gladukraine-blog

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Lviv Lvaugh Lvov

This post is long overdue, but I still thought it was interesting enough to post two months too late.  

I had an opportunity to see the gorgeous city of Lvov (or Lviv, if you want to be all nationalistic).   Today, Lvov Oblast is viewed as the most nationalist region of Ukraine.  Almost every store/restaurant you walk in to will speak Ukrainian, as opposed to in Odessa, where everyone speaks Russian.  This nationalism favors European culture and is politically aligned with Viktor Yushenko, Ukraine’s third president.  Click here for more detailed information on him and his policies. 

Fun fact that I just learned about this city- its the last place that my parents traveled to together before my mom left for America with her parents in 1979. They didn’t know if they would ever see each other again, and Lvov was where they said their goodbyes.  My dad had to travel on the 12 hour train back to Odessa alone.  

 Here is a photo of the train that I took to Lvov.  The corridors are so narrow, a small rolling carryon barely fits through.  There is absolutely no ventilation, making it a less than comfortable experience.  The “Kupe” which is a higher class sleeper car, is equipped with several “train seat/rooms” with two bunkbeds each, both of which are about half a cot size.  

 The best part of this 12 hour ride was one of the many 15 minute smoke break stops along the countryside, where old Babushkas walk up and down the tracks trying to sell whatever they’ve cooked that day.  Meal options varied from dried fish, dumplings and cognac.  Anya and I were really excited by the idea of some homecooked potato vareniky, and found a lady who would help us out.   

The exchange felt natural, and 25 hryvna (about $1) bought us a bag of hot fresh dumplings, kneaded and pressed together by this lovely woman.  Needless to say, we dined like queens.

My journey to Lvov was quite strenuous, as my coworker Anya and I were chaperoning 8 teens from Odessa for a pre-Szarvas camp seminar.  My concluding role as a JDC fellow is to be a madricha and multi-week coordinator for Szarvas International Summer camp.  Every summer, around 1500 Jewish campers from over 20 countries attend Camp Szarvas, which is sponsored by the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.  

In Lvov, I joined 8 other Ukrainian madrichim who will be working with me in Szarvas this summer.  Most of it was like an intensive 3 day madrichim school, full of long, meaningful peulot designed for us to critically think about how we lead, and can enable our chanichim to be leaders.  We were simultaneously running programs for 4 groups of teens from around Ukraine who were there to prepare for a summer at Szarvas.  We opened the summer theme of “Jewish Time,” and got the kids pretty excited about all the fun that awaits them at Szarvas.  There will be some photos and videos at the bottom of this post which can show some of the cool things we did together at the seminar, and other photos of the city :)

It was really inspiring to be in an environment that provides a holistic experience of learning and action.  We were in sessions with other madrichim for the first half of the day, and the next we were leading sessions for our teens.  In the evenings, after all the programming was finished, we sat together with the madrichim and gave feedback about our day. We spoke about what issues arose for us throughout the day, what programs worked well, which kids to give extra attention to, and how we can use all of this when we are in camp over the summer.  

It reminded me of how much of my life has been spent doing this type of work.. from my 6 summers as a madricha at Camp Galil, and two summers working in Sohnut camps in Russia and Ukraine.  Regardless of my experiences, I am still learning every day from the madrichim here, and from the kids as well.

Until next time!

[gladukraine-blog]

Here is a video of what April in Moldova looks like.  The scary music is incredibly accurate for what I experienced.

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Here is a video that I have decided to share with you- they call it the “Moldova Hora” which is basically a national song that they play at most city events in Moldova.  If you look really closely, you can see me dancing there with them!

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AJT Moldova- LOVA LOVA LOVA

- Is a chant I heard this weekend when 40 proud participants of AJT shouted their cheers and shared their experience with me.

Although there was a serious blizzard in the middle of April (shockingly unheard of in this part of the world.. I was extremely prepared nonetheless #trustnoone) I had the opportunity to attend an AJT seminar in Kishinev, Moldova.  When you think about Kishinev, what comes to mind?  All I really knew about this community before this year was what I learned in my 9th grade Global Studies class: Kishinev Pogroms. Before the Holocaust, Jews dominated about 80% of the population, with 77 synagogues throughout Moldova.  Now, out of the 2 million people that live here, about 20,000 of them consider themselves Jewish and have only 2 synagogues to choose from, both of which are in the Chabbad community.

Despite these numbers, I have experienced an incredible community that AJT has been involved with and in many ways, brought forth.  When we talk about Jewish community and how to make it stronger, more united, value oriented, actively involved and influential- what is the answer we give to that? YOUTH MOVEMENTS.. well that’s the answer I give and its a pretty good one.  This AJT Seminar was all of those things and more.  We had days full of programs under the theme “Gmilut Hasadim”: Acts of Loving Kindness.  We debated tzedaka vs. gmilut hasadim, spoke about women and women’s organizations that are fulfilling this role in the Jewish world and then the teens worked really hard to write projects for their communities.  Evenings were full of feedback among the madrichim which allowed us to be reflective practitioners, discuss the days activities, share best practices and of course, prepare for how we can make tomorrow better than today, so that the teens not only have an amazing time with their friends, but can develop as people and leaders in the Jewish world.

Back to the projects bit which is SO COOL.  Each member of AJT is responsible for creating their own project that they must begin in their community.  The ultimate goal is to identify a need in the community and through the leadership skills that they develop during their time at AJT seminars, build a project that can fulfill this need.  The project can range from having an event in their home youth club each week where they discuss a certain topic, creating something that benefits their community, even “project activeness” is acceptable for teens to engage in a smaller action that will add value to their experience.  They have a budget of $100 for materials, for example books which will be used for their project, transport if necessary, etc…

 Its unbelievable what teens are capable of, especially when they feel that they are a part of something bigger than themselves, and when they understand the influence that they can have on the world.  I saw this in action this weekend and I am extremely proud of these new friends I have made, and hope to have the privilege of meeting them again in the future.

[gladukraine-blog]

Is it Spring Yet???

Heeeeyyyy ALLLLLL!

Spring is in the air! Or so I thought when I saw the sunshine and put on my yellow pea-coat in excitement and ran out the door, only to realize that sun doesn’t necessarily mean warm, and then I caught a cold.. but regardless, things have brightened up a bit.

#PROMOTION

You are currently reading the blog of the new social media representative for Derech Youth Club and AJT Odessa! To be fancy we can call it a promotion, except the only additional benefit is that I get to come to all the programs and take a photo worthy of making it to our super exclusive Instagram page.  For those of you who want to see some money making photos, follow mk_dereh and show some likes!

#BBYOIC2017

I just came back to Odessa from some big important travels.  I was gone for nearly a month, first in Dallas, TX at BBYO’s International Convention and then in Israel for JDC Entwine’s Service Corps mid-year seminar.  For BBYO’s IC, I was one of the facilitators (among the fantastic Alla Magas from Kharkov, Tanya from Russia and Vito from Georgia) of a group of 17 from Russian Speaking countries, specifically from AJT (see my recent posts for more information, or visit www.ajteens.org)  Our teens were from 5 countries, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Moldova and Georgia.  Some of the teens even had the incredible opportunity to fly on an airplane for the first time, an experience that I fortunately had when I was less than half their age.

The Dallas Jewish Community welcomed our international teens into their homes for a week before the convention began, allowing for us to foster meaningful connections with people in the community that aren’t necessarily affiliated with BBYO, but are involved with Jewish life.   My host parents took in Shoshana as well, the current fellow in Tallinn, Estonia and they were fabulous.  They treated us to delicious breakfasts full of cream cheese, bagels, fruits and an unforgettable daytime energy boost, ZIPFIZZZ! Shosh and I couldn’t get enough. We also got a chance to have some real TexMex at Chueys!s :) THANKS RHONDA AND DAVID <3

The convention itself lasted 4 days, and reached about 5,000 people.  We were based at a hotel/convention center in Dallas which was completely bought out for the duration of the program.  It was nearly impossible to get anywhere during the convention because there were so so so many people everywhere.  If any of you have ever been to a concert/protest/march/rally/line at the food court in the Galleria mall, you know how I felt.  But, on a positive note, there were some unbelievable programs and the teens I chaperoned were exposed to so many new ideas, people, information... not to mention they were in complete culture shock 90% of the time.  All in all, I want to thank #BBYO for the amazing opportunity to be a part of IC this year.

#MADRICHIMSCHOOL

I recently started helping with madrichim school every Sunday (and now Saturdays too since we just opened a session for future madrichim school participants) They are amazing and working with them is always really interesting.  Each meeting we start with an assignment that they needed to prepare from the last week which usually involves a program of some sort which they need to lead for the rest of us.  After their program, each person gives their own feedback for every part of the prepared program.  This is meant to help them build on their skills and plan better programs in the future.  I have really enjoyed working with them every week and have already seen a lot of improvement.  I’m (not so) secretly hoping they all pass and I’ll be able to write programs alongside them in the next couple months!

Thats all the updating I’ll do today.  Stay tuned for a semi-long pause before my next post!

Elissa

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AJT + Novi God

Hello my committed readers, thank you for informing me that I have not updated me blog in a while.  I know how much you appreciate my updates, so I’ll try and do better. 

It has been a crazy couple of months!  In December I participated in this incredible seminar for AJT, the 3 year young Jewish movement for Active Jewish Teens.  To clarify, the “Active” bit is in reference to their Jewish life, in case someone other than Dean Eshkoly is confused about the name.  

The most recent seminar that I participated in was in Kharkov, Ukraine, followed by a BBYO Alumni group that came to learn about the rich Jewish history of Kharkov and engage in activities with local teens (By the way, Kharkov is amazing and beautiful and I am incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity not just to visit, but really interact and engage with the community!)

Here are two great friends I met along the way! Tanya and Viola from the Kharkov JCC. It was also absolutely freezing there but we kept it together.

The AJT seminar was the third of its kind which brought together over 350 teens and guests from 9 countries: Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Israel and USA…Who would’ve guessed that all of those countries have thriving Jewish communities?! We spent 4 days of exploring our Jewish identities, participating in a multitude of educational programs, as well as democratically electing new teen presidents of the Youth Movement.  I was involved in leading a session about Youth Movements around the world, focusing on Jewish Diaspora movements like Habonim Dror, and engaged them in deeper conversation about the role that youth movements have in the world and more personally, their lives.  Keep your eyes peeled for an article coming out soon about my involvement in the seminar and how it relates to my personal Jewish journey.  It may or may not make me incredibly famous.  Either way, totally open to signing autographs in exchange for some really good nachos.

Speaking of nachos, I got really tired of the food here and decided to take a couple weeks vacation for the million holidays that happen here for New Years.  I went to Poland with my dear friends Karmi and Ruthie, and then Israel in search of a dish that doesn’t contain mayonnaise or anything pickled.  Surprisingly easy to find outside of Ukraine but at least 5x the price.  I have been pretty spoiled with the low prices of literally everything here and received a rude awakening when I was asked to pay 40 shekles for a beer (about $11) where here in Odessa, the same beer costs at most 60 hryvnia (about $2.20).

Here’s a photo of me, Ruthie and Karmi freezing in front of one of the largest Christmas trees I’ve ever seen.  You cant see the tree but you can see it’s sparkley reflection in Karmi’s glasses.

Кароче, I found so many great nachos in Tel Aviv, went to my favorite place Miznon, saw some fabulous friends and decided to return to Odessa with fresh mind, and view 2017 as a new start.  I’ve been in Odessa for about 4 months now, and I finally feel ready to take more of an active role in the community here. I have been exposed to many sides of the Odessan Jewish Community, as well as other Jewish Communities around the FSU, and feel like I now have the tools to do all the great things I intended to do here.  I’ll update soon about my first weekly project, called My Jewish World, an intensive course exploring Jewish identity and peoplehood which I will be leading with my new friend Egor.

 Thanks for reading!!

 Elissa

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Moldova, Moldova, Send Elissa on Over

I had the privilege of participating in a super exclusive seminar last weekend in Kishinev, Moldova.  In case you aren’t very familiar with Moldova, here is what the internet has to say about it:

**In 2001, Moldova became the first former Soviet state to elect a Communist as its president ** It is traditional to see large floor rugs hanging on the walls as decoration **It’s the least visited country in Europe ** Alcohol consumption is higher in Moldova than any other country in the world with average consumption levels at 16.8 liters per year (per person).

The seminar was comprised of volunteers from over 35 different cities in the FSU from countries such as Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan in addition to some representatives from Israel. Among them were volunteers between the ages of 17-78 years old who are doing incredible work in the community ranging from youth group activities to helping provide welfare aid to Hesed Members. 

We were invited to different sessions led by Volunteer Coordinators as well as some guests from different organizations in Israel.  It was remarkable how many people across the FSU are taking responsibility over different volunteer projects. To tell the truth, I was shocked to see so many people because there is a notion across the FSU that the word volunteerism is intermittently linked to communism.  The idea of doing something for someone else without getting anything in return makes little sense to the majority of the post-soviet population. However, through JDC’S programming and partnerships with other Jewish Organizations, Jewish people across the FSU have been able to connect to the idea of Tikun Olam and become leaders in their communities.

Here at Beit Grand, it’s been difficult to find volunteers. We have a few people that are working with us to build programs, however we are lacking the enthusiasm that I saw in Moldova.  It’s going to be one of my big projects this year to somehow boost the morale and find people that are committed to this community and will take on the role of volunteer, in order to help provide Odessa with the programs that are needed.  

At one moment during the seminar, I was seated at a round-table discussion with 5 women, all from different countries, backgrounds and volunteer communities.  One remarkable thing that we all shared was the understanding that volunteering in our communities is what has shaped us to be the people we are today, and constantly motivates us to be better, and inspire those around us want to be better too.

Here are some photos from the conference :)

Thanks for reading!! 

Elissa

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Sukkot!

So this year, Sukkot has been quite the adventure for me.  I finally started a real work week with the Youth Club, Derech! Firstly, I think it’s important to say that all of my work here is solely in Russian.  I interact with Ukrainian almost every day but I almost never have any idea what’s going on because the language is so different. Regardless, I come home every day with a massive headache because I am constantly thinking in another language.  I would say that my Russian is pretty good, but I still have a lot of work to do.

There are activities every day in the youth club, ranging between movie night, board games and education-based programs.  Every day that I have been to the club I have seen different students and it always takes them a minute to understand what I’m saying because my accent is a bit foreign to them.  They love asking questions about America and talking about how great it is there which always makes me feel a bit weird… So I just rebuttal with how beautiful Odessa is and how I love the opera theater… but I guess I need to start thinking of more interesting things to say in Russian.

This week, we had a program for Sukkot where the students built a sukkah for them to have programming in during the week.  What this really means, is that the boys build while the girls make decorations, and I was asked to spearhead the decorations committee.  As much as I hate giving in to this sexist divide that I see constantly in the culture here, I didn’t feel like it was my place yet to make any comments.  Let’s wait until we’re friends first before I start throwing some feminism at them.  

Here are some photos of the process!

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Ах, Одесса, what have I learned today?

Hey Friends!

So much has happened in the last few days since arriving in Odessa.  I officially moved into my apartment, toured the city with my parents and brother, got stuck in one of the scariest torrential downpours I have ever experienced (followed by having a mini breakdown in the supermarket) and boiled a nice hot pot of my mother’s famous green borsch.

I’ll start with the apartment.  Originally, I was pretty skeptical about this place because every time I turn the heat on, it makes this excruciating buzzing sound from the kitchen that prevents me from ever getting any sleep.   I live in this cute studio apartment where my bed is in the living room and the living room is in the kitchen so basically I sleep in the kitchen.  Now that I’m getting around to decorating and making it more of my own, it’s actually coming together pretty nicely.  It also helps that my parents were here for a few days and helped me pick out tons of homewares to spice this place up. My mom was able to meet up with this woman she went to high school with and she ended up taking us around to this place called 7th Kilometer, which is basically this huge parking lot in the middle of nowhere Odessa full of wholesale goods. Here are some photos of what that place looked like.

It was a bit overwhelming but definitely a necessary experience.  I’ve seen some pretty creative parking in my life but this place beats it all. 

It was an incredible experience to have my parents and brother here with me for a few days.  We took some strolls down memory lane, also known as Pushkinskaya Street.  Here’s some information about Pushkin and his legacy if you’re trying to get cultured.  Pop-quiz- How many months did he spend in Odessa and what did he write while he was here?! If you read to the end maybe you’ll find out! :) 

Where my mom’s grandparents used to live- she says they would go there a few times a week and eat babushka’s famous red-beet borsch.    

My Dad’s childhood home- apparently the neighbors that used to live in the basement now moved on up to my Dad’s old place! He says his chore was to always shovel the snow from the steps- that explains why he was always so strict about us helping to shovel our own driveway!

This is a woman we met while walking around my father’s old neighborhood. She moved there shortly after he moved to New York, but remembered all of the people that lived in the area and was able to fill us in on what happened to his childhood friends and where they are now.

My brother and I had a great time exploring the city on our own, eating in delicious restaurants and of course, getting a little daydrunk at the Cognac Museum.  We are very proud to finally know the difference between Brandy and Cognac, thanks to Mr. Shustov.

I believe this was our favorite one, called Архитектура.  I would definitely recommend it!

My brother’s flight back to Israel was heavily delayed due to this horrible storm- if anyone was on the East Coast during Hurricane Sandy, you have some idea what I experienced here.  In the US, when there is any sign of rain or bad weather, everyone is aware of it weeks in advance, they buy tons of food and water and cancel all of their plans.  I didn’t get the memo and decided to go food shopping and walk home from Deribasavskaya St, one of the busy fun streets full of restaurants and pubs.  On a normal day, this would be a beautiful walk home, but this was anything but a normal day.  

I couldn’t catch a cab because all of them were taken- nobody was as naive as I was and ordered their taxis in advance.  When I finally caught one, he made me stand outside in the pouring rain arguing about the price.  He charged me double- which is expected when taking a taxi from the street as opposed to an ordered taxi with a fixed price.  My phone had also died so I was unable to even know where I was on googlemaps, which is inevitable until I understand the neighborhood better.  I figured- great! This guy has a GPS and he’ll even drive me right to the entrance of my building.  WRONG.  The taxi driver drops me at some dark deserted street and told me my home was across the street and not knowing any better (or really being able to see anything out the window because its pitch black and storming outside), I paid him his outrageous fare and got out of the car.  As the taxi drove off, I quickly realized that I was not in my neighborhood, I have absolutely no idea where I am, my phone is dead and I’m carrying 15 kilos of groceries.

I’m thinking to myself “and this is how I die.”  It was as if God knew I wasn’t fasting for Yom Kippur and decided to punish me by leaving me alone outside during the apocalypse.  I walked a few blocks into another supermarket, bypassed the rude Ukrainian women who wouldn’t help me, found an outlet in the bathroom, charged my phone until it at least turned on and understood that I’m a 15 minute walk from home.  Out of principle I refused to try taking a taxi again.  I decided to wallow in my misery for exactly two minutes and then began my treacherous journey home.  

I finally got to my building, used my fancy magnetic gate opener and started up to the 4th floor, my soaked shoes leaving huge puddle prints on every step. With my hands still shaking from the cold, I turned the key, opened my door and was so grateful for that relentless buzzing sound coming from the kitchen.  I peeled off my dripping wet clothing and put on the coziest sweater I could find, made myself a cup of tea and curled into my warm bed, and vowed to never leave the house during any kind of rain, never take a street taxi again and to always carry around a powerbank charger. 

I learned a lot in these first few days here.  Mainly I’m looking forward to not feeling like a tourist here.  I know it will take time some time but I’m hopeful that my experience here will start to feel less like I’m a visitor, and more like I’m a part of the community.  My work here will start up after all the holidays and I’ll have more fun things to report back on.  Until then, I’ll stay dry, head to the Opera Theater, build a Sukkah or two and try to make some friends. 

If you’re still reading this ridiculously long post, I will reward you with the answers to my pop-quiz! Pushkin was in Odessa for 13 months and he wrote the first two chapters of Onegin.  If you’re interested in practicing your Russian, feel free to check out a PDF of Pushkin’s Evgeny Onegin! 

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Greetings From The Pearl of the Black Sea

Добро Пожаловать/ Welcome!

Hello to all you nice people whom I have somehow lured in to reading my blog/a collection of long-winded confessionals trailing my journey, living and working in Odessa, Ukraine as a JDC Entwine Jewish Service Corps fellow.  The closest thing to a blog that I have ever kept was Xanga when I was 13, and I can promise you that this will be less angsty and full of bat-mitzvah drama, but equally as entertaining.

After an extensive (and expensive) visa process and months of mental preparation, I am finally here in Odessa, the Pearl of the Black Sea, as my mother refers to it.  I’ve been here once before, over the past summer when I was lucky enough to be invited to work as a Madricha for a Jewish Agency summer camp. This was meant to be a sort of “Pilot Trip” for this upcoming year, but in my mind I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend a year working for the JDC, an organization that I have been quite familiar with for some time, in a city that has always been on my mind.

My parents grew up in Odessa and lived here until 1979, following my uncle’s grand decision in ‘77 that he did not wish to raise his family here.  He, along with his wife and 5 year old son decided to move to the US, leaving behind a life of religious persecution, lack of economic opportunity and of course, the communist regime.  Two years later, my parents joined them to begin their new lives at the ripe ages of 22 and 24.  JDC and HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) played major roles in their exodus as well. You can check out the JDC archives from those days if this story sounds familiar to you/your family as well.

I will be in Odessa for the year working primarily at the Beit Grand Jewish Cultural Center, building youth programming and fostering relationships with my fellow Odessans.  Here in the lively Jewish community of Odessa, I have the incredible opportunity to begin to understand the world my family grew up in while further demonstrating my responsibility and commitment to Jewish peoplehood.   HOW COOL IS THAT?!

Hang around my blog for some cute anecdotes, my attempt at being funny, photos of all the great food that I’m about to eat and hopefully some meaningful experiences that you can live through vicariously.