us and it is excellent. They said that I would be visiting some of the people in the video.

Home Visits in Melitopol
Faina Yakovlevna was born in 1923. She was given a housecoat and slippers. Faina was born in Dnipropetrovsk, ul. Tikhaya 13, off of prospect Karl Marx. In 1930, her father was sent to Melitopol to work, so the family moved. Her mother was very ill with cancer. The father also had cancer and both died. Faina remembers that her father was very angry one day and fell in this very room. Faina lived in another apartment which was very cold, so she moved here. Faina was evacuated to the Volga during WWII and worked on a village farm.

She lives alone. She has a brother in Israel and a sister in Melitopol, who also lives alone. Her pension is 104 hrivinas/mo. ($21). It used to be 60 – 70 hrivinas/mo. ($12) a short time ago. Faina worked as a nurse in gynecology. She takes medicine for atherosclerosis and spends her pension on medicine. She cannot buy cheese, milk or meat. She only goes out on the balcony – never outside the building because she lives on the 5th floor of a walk up. There is no elevator. Her sister is also very ill, but she comes to help her in the kitchen.

The doctor from Chesed visited her three or four times. She is a nice doctor. Faina receives medicine from our program. She also gets cleaning help from Chesed. Without the Jewish community, she would die. She used to receive six meals/week from Chesed, but now she only receives five. Adopt a Bubbe program gives her the 6th meal. There is not enough money for the transport of meals. Her sister used to help deliver, but now she is too sick.

Twenty people no longer receive six meals. It’s a problem because no one wants to deliver meals. There is no transportation and many live on high floors in buildings without an elevator. It is physically very taxing.

She asked Yan his name and called him Yasha. Her father’s name was also Yakov. Anya gave her a dress and a pair of new shoes, and she thanked us profusely. She couldn’t buy these things herself. She changed back into her old slippers – she will save the new ones for best. She has only one dress, which is synthetic. Her legs are telling her that it will rain again.

Lyubov Iosifovna Broder, born in 1927. She has written to us in the past, and has received eyeglasses from us. Lyubov was born in the Zaporozhe area in a Jewish village. In 1942, the Germans killed her parents and left her alone. She had five sisters. The Germans killed most of them. One lives in Israel. She was not evacuated.

Lyubov has been bedridden for about six months. She said it was from a stroke, but both hands seemed to function. She has poor peripheral circulation and can’t feel her fingers. Her blood tests poorly (whatever that means). She also has heart trouble. She gives herself a massage in bed with a tool. A professional massage would cost 5 hrivinas ($1) plus transportation, which is too expensive. She lives on the 5th floor of a walk up apartment.

Lyubov used to work in the Chesed kitchen, preparing meals on wheels. She asked for meals on wheels for herself, but Chesed is unable to provide them because of the transportation problem. There is no car. Anya brings her a food package every month from Chesed. She has people who help her. Her son, who is also ill, helps. He has atherosclerosis and ulcers. The son’s wife left for Germany and took all his documents and sold their apartment. There is no patronnage service, but she needs this, too. Her 12-year-old granddaughter sometimes comes to help, too.

The food package she received from Adopt a Bubbe contained a chicken, canned milk, cheese, macaroni, bananas, juice, lemons and oranges. She needs slippers. Her shoes are really rubbers, molded to look like shoes. Her refrigerator doesn’t work. She tried to have it repaired, but it couldn’t be fixed. A used refrigerator would cost about 200 hrivinas ($40). Lyubov’s pension is 100 hrivinas/mo. ($20). She now owes 6 months rent for her apartment, about 300 hrivinas ($60). This includes heat and hot water.

Rahil Leibovna. When she had cataract surgery, we received a letter and a picture of her in the hospital. Chesed paid for her surgery and Adopt a Bubbe paid for the lens implant. Now she can read without glasses. She watches TV and listens to people’s voices on television. She thanked us profusely for helping her. She is lonely. Neighbors from her building sometimes visit. Rahil has patronnage help from Chesed. Janna, the chess teacher, comes and does everything – cleaning, cooking, laundry, shopping. She even helps her get to the Polyclinic. The Chesed Mazel Tov program sends men to help with repairs. A woman comes on Saturday to help her outside for a few hours. Her legs don’t work so well anymore. Her shoes are very shabby.
Rahil received a food package from us. She is part of the group of 36 who receive meals from Chesed six times a week. Her pension is 85 hrivinas/mo. ($13), and is spent on medicine and her apartment. Rahil lives on the first floor of her building.

Maria Gillelovna was born in 1909 in Irkutsk, Siberia. She is 92 years old. Her sister, Sarah Gillelovna, who is 88 years old, lives with her. Maria is bed ridden, but did most of the talking. Their father’s name was Hillel. They were born into a religious family. The father worked for the Jewish community in Irkutsk and was a shoikhet. Maria explained just how he did it. He worked from the heart, and when he prayed, he wore teffillin and tallis. The women were not involved in Judaism. They had Russians all around them. They celebrated all the Jewish holidays, especially Pesach, and they kept separate dishes for Pesach. In 1923, the father died and she stayed with her mother and four children. A fifth child was born after the father died. Maria is the only one who was educated. She finished the institute and taught biochemistry. Her sister, Sarah, was ill and went south.

World War II came and they were evacuated to Stalinsk, which is now Novokusnetsk. They stayed there four years and then came to Melitopol. Sarah stayed in Novokusnetsk, but 15 years ago she moved to Melitopol to help Maria. Here they met with the Jewish community and the community began to help them with food and clothing. She gave regards and best wishes to the American friends who, in such difficult times, help them and think about them. They celebrate each holiday and the food is always fresh. She very much appreciates this help, both from Boston and from the local community, which is all done with “neshoma” (soul).

The shoes they were given look more like slippers to me. They have a synthetic sole and fabric uppers, usually velvet which is patterned or embroidered. The clients like them very much and save them for best. Sarah did a little dance when she tried on her new shoes, she was so delighted. Her old shoes were worn through and had no heel left.

Irina Alexandrovna Leshkoff is 69 years old. She was born in Sverdlovsk, now known as Yekaterinburg. She moved to Melitopol in 1959, and worked as a French teacher for 40 years. She has been retired for the last 14 years. Since March, her pension is 107 hrivinas ($21). It was 86 hrivinas ($17) just a few months ago. In November, pensions went up around 10 hrivinas and then another 5 hrivinas were added.
Irina receives two meals on wheels three times a week – double meals, so she actually receives six meals a week. One time the meals are chicken, another time fish, and a third time milkhes. She lives in a single house. It’s a little – not enough. She would like fresh fruit. She received a package from Adopt a Bubbe with a chicken, two packages of cheese, juice, chocolate, butter, and new shoes. She was very pleased. She only has an electric plate to cook on. There is no gas for the stove. She also needs 70 hrivinas ($12) to have her refrigerator repaired.

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