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Comments (0)Some 25,000 Jews from all over the world are expected to make the annual pilgrimage to the central Ukrainian city of Uman.
The first two groups of about 60 Chasidim arrived recently in Uman, home to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, the founder and spiritual leader of the Bratslav Chasidic movement, to celebrate the Jewish New Year.
In the next 10 days, about 100 airplanes will fly between Tel Aviv and Kiev. On Sept. 15 alone, four days before Rosh Hashanah, 22 direct flights from Israel to Ukraine will ferry groups of pilgrims to area airports.
Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service expects that most of the pilgrims will arrive in organized groups at the Borispol International Airport in Kiev as well as the airports in Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Lvov and Vinnitsa. Others will take flights going through Hungary, Romania and Poland, which are less expensive. Some others will drive into the country.
At the airports and train stations, special areas will be designated for the pilgrims to pass through customs.
Passport control will be conducted directly on the planes during the chartered flights from Ben Gurion International Airport to Borispol Airport.
Rabbi Nachman was born in the city of Medzhybizh in 1772 and died in 1810 in Uman. Since then, Uman has become a mecca for Bratslaver Chasidim, particularly on Rosh Hashanah.
Uman city authorities told JTA that all necessary services are ready to properly receive the Jewish pilgrims.
Hungarian Neo-Nazis Reportedly Holding Secret Camps
A coalition of anti-fascist public figures called on the Hungarian government to investigate news reports of secret military training courses for neo-Nazis being run in the country.
Reports over the weekend in the Hungarian Nepszabadsag newspaper and the German Junge Welt describe training with heavy weaponry and in hand-to-hand combat allegedly carried out during the summer at a camp operated under the auspices of the extremist Hungarian National Front organization.
Hungarian National Front leaders are quoted as saying that the courses were held in preparation for armed struggle in which Hungary would be “reborn in fire, filth and blood.” They suggest that members of the Hungarian Guard, the banned paramilitary organization established by the extreme nationalist Jobbik Party, are receiving significant military training.
The coalition’s public letter, issued Monday and addressed to Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, reminds Bajnai that “Hungary is bound by the 1947 peace accords to eliminate all Nazi organizations operating on its territory and to prevent the establishment or operation of new ones.”
The letter calls for a public inquiry into what its authors perceive as a grave national security threat. Among the signers are Miklos Gaspar Tamas, a philosopher; Tamas Hirschler, chairman of the League of Hungarian Antifascists; and Jozsef Marton Gold, chairman of the Civic Parliamentary Association.
Publicly active since the late 1990s, the Hungarian National Front was the first to organize commemorative ceremonies in the Castle of Buda in honor of the German and Hungarian Nazi resistance against the Soviet siege of Budapest during World War II.
Russia Denies Ship Carried Missiles for Iran
Russia denied that a cargo ship reportedly seized by pirates was carrying weapons bound for Iran.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the denial Tuesday after an article printed over the weekend by the Sunday Times of London, which reported that the ship called the Arctic Sea was carrying Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. Officially, the ship was carrying $1.7 million worth of lumber.
The ship reportedly was hijacked near Sweden on July 24 and was recovered by the Russian Navy in mid-August.
The Times report cited Russian and Israeli sources as saying the Mossad, acting with the cooperation of the Russian government, set up the hijacking to stop Iran from receiving the weapons without embarrassing Russia.
Russia had agreed to sell the sophisticated missiles to Iran several years ago, but Israeli President Shimon Peres announced Aug. 18, the day after the ship had been recovered, that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had agreed to review the sale.