Crimea Adventure Continues

To say that we're Crimean experts would now be an understatement. We've had an amazing opportunity to not just see many of the famous Crimean spots but also to feel, taste and hear the Southern Ukraine way of life. With our Passover duties over we began to play tourists.

Our first stop was in Bakhchisarai, which once was once the capital of the Crimean Tatar Khanate. The Tatar's were expelled from Crimea by Stalin but have been allowed to return since the early 90's after the fall of the Soviet Union (our car driver is a CrimeanTatar, he's happy to recount the entire history of the Crimean Tatars throughout the entire ride -- great for history, bad for translators). The area has a palace belonging to one of the Khan's, several mosques, and a surrounding town, which apparently has been restored in recent years. In fact, a Ukrainian (or Russian) movie was being shot while we were touring around. In the palace, we saw the Khan's cemetery, the Crimean Tatar museum, a small art gallery and many beautiful rooms of the palace itself. Behind the palace is one of the many cemeteries dedicated to those who died in the Great War (as Elle said in a previous post, you cannot walk a block without seeing a memorial to WWII). The palace is also home to the fountain of Bakhchisaray, a beautiful fountain which served as the inspiration for Alexander Pushkin's poem, The Fountain of Bakhchisaray written in 1822 when he visited the area.

After a very short drive, we reached some impressive looking mountains. Our trusty driver drove as high as he could and then had to stop because cars were no longer allowed. We had reached the entrance to the Uspensky Cave Monastery. Founded in the 8th century, this Orthodox monastery is incredibly beautiful and serene, it even has a holy spring with drinkable water (no idea how it tastes, we didn't taste it, no worries). What made this site even more special was that the weather was very cloudy and it felt as if we were walking through clouds.

We left the monastery walking through a forrest on a mountain. We were now on our way to Chufut Kale, a cliff city that was last inhabited by Karaite Jews. On our way we ran into pigs, cows and some friendly locals. Once we reached the top were were able to visit the inside of caves, which used to serve as holy sites, residences, meeting areas and cemeteries...according to past research these caves are over 1000 years old. A well was found here recently, one that had been sealed shut for centuries, inside the well they found etchings and writings in Farsi, Hebrew, and other languages. This was a fascinating place. At one point, while on top of the mountain, the clouds broke and we were able to see the majestic beauty of the mountain. Amazing!

After another delicious lunch of Tatar cuisine (which involves lots of meat, of course), we were on our way back to Simferopol to visit a new chocolate exhibition in the local art museum. The exhibition consisted of three rooms. Well, before I begin the intricate room description, let me tell you about the ticket price. To be admitted to this exhibition, you had to buy 20 grivna worth of chocolate (that's less than three bucks, folks). Such a hard price to pay. Anyway, the three rooms consisted of a description of the history of the cocoa bean, a room with different chocolate sculptures and a tasting room where we basically gorged ourselves on chocolate. Not a bad ending to the day, I say.

Our adventures continue in Yalta and Sevastopol! To be continued...

Crimea River...ha!

Black Sea

Привет! [Hello!]

Greetings from the Crimean Peninsula!
Over the last few days, Vlad, Jessie, and I have had some incredible, meaningful experiences, and some really delicious food.

Yesterday we ventured to Евпатория [Yevpаtoria] in order to lead a seder there. After an exciting car ride to the Black Sea, we arrived at the congregation there. What an incredible space! The building is over 100 years old and is in a process of renovation. The tables were all set up when we go there, and so we got to spend some time walking around the synagogue and the area surrounding it. The town of Yevpаtoria is working on a project called "Little Jerusalem". When we saw this written on our itinerary, we thought we would be walking around a model city of Jerusalem, all covered in Jerusalem stone like what we see every day. Luckily, what we found when we got there was an interesting walk through the city's holy sites.

This mosque was built for a khan who only came to town once a year!

One surprising thing we've learned since arriving to Crimea is that there are many different very active religious communities in the regions. A quick walk around town will have you running into Eastern Orthodox churches, mosques with colorful minarets, and even the occasional synagogue! We enjoyed our walking tour despite the dreary weather, and we got to see many Eastern Orthodox believers preparing for Palm Sunday (which is today!) by walking around carrying branches of pussy-willow [no palm trees in Crimea] and daffodils to offer up at church. We saw the Black Sea (which is a total misnomer at this time of year--it was a lovely greenish blue color!) and lots and lots of swans.

#PartnersinCrimea hanging out in the synagogue in Yevpatoria.

We had the opportunity to speak with one of the community leaders about the renovation project--they're planning on opening the only kosher-style restaurant in the area, which will help bring in tourists from the Little Jerusalem tour during the summer when the city is filled with visitors from throughout the Former Soviet Union. After exploring the town, we finally got to help lead the seder. It's been a really amazing opportunity helping these communities celebrate Passover. We're working with a rabbi here named Misha, and his energy and passion for his work is so inspiring.

What a feast! Our seder plates.

For a lot of the people we're working with, this celebration of the Passover seder is one of the only times during the year that they participate in a distinctly Jewish celebration. Gathering together in a historic synagogue, surrounded by families and neighbors, these seders provide the progressive Jewish communities with the opportunity to start celebrating and connecting to Jewish tradition, and we feel very lucky to be a part of it.

Me and Jessie with our interpreter Tonya

After returning from our lovely experience in Yevpetoria, we went to a restaurant that was based on the theme of Baba Yaga (a traditional fairy tale here about a witchy character eating children). It was a very interesting dining experience--all of the tables are located in little huts on the property, so each dining party has their own distinct space. It was really strange but a cute idea! We're realizing that everywhere we go has pretty delish soups and meaty entrees. Loving the food!

Today we woke up early and headed to Феодозия (Feodosia). We got to drive through some of the mountains, and the views were absolutely lovely! There are so many sheep and goats on the sides of the roads--it's a lot like driving right outside of Jerusalem, but with fewer camels. We got to the Hesed community center where the seder was being held, and parked outside of the building was a white Zhiguli--the very same kind of car that Vlad's dad used to drive when he was little! It's been really cool and entertaining (and, I'll admit, really meaningful) to see how Vlad is connecting to being here. When he sings during the seders you can hear people in the community singing along--it's so cool being able to feel the connection between the people who left after the Soviet regime fell and the people who remained here. What connects them, at least this week, is Judaism and עם ישראל––the people of Israel.

I cannot stress how amazing it is to know that, despite the language barriers, how similar these progressive communities are to our communities back home. All of the places we've been so far are "twinned" with American or other progressive Jewish communities, and pictures line the walls of joint programming and holiday celebrations. While we might need an interpreter (ours is Tonya and she is awesome) to get through the hagadah, there are things that bring us together on a much more important and tangible level. Today, the community was toasting "l'chaim"s and "am yisrael chai"s during the seder! There are Israeli flags all over these synagogues, and it's amazing to know what's going on here and knowing that we can be of service to these communities.

Birds in Feodosia

We've been doing a lot of meandering around town with Rabbi Misha and Tonya (usually with food as an end goal. Tonight we even had delicious Indian food!). Jessie and I are not good at keeping up with the pace--here, strolling around seemingly aimlessly is the norm, and though we always get everywhere on time, the two of us are really struggling to slow down our normal pace. Our slow, relaxed walks are allowing us to see some very beautiful and unexpected sights. We've seen some lovely public parks, many a WWII memorial, a cool art gallery in Feodosia, the Black Sea, and, hilariously, the Crimea River.

Say that out loud.

It sounds like "cry me a river."

We are all obviously very tickled by this.

Thank you all so much for reading this and supporting us while we're here! Спасибо!

Even in Ukraine, we can't escape from Israeli ice cream products!

Simply Simferopol

Today was our first full day in Simferopol. After a hearty Ukrainian breakfast with buckwheat, many eggs, cheese and lots of bread and butter, we started off the morning with a planning session with Rabbi Misha and our translator, Tonya, to figure out just exactly how leading a seder in three different languages would work. By the end of our session, it seemed that our goal would be accomplished. We decided to have the entire seder, including pretty much everything that one's average seder would include, in the time frame of an hour to and hour and a half. While we were skeptical at first, I am happy to report that this is indeed possible, but more on that later.

After our seder plan was completed, we set out on a walking tour of Simferopol. We started off at a market place from the Soviet era, which in absolutely no way can be compared to Machane Yehuda (the open-air market in Jerusalem). Everything was so clean and quiet, and you could actually have a conversation while walking through there! The vendors were almost whispering the prices to the passerby's. After walking through the market we passed along some of the main streets of Simferopol. One of the most interesting parts of Simferopol is it's architecture, since they have buildings from the pre-Soviet era, the Soviet era, and the post-Soviet era. Each building has its own distinct style but they are nestled in together. We continued on our tour down the main street where we were able to say "good-bye" to chametz (bread) with personalized pizzas in a wild Italian pop music themed pizza place. We finished off the tour by walking to the Ner Tamid synagogue in Simferopol. The synagogue was given to the Progressive movement in the mid-1990's and they have gone through great lengths to update and improve the building. It's really obvious how hard they're working to improve their synagogue and its incredible to see and experience how every little item they receive goes to help them.




The main highlight of our day was leading the seder for the Progressive community of Simferopol. There were about 80 people who attended the seder. Most of them were elderly community members, but there were also a number of younger adults, as well as some children in attendance. All of the aspects of the seder were either said in English or Hebrew and then translated into Russia, or just said in Russian. One of the most amazing things about this seder was that even though we might not speak the same languages, the seder is EXACTLY THE SAME! Before leading the seder, we had the opportunity to help out with the making of some of the key ingredients of the seder like the charoset. It is so fascinating to see how each community has their tradition for how to make charoset. Here they grate the apples and add in vanilla sugar, walnuts and grape juice. They also had hard-boiled eggs with mayonaise and pickles, as well as Sprats (Vlad is particularly enthusiastic about these tiny canned fishes). We led most of the seder, with the help of Misha and Tonya. While there weren't enough Haggadot for everyone, it was amazing to be able to hear that community members were participating in the seder with us. Vlad gave a surprise performance of a Russian romance during the Shulchan Orech (seder meal) which the community members really seemed to appreciate! Also, watching Misha in action is inspiring. The man is one-man, multi-congregational, fundraising, spiritual MACHINE. The congregants adore him and he is an energetic and exciting leader. We are certainly learning lots about congregational leadership from him. Meanwhile Elle is really excited about learning as much Russian as possible while we're here, and she says harasho and privyet like a local.

Tomorrow we're off to Yevpatoria, a city right on the Black sea, to lead our second seder of the trip. We will be going on a walking tour of the "Little Jerusalem" (since we don't see enough of regular-sized Jerusalem) of Yevpatoria and then going to lead an early Seder. The congregation also has its own synagogue and we're fascinated to compare it to Ner Tamid, where we spent the seder today. Chag Pesach Sameach!

(Today's blog was composed by Jessie)

We've Arrived!

After months and months of planning, coordinating, fundraising we are finally in Simferopol, Ukraine! It's been a very long build up and we're finally here. We knew we were on our way as soon as we entered the AeroSvit Plane...no one was smiling (except the three of us, of course). Though our flight was delayed by about an hour and a half and we sat in a steaming hot Boeing 737 with many unhappy Ukrainians, once we were in the air things couldn't go more smoothly. We had a better-than-average Kosher meal and even took some naps (it was a short flight, only two and half hours).

We were met at the airport by Rabbi Misha Kapustin and Tonya, our translator. Thankfully mostly everyone here speaks Russian not Ukrainian, though many of the street signs and billboards are in Ukrainian. I couldn't help but think to my childhood, Simferopol looks very much like Gomel, the city in Belarus where I was born. What surprised me most was the cars. I noticed several Zhigulis, which my dad drove when I was little. Even one of our cabs was an old Zhiguli, I haven't been in one since I left Belarus over 20 years ago. Crimea remains very pro-Russian and in a way pro-Soviet. In fact, Misha smilingly told us, "if Russian tanks entered Crimea, they would be met with roses."

We continued to our place of lodging, the Hotel Victoria, which describes itself as a hotel with "exclusive design combining both style and exquisite appearance, high level of comfort and up-to-date technologies...thanks to [our] unshowy and at the same time perfect beauty the hotel can be counted for the pearl of the town." I think the emphasis there should be on the "unshowy" but I digress. After a quick rest, we met Marina, Misha's very pregnant wife and we were on our way to a traditional Ukrainian dinner at a local restaurant. There, we feasted on Russian bread, borscht, various dumplings and baked apples. Everything was delicious! We discussed Misha's work in the community and we touched on the role of progressive Judaism in the region. A fascinating topic was the role of Chabad, which is very strong throughout the FSU. In Crimea, they have not been able to reach mass audiences and the progressive movement clearly has more followers. Therefore, Misha explained, Chabad is far more likely to work with and partner with the progressive communities in Crimea than in communities where they are stronger.

Tomorrow we begin the day by a traditional Ukrainian breakfast (I expect herring!!) and then we will meet with Misha to go over the Pesach seder. We will then go on a walking tour of Simferopol exploring the historical sites and some old Soviet markets. Later in the day, we will go to the synagogue, help with the making of the charoset (Misha's recipe) and then begin the seder. They're expecting around 80 people tomorrow for the seder. We cannot wait!