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Ukraine Country Page

 

   



Population: 48 million


Ethnic Composition: 
73% Ukrainian, 22% Russian, 5% other  

Religion: 75% Orthodox Christian (Moscow Patriarchate, Kyiv Patriarchate, Ukrainian Autocephalous), 10% Ukrainian Greek Catholic (Uniate), 2% Roman Catholic, 1% Jewish, 12% other (Baptist, Pentecostal, Protestant, Muslim, Jehovah's Witness, Mormon)


Jewish population: 300-500,000
2002 Aliyah 
(emigration to Israel): 6,632
2002 Emigration 
to United States: 727 


Size: 603,700 sq km   
Capital: Kyiv (Kiev) 
Major cities: Kyiv, Lviv (Lvov, Lemberg), Kharkiv (Kharkov), Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk

Freedom House Rating: 
Partly Free


Currency: 5.31 hryvni = $1 (October 3, 2003)


GDP: $41.4 billion (2003)  
GDP per capita: $850 (2003)
GDP Growth: 4.5% (2003)


Head of State: President Viktor Yushchenko


Head of Government: Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko 

Foreign Minister: Boris Tarasyuk


Ambassador to the United States: Dr. Oleh Shamshur

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine: John Herbst

Chronology of all U.S. envoys to Ukraine


SUMMARY

Home of the original Kyivan Rus empire, Ukraine’s history has been one of domination by its neighbors. Made up of the historic borderlands of Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, Ukraine gained its independence in 1991. A peaceful revolution following November 2004 elections led to a more democratic government and a desire to work more closely with the West.

Ukraine's conversion to a market economy has been rocky, despite its substantial agricultural and industrial resources. Energy debts, corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency continue to plague reform efforts, despite economic growth since 1999. Ukraine has dismantled most of its nuclear arsenal but still contends with environmental damage from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Ukraine's efforts to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) have led to greater integration into European affairs.

Ukraine's Jewish community, the fifth-largest in the world, is represented by several umbrella and local groups that work in conjunction with American, European and Israeli organizations. Anti-Semitic sentiment is most visible today during election cycles, but the government has acted increasingly to combat anti-Semitism. The restitution of Jewish communal property has been a slow and arduous process.

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UKRAINE

INTRODUCTION
POLITICAL SITUATION
    Civil Protections
    Foreign Policy
ECONOMIC SITUATION
JEWISH COMMUNAL LIFE & ANTI-SEMITISM
    History
    Community Revival
    Community Concerns
U.S. POLICY

Slightly smaller than the state of Texas, Ukraine is the second-largest nation in Europe, and the second-largest of the successor states in population and economy. A nation mostly comprised of flat, fertile plains, Ukraine borders Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, and the Black Sea.

Originally inhabited by nomadic Cossacks, the territory of Ukraine was the center of Kyivan Rus, a powerful medieval state founded in the 9th century. "Ukraïna" literally means borderland, and since the defeat and partition of Kyivan Rus in 1360, Ukraine has been subjugated by its stronger neighbors. Ukraine was subsequently ruled by Poland and Lithuania until it was divided in the 17th century between Russia and Poland, and partitioned again by Austria-Hungary and Russia in the 18th century. In 1917 and 1918, with the collapse of the Russian Empire following World War I, the eastern and western territories of Ukraine both declared independence (and were briefly united in 1918). However, civil war ensued among Ukrainian, Polish and warlord factions, and Red Army and White Russian Army forces; Ukrainian fighters for independence were overpowered by 1920. Soviet forces conquered eastern Ukraine, ceding most of the western half to Poland in March 1921 under the Treaty of Riga, and Romania and Czechoslovakia divided the remainder of western Ukraine. 

Early Communist rule over Ukraine was brutal. During a severe drought that afflicted the region in 1921-22, the Soviet regime under Vladimir Iliych Lenin forcibly confiscated Ukrainian grain to support other areas of the Soviet state and to sell overseas – generating a famine killing almost one million Ukrainians. Roughly seven million Ukrainians died from starvation during Josef Stalin’s forced collectivization of agriculture in 1930-33, and tens of thousands of civilians (including party elites) were killed or deported to Siberia during the Stalinist purges of the mid- and late-1930s. Under the German-Soviet Non-Aggression (Molotov-Ribbentrop) Pact of 1939, the USSR absorbed western Ukraine from Hungary, Poland and Romania, and promptly applied the same policies. This pre-War annexation, solidified only in 1945, established the current territorial borders of Ukraine (minus Crimea). 

World War II devastated Ukraine as Soviet forces applied a “scorched earth” policy ahead of the Nazi advance. All major war industries and party personnel were evacuated to the hinterlands of Russia and Central Asia. Ukraine lost millions of civilians and soldiers to fighting, Nazi atrocities, and war conditions. In the immediate post-War years, particularly in 1946, drought combined with Stalin's collectivization and terror claimed nearly a million more lives. 

Stalin’s death in 1953 reduced Soviet repression considerably, and the ascension of Ukrainian-born Nikita Khrushchev raised Ukraine's status among the Soviet republics. Khrushchev oversaw the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 and also supported a return to greater ethnic Ukrainian control of the Communist Party in Ukraine. Despite the increased national identification and economic expansion of this de-Stalinization, Ukrainian nationalism maintained a limited appeal within the Communist Party and Ukrainian society as a whole. 

Throughout the post-War Soviet era, Ukraine remained subordinate to its close linguistic and cultural cousin, Russia. Combined with a long history of foreign domination, the fragile sense of national identity among Ukrainians has contributed to an enduring division between the "Russified" eastern Ukraine and “Ukrainianized” western Ukraine. Ironically, a stronger sense of Ukrainian nationhood developed outside Ukraine, within the Ukrainian diaspora community in Canada and the United States. Ukraine declared its independence on August 24, 1991, a move ratified by over 90 percent of Ukrainian voters in a December 1 referendum.

Civil Protections

The Ukrainian constitution guarantees most civil rights in principle, if not always in practice. After coming under domestic and international criticism for his treatment of the media, then-President Kuchma signed a bill in April 2003 designed to protect the freedom of the press and abolish censorship. 

Under Kuchma, the judiciary experienced significant political interference, corruption, and inefficiency. Abuse by law enforcement has been frequent, and prison conditions can be harsh by Western standards. 

Religious and minority rights are generally respected in Ukraine. Ethnic minorities and those of dark complexion have reported harassment by law enforcement, however, and many Jews face societal anti-Semitism. Law enforcement generally respects freedom of assembly and the rights of religious groups. In February 2005, President Yushchenko announce he would  abolish the State Committee on Religious Affairs in a bid to bring Ukraine's government more closely in-line with European standards.

The return of Crimean Tatars from Soviet-era exile has raised pressing issues concerning the redistribution of Soviet collective farms. Ukraine is also tackling a growing problem of West-bound Asian and African illegal migrants, as witnessed by the establishment of a detention camp in Mukachevo, Transcarpathia, to prevent migrants from reaching the western Ukrainian border. The migrant problem is expected to intensify as Ukraine’s western neighbors join the European Union (EU) and Ukraine’s border to the west becomes a crucial buffer.

Ukraine, considered a source country for tens of thousands of women and girls trafficked to Central and Western Europe and the Middle East, has passed some legislation to fight human trafficking. In concrete terms, a new criminal code enacted in September 2001 criminalizes human trafficking, pornography, and sexual exploitation. However, weak enforcement has resulted in few convictions on trafficking charges. Limited resources, corruption among law enforcement officers and organized crime still impede Ukraine’s ability to eliminate or significantly reduce human trafficking or deal with its tragic consequences.

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POLITICAL SITUATION

Ukraine is a constitutional republic with executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The President is elected by popular vote every five years, and the President, with parliamentary approval, appoints the prime minister. The unicameral Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada) is composed of 450 members serving four-year terms; half are elected by popular vote and the other 225 seats are allocated proportionally to political parties garnering at least four percent of the national vote (next elections: 2006). Judges are appointed by the President to five-year terms, after which Parliament may award lifetime tenure. 

Ukraine enjoyed a relatively peaceful transition process toward democratic reform after December 1991. Democratic elections held in 1991, 1994 and 1998 were considered free and fair by international observers, despite irregularities. The presidential election of 1999 raised international concerns about government manipulation of the media. 

Political turmoil erupted in January 2000, when rightist legislators established an alternate parliament in opposition to the predominantly leftist members remaining in the original body. Former President Leonid Kuchma, who was reelected to a second term in November 1999 after a two rounds of voting, backed the alternative parliament. Political wrangling with estranged leftist legislators stalled crucial legislation, including economic reform. A highly contested national referendum in April 2000 accorded Kuchma far greater powers over the split legislature, provoking substantial international criticism. 

Adding to the political turmoil in 2000, developments in the case of missing journalist Georgii Gongadze focused international attention on Ukraine and brought out thousands of protestors to demand Kuchma's resignation. Gongadze, who had criticized the government, went missing in September 2000. After police found a decapitated body in November 2000, believed to be (and confirmed by DNA evidence in March 2003 as) Gongadze, a Kuchma bodyguard – Mykola Melnychenko – revealed the existence of tapes implicating Kuchma in the murder. However, Kuchma continues to deny any involvement. 

Parliamentary elections in March 2002 resulted in further controversy, as local and international observers criticized the unfair allocation of media exposure and other resources among the competing parties and candidates – abuses were particularly flagrant in eastern Ukraine (including Donetsk and Kharkiv) and in Crimea. “Our Ukraine,” the party of Kuchma’s former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, garnered the largest share of the proportional vote, pushing the long-dominant Communist party into third place. Nonetheless, Kuchma’s “For United Ukraine” formed the majority of the new parliament due to the success of favored “independents” in single-mandate seats, who later stated their membership in “For United Ukraine.” Outspoken opposition parties fared poorly and complained of rampant discrimination and corrupt local officials. 

In late-2002, Yushchenko aligned himself more vocally with other opposition leaders, who were frustrated with the high levels of political corruption and intrigue (most notably tied to the ongoing investigation of the Gongadze murder, but more recently to the alleged sale of radar technology to Iraq) and with the failure to implement economic reforms. The opposition coalition – consisting of Yushchenko, Yulia Timoshenko, Oleksandr Moroz, Petro Symonenko, and others – called for the impeachment of President Kuchma. Organizing demonstrations of tens of thousands of people in September 2002, these opposition leaders demanded a meeting with Kuchma to voice their complaints and call for his resignation in person. After occupying part of Kuchma’s administration building, they secured a meeting, but Kuchma did not cede to any of their demands. 

After the September rallies, President Kuchma continued his attempts to strengthen his political power in the face of growing national and international criticism. On November 16, 2002, Kuchma sacked the government of Prime Minister Anatoliy Kinakh and nominated Viktor Yanukovych, regional governor from the eastern industrial province of Donetsk, to replace him.

In 2004, Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich ran for president against former Prime Minister Victor Yushchenko. After a close electoral campaign, marred by accusations of intimidation, manipulation of the media, and assassination attempts, Prime Minister Yanukovich was declared winner by the Central Electoral Committee. This announcement was followed by massive peaceful protests, against the committee’s decision to validate results, which many Ukrainians considered to be fraudulent. The protesters supported the candidacy of former Prime Minister Yushchenko, leader of Nasha Ukraina (Our Ukraine), considered to be the main opposition. The Opposition brought their grievances to Ukraine’s Supreme Court, which after much deliberation invalidated the election results. A second runoff was scheduled for December 24, 2004 and Victor Yushchenko was elected President of Ukraine. All of the protesters disbanded only after Victor Yushchenko was inaugurated on January 23, 2005.

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Foreign Policy

Yushchenko has made Ukraine’s accession into EU and NATO his top priorities. Ukraine has been a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace since 1994. 

Yushchenko appears particularly eager to forge closer ties with the United States and the EU. President Yushchenko has also shown renewed interest in making the GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Moldova) alliance.
While Russia-Ukraine relations have improved, disputes persist over Ukraine's outreach to the West and its continuing natural gas dependency. Other longstanding disputes have largely been resolved, including partition of the post-Soviet Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea, and jurisdiction over the Crimean peninsula. Despite a majority ethnic Russian population favoring separation from Ukraine, Crimea signed a non-separatist treaty in late 1998.


March 2005: Russian President Vladimir Putin with President Yushchenko in Kyiv

Israeli-Ukrainian relations have steadily been improving. Israel is represented by an embassy in Kyiv, and Israeli cultural centers in several cities sponsor seminars and programs. As Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu visited Ukraine in March 1999 and laid a wreath before the memorial at Babi Yar in tribute to the nearly 100,000 Jews massacred there during the Holocaust. 

Sallai Meridor, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI/ “Sochnut”) visited Ukraine in 2000 and Israeli President Moshe Katsav paid an official visit to Ukraine in 2001. Then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres paid an official visit to Kyiv in 2001, for the 10-year anniversary of the reopening of Israeli-Ukrainian diplomatic relations. 

October 2001: Israeli President Moshe Katsav visiting President Kuchma
October 2001: Israeli President Moshe Katsav visiting then-President Kuchma

In October 2001, a misdirected Ukrainian test missile hit a Sibir Air jetliner over the Black Sea, killing all 77 passengers, most of whom were Israeli citizens. The grudging process of compensation and acceptance of responsibility exacerbated bilateral relations until December 2003, Ukraine ratified an agreement involving the Ukrainian, Israeli and Russian governments.  

The international investigation into Ukraine’s alleged July 2000 sale of Kolchuga radar technology to Iraq could jeopardize Ukrainian aspirations of accession into NATO. NATO officials, with U.S. backing, urged Kuchma not to attend the November 2002 NATO summit in Prague. Kuchma attended the summit regardless.


Former President Kuchma, during a visit to China in November 2002, sought approval for Ukraine’s request that the United Nations send a team of arms experts to Ukraine to investigate the alleged Kolchugha sale to Iraq. However, a U.S.-British team of investigators that visited Ukraine in October 2002 claimed that the government was uncooperative.

IRNA photo

October 2002: Then-Prime Minister Kinakh greeting Iranian President Mohamed Khatami

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ECONOMIC SITUATION

Among the most industrialized of the successor states, as well as the one-time "breadbasket" of the USSR, Ukraine is rich in arable land, coal, sulfur and iron ore, and possesses the key Black Sea port of Sevastopol. However, Ukraine's post-independence reform efforts have been complicated by falling industrial and agricultural output and high inflation.

A barter-like system remains evident in Ukraine’s economic relationship with Russia. Ukraine supplies food and metals to Russia in exchange for fuel, and imports natural gas from both Russia and Turkmenistan. Following Ukraine's failure in 1998 to pay debts on gas shipments from Russia, Russia temporarily cut off its supply. Russia has proposed constructing a pipeline through Poland that would bypass Ukraine entirely, though Poland has stipulated that Ukraine share the benefits.

During Russian President Putin's 2001 visit to Ukraine, he agreed to link the two countries' electrical power grids. However, the energy dispute continues, with allegations that Ukraine illegally siphoned gas through early 2001; Ukraine owes some $2 billion in gas debts to Russia.

In October 2002, Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement establishing an international consortium to manage the 35,000 kilometers of gas pipelines running through Ukrainian territory. However, opposition members of Parliament opposed the deal, arguing that it may be a political maneuver by President Kuchma to secure Russia’s continuing support. The issue of who ultimately controls the Ukrainian network remains inconclusive. 

Ukraine’s economy has generally followed the fluctuations of the Russian economy. Russia’s strong growth in 2000 clearly benefited Ukraine; 2000 was Ukraine's first year of positive GDP growth since independence. Real GDP accelerated to an estimated nine percent in 2001, due to a good grain harvest and double-digit growth of industrial output. Strong import and export growth, aided by currency stability since mid-2000, has also boosted the Ukrainian economy. Inflation, which rose to almost 26 percent in 2000, declined to six percent by the end of 2001.

Despite two years of positive economic growth, much reform is still needed to raise poverty levels, curtail government corruption and bureaucracy, promote the formation and registration of small businesses, and protect property rights through the timely issuance of land title deeds. The average monthly salary in Ukraine remains below poverty level, and the shadow economy accounts for an estimated 50 percent of total GDP. 

International lending organizations have stressed the need for greater transparency in the privatization process, particularly as many agro-industrial complexes have passed back into the hands of their former Soviet bosses. Insufficient banking sector reform has further impeded the development of the private sector and discouraged foreign investment.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $376.56 million loan disbursement for Ukraine in September 2001. This disbursement forms part of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), a $2.6 billion loan arrangement approved by the IMF in September 1998, from which Ukraine has already drawn $1.59 billion. While acknowledging that Ukraine’s economic progress in 2001 was encouraging, the IMF urged further reforms in the banking, tax, business, energy and agriculture sectors.

World Bank loans have focused on structural reform in the public and private sectors, including banking and tax, agriculture, energy, business and enterprise, social protection, civil society, and the environment. Since 1992, the World Bank has approved a total of almost $3.4 billion, most in loans and some in grants, focused on promoting reform in the public and private sectors. In addition, the Bank has offered support through studies on policies, reforms, reviews and assessments of different economic sectors.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) continues to disburse aid for banking, industrial and agricultural reform, and has a strong commitment to energy projects that promote efficiency and nuclear safety.

Ukraine continues to suffer from the harmful effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of April 1986, investing a sizable share of the national budget in medical care for Chernobyl victims and cleanup of contaminated areas. With international aid, Ukraine has strengthened the containment unit around Chernobyl's damaged reactor and has shut down Chernobyl entirely. The EBRD will help finance a 2003 plan, with expected costs of over $750 million, for a new 20,000-ton steel shell to encase both the reactor and the old Soviet containment structure. In November 2000, the EBRD approved a conditional $215 million loan to complete two replacement plants at Khmelnitsky and Rivne. Due to disagreements over the EBRD’s loan conditions, the loan still has not been granted and the two reactors stand only partially completed.

The support of the IMF, World Bank, EBRD and other foreign donors suggests that confidence in Ukraine has been growing steadily. Those investments often carry significant conditions and responsibilities, however, and total investment still falls short of what is needed to rebuild Ukraine's infrastructure and economy. Private investment, in particular, has continued to lag as a result of endemic corruption and structural impediments.

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JEWISH COMMUNAL LIFE & ANTI-SEMITISM

Ukraine's Jewish community is the fifth-largest in the world (estimates range from 300,000 to 500,000). It comprises more than 250 organizations in over 100 Ukrainian cities. Kyiv's Jewish community, estimated at 100,000, is the largest, followed closely by those of Odessa (est. 60-70,000), Dnepropetrovsk (est. 60,000), Kharkiv (50,000), and Donetsk (18,000).

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History


 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii / Library of Congress		 Pinkhus Karlinsky, Chernihiv floodgate supervisor, 1909

It is unknown whether Jews entered Ukraine at the time of the Babylonian exile (6th century B.C.E.) or the exile of the ten northern tribes (8th century B.C.E.).

The conquering Khazars, nomads from the east, converted to Judaism in 740 C.E. as a foil to the threat of Christian and Muslim powers in the south and west. By the 16th century, Kyiv was the center of a 45,000-strong Ukrainian Jewish population. Jews became successful traders as well as adjuncts to the Polish landowning aristocracy. The precarious position of Jews in 17th century Ukrainian society bred strong hostility from Ukrainian peasantry, who perceived them as allies of the Polish landowners. Approximately 100,000 Jews were massacred during a popular revolt against the Polish aristocracy (1648-49) led by Cossack Bohdan Khmelnitsky, who is still regarded today as a Ukrainian national hero. Smaller-scale anti-Jewish and anti-Polish riots were perpetrated in the 18th century by the Haidamaks (bands of peasant serfs and Cossacks), including the massacre in Uman in 1768. 

Despite periodic anti-Jewish pogroms, the Ukrainian Jewish population grew to over two million by 1899. Due to the tsarist policy of limiting Jewish residence to the Pale of Settlement, the vast majority lived in western Ukraine. Continued anti-Jewish violence and tsarist programs of “Russification” led hundreds of thousands of Jews to emigrate from Ukraine, mostly to the United States, between 1880 and 1913. The Ukrainian civil war immediately following World War I dealt another major blow to the Jewish population. Tens of thousands of Jews were killed by the White Russian and Ukrainian armies (some Jews were also killed by Polish and Red Army forces and the troops of local warlords). The most devastating pogroms were perpetrated by the Ukrainian forces of Simon Petlura. Their actions were couched in popular perceptions of Jewish opposition to Ukrainian self-rule and stereotypes of Jewish “Bolshevism.” Whether politically motivated or driven by anti-Semitism masked in political terms, the pogroms of 1919 caused some Jews to join the Red Army and eventually acquire posts in the Communist party. 

Soviet retreat from western Ukrainian cities in the summer of 1941, following defeat by Nazi forces, led to further attacks on Jews by the local populations, sometimes without the instigation of the German occupiers. Many Ukrainians (particularly in the west of the country) collaborated with Nazi forces, including participation in mass shootings of Jews. A certain portion of the Ukrainian Jewish population, particularly in the east of the country, successfully evacuated to Russia and Central Asia at the start of World War II (part of a group of 3.5 million Ukrainian evacuees). Nazi units and their collaborators murdered about 1.5 million remaining Jews –including Jews living in western territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939. While hundreds of Jewish mass graves dot the landscape of Ukraine, the massacre of 33,700 Kyiv Jews at Babi Yar on September 29-30, 1941, and subsequent round-ups of Jews through 1943, have come to symbolize the Holocaust in Ukraine. 

Many individual Ukrainians also hid Jews or helped them to safety. Israel has formally recognized 1,881 Ukrainians as “Righteous Among the Nations” for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. 

Following Ukraine's “liberation” by Soviet forces, Jews continued to experience persecution under Soviet policies of state atheism and anti-Semitism. Eventually, Kyiv became a major center of underground Jewish culture and pro-aliyah agitation during the 1970s and 1980s. Ukrainian Jewish life experienced a remarkable revival beginning in the Glasnost period of the late-1980s and following independence in 1991. On numerous occasions, President Kuchma has stated his intention to work with the Jewish community on issues of restitution and the elimination of anti-Semitism, and the government has generally supported Jewish community initiatives.

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Community Revival

Lesley Weiss
Kyiv Synagogue

The Jewish community is represented by several umbrella organizations based in Kyiv. Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich has been Chief Rabbi of Ukraine and Kyiv since 1992. The Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Ukraine (VAAD), founded in 1991, deals with communal, charitable, educational, cultural and political issues and provides emigration assistance. The Jewish Council of Ukraine promotes Yiddish culture and Holocaust memorial activities. The Jewish Foundation for Ukraine was created in 1997 to fund communal and educational projects. The Union of Jewish Religious Communities of Ukraine unites more than 70 Jewish organizations, and the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress encompasses 120 organizations. In 1998, the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine (JCU) umbrella organization was founded, uniting the VAAD, the Jewish Council of Ukraine, the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine, and the Kyiv Municipal Jewish Community. 

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch movement, elected Rabbi Azrael Haikin Chief Rabbi in September 2003. Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny is Chief Progressive Rabbi of Kiev and of the Ukraine Union of Progressive Jewish Congregations.

International Jewish bodies make their presence felt in a variety of ways. In particular, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC/“Joint”) funds welfare, cultural and educational projects across Ukraine. Many (if not most) indigenous Jewish organizations rely on some JDC funding. To address the needs of elderly Jews (approximately 50 percent of the Jewish population), JDC and the Claims Conference have built up a network of “Hesed” or welfare centers in different towns and cities to supply Jewish communities with daily hot meals, monthly care packages, medical supplies, and sometimes firewood. 40 such Hesed centers were operating in Ukraine in 2002, assisting 78,000 elderly Jews with over 1,000 Jewish volunteers. JDC has sponsored the construction of new buildings to house Hesed and community centers in some of the larger cities, most notably Kyiv. In 2003, the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine opened a new assisted living home with support from the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. A Fall 2002 proposal for a community center at the site of the World War II Babi Yar massacre has met sustained resistance, dividing much of Ukraine’s domestic and international Jewish leadership.

A plurality of religious groups has begun to emerge under the sponsorship of international religious organizations. In addition to the Union of Jewish Religious Communities of Karlin Stolin, the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations under Chabad-Lubavitch has built an extensive network of programming. Chabad has a rich history in Ukraine and has been very active in coordinating efforts of the Jewish community with the national and local governments. 


Kyiv's new Jewish Home for Assisted Living of the Elderly


The World Union for Progressive Judaism has a rabbi based in Kyiv and additional Reform congregations operating in Lviv and Kerch; the World Union also runs leadership seminars as well as holiday and summer programs. The Masorti (Conservative) movement runs a Sunday school and a youth group in Kyiv; it operates a day school in Chernovtsy and sponsors Sunday schools, youth activities and summer camps in several smaller cities (predominantly in western and southwestern Ukraine).

The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI/“Sochnut”) sponsors a wide range of programs connected to Israel, aliyah and Jewish life, facilitated by the recent expansion of its center in Kyiv, which includes a new youth club. JAFI funds its own summer camps and trips to Israel as well as those of many other Jewish organizations. The Orthodox Union has built a Torah community-learning center in Kharkiv, providing outreach to children and adults. 

Israeli and American organizations (including Hillel, Beitar, Kidma and Aish HaTorah) have initiated numerous student and youth programs. Local Jewish groups have established facilities in Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Zhitomyr and Korosten for homeless Jewish children, with support from World Jewish Relief and JDC. An orphanage is similarly maintained under the auspices of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities of Karlin Stolin. B'nai B'rith International is also represented in Ukraine.

 For several years, NCSJ has helped pair Ukrainian Jewish communities with American Jewish communities through its Kehilla Projects and Operation Lifeline, which assist in providing educational, medical and other social service programs to struggling communities. Models of the Kehilla partnerships include Baltimore-Odessa and Boston-Dnepropetrovsk; similar projects have been successful in other Ukrainian cities.

Educational programs and scholarly institutes have expanded significantly in the past decade. Ukrainian Jewish community organizations across Ukraine run 15 day schools and 11 kindergartens, 70-80 Sunday schools, eight yeshivas, and an estimated 70 Hebrew ulpans. Approximately 20,000 students attend these programs. Ukrainian Jewish groups, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, sponsored a seminar in Kyiv in 2000 to discuss the teaching of Jewish topics in Ukrainian schools. The International Solomon University, with branches in Kyiv and Kharkiv, offers Judaic studies and enrolls a total of 150 students.

Shai Franklin

Graduation ceremony of Jewish day school in Kyiv


Secular Jewish day schools operate in several Ukrainian cities under the supervision of World ORT Union, and ORT has contributed computer equipment and curricula to several other schools and community centers. The Ukrainian government signed an agreement with ORT in 2000, recognizing it as an official organization. ORT opened the ORT Kiev Technology Lyceum in the same year, graduating its first class in 2002, and the Shirley and Milton Gralla ORT Educational Complex operates within the Odessa Jewish School.

The Center for Jewish Education in Ukraine (CJEU), under the sponsorship of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, trains Jewish teachers for day schools, conducts teacher-training workshops on the Holocaust, and organizes Sunday schools.

Similarly, the Beit Chana Jewish Women's Pedagogical Institute in Dnepropetrovsk, established by the Boston Jewish community, trains teachers for work in Jewish schools and operates a special-needs center for children.


Sue Wolf-Fordham		 Special-needs center at the Beit Chana Jewish Women's Pedagogical Institute, Dnepropetrovsk

Several research centers focus on Jewish themes and collect Jewish materials. JDC supports the Tkuma Scientific-Educational Center, an institution for Holocaust studies. The Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies, affiliated with the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, also recently opened in Kyiv. The Academy of Sciences maintains an archive of Jewish manuscripts and books in its Vernadsky Library. The Institute for Jewish Studies, a research institute in Kyiv, receives support from several local and international Jewish organizations for its projects, publications, and annual conference; it also prepares regular analysis of anti-Semitic trends.

In addition to scholarly Jewish publications, ten Jewish newspapers are published in Kyiv, four of which have national circulations of 10-15,000. Nearly 20 smaller Jewish newspapers are published in other Ukrainian cities, each with a circulation of about 1,000. Several professional Jewish theater companies also operate in Kyiv.

The restitution and re-dedication of some Jewish communal property has contributed to the revival of public Jewish life. In 1999, in Crimea, a marble monument erected by the Jewish community over 100 years ago was re-dedicated to the 500 Jewish soldiers who died defending Russia during the 1854-55 Crimean War. Opening ceremonies for the restituted Central Synagogue, or Brodsky Synagogue, were held in Kyiv in 2000. Local Jewish groups financed a major restoration of this Lubavitch-run synagogue after wholly reclaiming it in 1997, following a protracted legal battle and a $100,000 inducement from Ukrainian Jewish leader and businessman Vadim Rabinovich, to move the building’s remaining tenant, a puppet theater.

In December 2002, President Kuchma and Israeli Ambassador Ana Azari attended the dedication of a memorial to the 30,000 victims of the massacre at Drobitsky Yar, on the outskirts of Kharkiv. The victims of the January 1942 massacre, carried out by Nazi forces at the site, were mostly Jews but also included Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians, and Gypsies. The memorial is slated to be complete by late 2003.

Lesley Weiss

Restored Brodsky Synagogue in Kyiv

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Community Concerns

Key concerns include the restitution of communal property, anti-Semitism in the media, and the preservation of Holocaust sites and cemeteries. The restitution of Jewish communal property confiscated during the Soviet and Holocaust eras has been an issue of concern for several years, especially in the wake of large-scale Ukrainian land privatizations in 1996. Although a small number of synagogues have been returned to Jewish communities in Ukraine, the pace has been notably slow. Hundreds of synagogues and community buildings in Ukraine could potentially be restituted, and many have their history of ownership fully documented by the Jewish community. Many isolated and poor communities seek to recover their buildings, which could once again house synagogues, schools, senior centers, and other community functions.

According to the Ukrainian Jewish community, approximately 40 synagogue buildings have been returned of as many as 2,000 surviving communal properties confiscated during the 20th century. In a few cases, newer buildings have been provided to religious communities in the place of the original synagogues to which they lay claim. Instances of restitution from 2001 include the Galitska Synagogue in Kyiv and synagogue buildings in Lviv, Sumy, and the town of Zolotonosha in the Cherkassy region. The Galitska Synagogue, built in 1909 by the Galitsky Jewish society, had been closed by the authorities in 1930 and transferred to the “Transsignal” factory for use as a cafeteria. In some cases, communities have been able to regain property through Ukraine’s court system.

Lesley Weiss

Uzhhorod synagogue, now used as a concert hall

Many other Jewish community claims for restitution remain outstanding. According to a 1992 decree, only registered religious organizations are entitled to seek restitution of property confiscated by the Soviet regime. Moreover, restitution is limited to those buildings and objects considered necessary for religious worship. Proposed amendments to the current “Law of Religion and Freedom of Conscience” would expand the types of religious property eligible for restitution to include religious schools and administrative buildings. However, by late-2003, these amendments had not yet been adopted. 

Like the restitution of religious property, the preservation of Jewish cemeteries poses serious problems for Jewish communities across Ukraine. While cemeteries should fall within the parameters of the government decree on restitution of religious property, in reality they have frequently been distributed to private owners, resulting in the desecration and destruction of Jewish burial sites and memorials. Even in those cases where conflicts over ownership of burial sites do not arise, Jewish communities frequently do not have the resources to restore old cemeteries. 

Following U.S. and Ukrainian protests, then-President Kuchma did impose a moratorium on privatization of burial land in 1997. The moratorium halts further construction on the marketplace built over the Jewish cemetery in Lviv but does not mandate the dismantling of the market. Despite a court ruling and a letter from the Ministry of Culture halting the construction of an apartment building on the grounds of the Jewish cemetery in Volodymyr-Volinsky, Volyn oblast, construction has continued. Crosses erected at several Jewish cemeteries and World War II killing sites have stirred interethnic and religious conflicts. In particular, controversies continue to ignite over the presence of a cross in the old Jewish cemetery near the massacre site of Babi Yar and over the erection of crosses in the restored Jewish cemetery (reopened as a memorial park) in the Lviv oblast town of Staryi Sambir. On a related note, some Jewish activists have vocally opposed a new Jewish community center and museum being constructed adjacent to Babi Yar.

The U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad has been active in addressing issues of restoration and preservation, in addition to convening a joint U.S.-Ukrainian cultural heritage commission. In conjunction with the Commission, the U.S. and Ukrainian governments have signed an agreement to establish frameworks for the protection and preservation of cultural sites. In 2001, the Commission released a comprehensive list of communal properties and artifacts in Ukraine, including sites of Jewish cemeteries, mass graves, and memorials. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has also assisted in efforts to promote the restitution of communal properties.


Ron Sachs /CNP

May 2000: Harold Luks, then-Chairman of NCSJ, introducing then-Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and Chief Rabbi Yakov Bleich at Capitol Hill reception

Societal anti-Semitism remains a problem. Limited harassment of Jews, media anti-Semitism and acts of vandalism persist. In some cases, acts of anti-Semitism against property and persons have grown more violent. In April 2002, the Brodsky synagogue in the center of Kyiv was attacked by a mob of 40-50 youths, who stormed the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue after a Dynamo Kyiv soccer match. Many of the windows were smashed, and the son of the chief rabbi was beaten along with the rector of the Chabad yeshiva. Several participants, including the man suspected of organizing the attack, have since been arrested. A month after the attack on the Brodsky synagogue, bricks were thrown through the windows of a synagogue in Khmelnitsky. In September 2003, a rabbi walking by the synagogue was attacked by a group of unidentified men; no arrests had been made as of October. 

The city of Uman, famous as the burial place of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and as a site of annual pilgrimage by Bratslav Hassidim, has also seen a rise in tensions between the local population and its Hassidic visitors, resulting in an increase in anti-Semitic violence. In particular, in October 2002, a group of Bratslavers was allegedly beaten by Uman police officers, who then took them to the local police station for interrogation. While the incident is being investigated, officials and community leaders indicate that relations between local Uman residents and Hassidic visitors are generally good. Moreover, Rabbi Asman points to the inherent difficulties for the town of Uman of accommodating an influx of 15,000 Jews during the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Purim. 

Although public anti-Semitism has declined, incidents have tended to increase during Ukraine's election campaigns. In one case, a candidate running for parliament in the Ivano-Frankivsk region made anti-Semitic remarks on regional television in February 2002 and ended his remarks with a fascist salute. Anti-Kuchma protests in March 2001 took on an anti-Semitic tone, with protestors blaming a "Jewish mafia" for the country's recent political scandals. The Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) noted anti-Semitic campaigning against the leading candidate in Crimea’s March 2002 mayoral election and the distribution of anti-Semitic campaign literature in Donetsk, Zhytomir, Ternopil, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Lugansk, and Vinnitsa. The OSCE nonetheless concluded that the 2002 elections were generally less anti-Semitic in tone than previous elections.

In some regions of Ukraine, economic and political instability fuels xenophobia, extremism, and the growth of right-wing radical parties. Expressions of intolerance in marginal publications may reflect and further incite these shifting societal attitudes. In one example, the Organization of Idealists of Ukraine, the publisher of the Lviv newspaper Idealist, which regularly features anti-Semitic appeals, organized an anti-Semitic demonstration in Lviv in February 2002. In August 2002, the Lviv Regional Prosecution Service opened a criminal case against the newspaper and intends to prosecute the paper for incitement of activities threatening the public order. In another case, the journal Personnel, which also publishes anti-Semitic materials, includes several Rada deputies on its executive board; the Jewish community has considered taking legal action against the publication.

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U.S. POLICY
U.S. policy has focused on completing the destruction of Ukraine's Soviet-era nuclear arsenal, addressing post-Chernobyl energy and environmental issues, promoting democratic and economic reforms, and advancing human rights and religious freedom. In 2002, U.S. policy focused increasingly on the scandals concerning then-President Kuchma – the Gongadze case and the alleged Kolchugha radar system sales to Iraq. 

With the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal. In keeping with the 1991 START treaty, Ukraine renounced nuclear weapons and agreed to trade its 1,300 warheads to Russia in return for $1 billion in aid and the elimination of much of Ukraine's oil and gas debt. Through its Cooperative Threat Reduction Initiative (“Nunn-Lugar”), the United States has contributed over $670 million through 2002 to assist Ukraine in dismantling its nuclear stockpile. On October 25, 2002, U.S. and Ukrainian officials celebrated the closing of Ukraine’s last nuclear missile silo (in Pershotravensk) and the end of Ukraine’s nuclear weapons legacy.

Aid continues for the development of nuclear power resources and related environmental programs. The United States plans to provide Western safety equipment to improve the design of the two nuclear plants (Khmelnitsky and Rivne) under construction. As part of the G8, the United States is helping to finance construction of the new containment shell for the Chernobyl Reactor 4 site.

In addition to nuclear safety, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv monitors human rights and religious freedoms. Embassy officers have attended important Holocaust commemorations, including the 60th anniversary of Babi Yar. The Embassy has raised concerns with government officials about restitution and about the desecration of Jewish cemeteries in which crosses have been erected or building construction has been undertaken. It has tied these concerns, along with restitution and cultural preservation, to Ukraine’s possible graduation from Jackson-Vanik Amendment restrictions (the 1975 law linking free trade status to human rights and freedom of emigration).

U.S. financial assistance includes projects to enhance democratic institutions in Ukraine, strengthen the Ukrainian economy, and address such social issues as the gaps in state health care and pensions. In light of the Ukrainian government's reluctance or inability to enact far-reaching reforms, the United States has focused its aid on local government and grassroots organizations. 

In September 2002, as a result of newly released sections of recordings implicating Kuchma in the Gongadze affair and in the alleged transfer of a sophisticated Kolchuga radar system to Iraq, the U.S. Government suspended $50 million in aid to Ukraine and launched a review of its relations with Kuchma and his government. The reported stonewalling of U.S. and British arms experts, who traveled to Ukraine in October 2002 to investigate the allegations, has increased tensions in U.S.-Ukraine relations. Similarly, the use of force against anti-Kuchma protestors during September 2002 demonstrations in Kyiv led President Bush to reiterate in a personal message to President Kuchma that continued U.S. assistance hinges upon Ukraine's commitment to democracy. 

Ukraine has made practical contributions to the international fight against terrorism, including active involvement of its military transport aviation for deployment of Allied troops in Afghanistan, and the opening of its air space to Allied aircraft participating in the counter-terrorism campaign. Ukraine supported the U.S.-led effort in Iraq in 2003, after initially siding with Russia, France and Germany before the war’s start. Ukraine deployed a specialized chemical/biological weapons team and nearly 500 soldiers to aid in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and sent 1,600 troops in August 2003 to aid in the peacekeeping effort.

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