FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)By Amian Kelemer
The Louise D. & Morton J. Macks Center for Jewish Education
Amian is on a week-long trip to Odessa with THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.
Odessa is Baltimore’s sister city in Ukraine. There are two JCCs - Migdal and Beit Grand - that are pulsing with life. Mothers in high boots and fur jackets come in at 7:00 p.m. to pick up their children from day care. Young adults are serious in their focus as they try to best their buddies in Jewish jeopardy. Teens are circling across the dance floor led by a red-bearded kippah-wearing Israeli dance instructor. There is a Chabad shul, Litvish synagogue and a Reform Temple. There are Jewish schools and foster care centers and even two kosher restauraunts.
There is also deep political corruption - no social services, serious environmental concerns and incredibly poor people. There are many people teetering on the brink of decision: “Do we stay here and take care of our parents and build a Jewish community here or do we move to America or Israel and ensure the future of our children in a well-established Jewish community?” Here, the growing infrastructure, in part funded by THE ASSOCIATED and implemented by the Jewish Agency and the American Joint Distribution Committee, embraces Jews as defined by the Law of Return: at least one Jewish grandparent. Intermarriage is the common place.
Our host at the evening meal decided to have his brit milah at age 23. His formative Jewish experiences came from attending youth programming at the JCC. He helps his young wife and parents see the beauty in a rich and committed Jewish existnace. The young facilitator at our team-building activity attended the World ORT school and the Mezuda Young leadership training program. She shared her knowledge of Shabbat customs with her parents who are now embracing their culture more openly. We had dinner with young Jewish ambassadors whose parents first told them that they were Jewish when they were teenagers. They attended Jewish camps and Taglit-Birthright Israel trips and grew in their commitment.
This is Odessa in the post- assimilationist era. Even the great grandparents of this generation hid their Judaism, but now the great grandchildren are rediscovering their culture and religion. The last verses of the book of Malachi “V’haishiv lev avot al banim, vlev banim al avotam” (the hearts of the parents turn to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents) are the most important words that we can use to describe Odessa. We are witness to an incredible fulfillment of this prophesy. Here in Odessa the children are reawakening to the Jewish future and reminding their parents that they have a Jewish past.
