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July 11, 2008
Baltimore Aids Odessa Reform Temple
Barbara Pash
Associate Editor
The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore recently allocated $50,000 to a Reform congregation in the Ukrainian city of Odessa.
Larry Plant, chair of the committee, said the grant for fiscal year 2009 is not the first allocated to Odessa’s Emanu El, which also received a grant from the committee in fiscal year 2007.
Helene Waranch, chair of the North American Council for the World Union for Progressive Judaism, said her organization submitted the recent grant request to the Associated.
The World Union is the umbrella organization for the approximately 1,200 Reform, liberal and progressive congregations throughout the world, of which about 900 are North America. The Union for Reform Judaism is a member of the World Union.
The World Union has been involved in the former Soviet Union since 1989, building a network of congregations, youth groups, summer camps and educational programs.
Odessa is the Associated’s sister city in the former Soviet Union. Ashkelon is the federation’s sister city in Israel.
Mr. Plant has visited Odessa and met with Emanu-El’s leader, Julia Grishenko, a graduate of the World Union’s leadership training, and Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny, who is based in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and oversees Ms. Grishenko.
Mr. Plant said Emanu-El is an alternative to the Orthodox institutions in the city of 45,000 Jews, an increasing number of whom are children of interfaith families. Odessa has the second largest Jewish community in Ukraine, after Kiev.
“It’s a small congregation that reaches out to the Jewish people in Odessa who are not able to, or do not want to, join the more Orthodox shuls,” Mr. Plant said of Emanu-El, which has 200 members as well as 300 people who regularly participate in its worship services, religious ceremonies, preschool, Sunday school, youth group and other activities.
“A lot of people in Odessa did not even know they were Jewish,” Mr. Plant said. “It’s only been in the last five years that they have discovered that. Some don’t care, others want to participate in Jewish life, and others just want to learn more about Judaism. Without this congregation, they would not be able to do that.”
Mr. Plant said the grant will be used for a variety of activities, including summer camps for children and Shabbaton weekends in an outdoor setting. “When I met with Ms. Grishenko, she talked about their efforts to attract teens, young adults and young families,” he said.
The mission of the Associated’s Israel and Overseas Committee is to strengthen Jewish life and Jewish education, and to help the elderly, throughout the Jewish world, according to Mr. Plant. Although in the past the committee has given grants to such entities as the Argentina Jewish community, its focus in recent years has been on Odessa and Ashkelon.
“We are really trying to make an impact” in those cities, said Mr. Plant, who added that the Associated’s other overseas contribution is distributed through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel.