Our students were up early this morning in Kiev and headed out to see the Chernobyl Museum which chronicles the events around the nuclear reactor meltdown from 1986. After the museum, they visited Kiev Hesed. Hesed (Hebrew for “lovingkindness”) is the name of an organization that operates in various cities in Ukraine that connects the elderly to one another and to the Jewish community. Our students brought presents to the community there, ate lunch with them, and met coordinators of different departments and programs there to learn the needs of the community. Kiev Hesed also houses a pre-school for young children who also do joint programming with the elderly, such as this week’s Purim celebration.

The Kiev subway system is known for it’s beautiful station, and not only did our students see one of the deepest and most interestingly decorated subway stations in Kiev (Dorgozhychi), but imagine their surprise when one of Ukraine’s most popular bands was filming a music video there as well!

After the visit to the subway, our students joined Chicago Hillel students for a visit to Babi Yar, the area in Kiev where around 100,000 Jews were massacred by the Nazis and collaborators beginning in September, 1941. Together, all of the students lit candles and held a memorial service for victims of the Shoah, the Holocaust.

Before leaving that part of town, our students toured the Podol synagogue and visited its matzoh factory which supplies all of Ukraine before continuing to have a walk around the city highlighting sites and personalities of Jewish interest such as Golda Meir. After some hanging out in Kiev’s city center, our students joined again with peers from Chicago and Kiev for dinner, at which the guest of honor was the head of Hillel for Moldova, Belarus’, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan who gave them a broad perspective on Jewish student life in the Former Soviet Union.

After a quick trip to a local supermarket to get a sense of local life, the students went out bowling for a couple of hours before they returned to the hotel at nearly 11:30 PM.

Wow, what a day!
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