Everyone woke up early this morning to drive toward the periphery of Kiev
around 100 miles to the town of Berditchev. Berditchev is a shtetl that
has been known in particular for one of its leaders, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak
(1740–1810), who is an important figure in the development of Chasidic
Judaism and is particularly known for his Torah commentary, Kedushas Levi.

In Berditchev, the group visited Hesed, had some long conversations with
older people (the fact that half the group speaks Russian and translated for the rest of the group today was great) and even participated
in one gentleman’s 80th birthday party. Our students and the people they
met asked great questions of one another. They also visited some
homebound members of the Berditchev community, one woman with a
neuromuscular disorder and one woman who has been confined to her
apartment for three years because her building does not have an elevator
and she cannot use the stairs.

The group visited the old Berditchev synagogue where Levi Yitzchak taught
and learned about him and the history of the community and visited his
grave and then saw the synagogue that Chabad has built in Berditchev,
which is staffed by a rabbi and his wife from Israel—both of whom
appreciated that a few members of our group speak Hebrew and reflected how
refreshing it felt for them to speak with them in Hebrew. They ate lunch
at the home of the rabbi and his wife before heading back toward Kiev.

On the way back toward Kiev, one student who desperately needed to use the
restroom was disconcerted to find a “hole in the ground” at a gas station
on the way back to Kiev and said she would continue to wait until they
returned to the city. As I understand the story, she stopped at the first
place she could, the Sofi’iski Sobor (the Church of St. Sophia, the most
famous church in Ukraine and probably one of the most well known for
Orthodox Christians world-wide), she quickly paid the admissions fee—not
toward the end of seeing the famous mosaic icons—but toward the end of
using the restroom (no pun intended), and arrived in the nick of time only
to discover—yes, you guessed it, another hole in the ground.

In the early evening, the group had a guided tour of Independence Square,
the site of the Orange Revolution just over three years ago and then
walked around Kreshchatik. This evening, the weather, which had been
relatively mild, became a bit chillier in Kiev, which was a good excuse
for most of the group to buy fur hats (rumor has it that there will be
some fun pictures of this when the group returns or internet access is
found).

The group joined peers in Kiev and from Chicago to have dinner at the King
David kosher restaurant before heading back to the hotel. Although they
have to wake up early tomorrow, I believe they’re staying up late hanging out with each other and new friends.
Go To Top