18. Jews
From the moment I move to Odesa, my friends and acquaintances immediately start asking about the city’s Jewish heritage. I’m interested in it myself because Odesa and Jews are inextricably linked, at least in people’s minds and in the cultural heritage of the city. But what about everyday life now?
Everyday life, I suppose, looks like this: if you come to the city and have never heard of the Jewish culture of Odesa, you may not notice any signs of its history or presence at first glance. However, after spending at least a week in the city - so that a weekend would fall within that time - and walking around the city center with your eyes wide open, it is impossible not to notice that Odesa is still home to a vibrant and active Jewish community.
According to Wikipedia, the city was home to 12,000 Jews at the start of the century, but in 2018 it was home to only 5,000. This still makes Odesa the fourth largest Jewish center in Ukraine, after Kyiv, Dnipro, and Kharkiv. In fact, about half of Ukraine’s Jews now live in the capital, Kyiv.
Emigration from Ukraine has been high since independence, and in the case of Ukrainian Jews, significantly higher than average: in 1989, there were almost half a million Jews living in Ukraine, compared to less than seventy thousand ten years ago. The main reasons for the decline of the Jewish community are twofold: natural aging (in 2020, the median age of the Ukrainian population was 40.5 years) and emigration to Israel and elsewhere.
However, Jews and Judaism are still visible in Odesa. First of all, in the street names. There is a Jewish (Єврейська) Street, a street named after the famous comedian Mikhail Zhvanetsky, and a street named after the Odesa philanthropist Boris Litvak.
Second, in architecture. While in Lviv, probably the largest Jewish center in the territory of modern Ukraine, almost all the old synagogues except for one are destroyed during the Second World War, in Odesa most of the buildings are still standing, and three of them are still functioning as synagogues. Thus, on Saturdays in the center of Odesa, one can see men simply in kippahs as well as some in traditional Hasidic garb striding with dignity to and from the synagogue.
In addition to buildings as such, Odesa is also home to a variety of Jewish organizations and institutions like a computer school run by Hillel International, an American Jewish educational organization, a Jewish community center, and an orphanage, as well as the Chabad organization, which has an active educational network working in Odesa.
There are also certainly other Jewish institutions and organizations in Odesa that I have simply not noticed while walking around the city. In other words, it is a comprehensive network of connections covering different areas of life in the service of a living and vibrant community.
Of course, among many other things, there are also Jewish restaurants in Odesa, although some of them have sadly been closed down during the war. However, in the autumn of 2023, a new one, ‘Kosher,’ opened in the city center. It’s a local Ukrainian chain, but one should not let that put one off - quite a few Odesa restaurants belong to one chain or another. That does not diminish their level of quality!
Then there is also the Holocaust Museum and the Odesa Museum of Jewish History in the city as well as monuments and plaques on buildings commemorating the history of Jews and Jewish culture in Odesa all over the town. As one walks around the city, one is constantly reminded of how multi-ethnic Odesa has always been and how important a role Jews have played in its cultural and social life.
And that it is not just a lost or bygone heritage or empty nostalgia is shown, for example, by the great celebration of the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah, when a large nine-candle menorah is erected at the top of the Potemkin Stairs, next to the statue of Duke Richelieu on the Primorsky Boulevard, with one more candle lit every day. This is not only a sign of what once was but a symbol of the fact that Odesa still has a vibrant Jewish community.
Everyday life, I suppose, looks like this: if you come to the city and have never heard of the Jewish culture of Odesa, you may not notice any signs of its history or presence at first glance. However, after spending at least a week in the city - so that a weekend would fall within that time - and walking around the city center with your eyes wide open, it is impossible not to notice that Odesa is still home to a vibrant and active Jewish community.
According to Wikipedia, the city was home to 12,000 Jews at the start of the century, but in 2018 it was home to only 5,000. This still makes Odesa the fourth largest Jewish center in Ukraine, after Kyiv, Dnipro, and Kharkiv. In fact, about half of Ukraine’s Jews now live in the capital, Kyiv.
Emigration from Ukraine has been high since independence, and in the case of Ukrainian Jews, significantly higher than average: in 1989, there were almost half a million Jews living in Ukraine, compared to less than seventy thousand ten years ago. The main reasons for the decline of the Jewish community are twofold: natural aging (in 2020, the median age of the Ukrainian population was 40.5 years) and emigration to Israel and elsewhere.
However, Jews and Judaism are still visible in Odesa. First of all, in the street names. There is a Jewish (Єврейська) Street, a street named after the famous comedian Mikhail Zhvanetsky, and a street named after the Odesa philanthropist Boris Litvak.
Second, in architecture. While in Lviv, probably the largest Jewish center in the territory of modern Ukraine, almost all the old synagogues except for one are destroyed during the Second World War, in Odesa most of the buildings are still standing, and three of them are still functioning as synagogues. Thus, on Saturdays in the center of Odesa, one can see men simply in kippahs as well as some in traditional Hasidic garb striding with dignity to and from the synagogue.
In addition to buildings as such, Odesa is also home to a variety of Jewish organizations and institutions like a computer school run by Hillel International, an American Jewish educational organization, a Jewish community center, and an orphanage, as well as the Chabad organization, which has an active educational network working in Odesa.
There are also certainly other Jewish institutions and organizations in Odesa that I have simply not noticed while walking around the city. In other words, it is a comprehensive network of connections covering different areas of life in the service of a living and vibrant community.
Of course, among many other things, there are also Jewish restaurants in Odesa, although some of them have sadly been closed down during the war. However, in the autumn of 2023, a new one, ‘Kosher,’ opened in the city center. It’s a local Ukrainian chain, but one should not let that put one off - quite a few Odesa restaurants belong to one chain or another. That does not diminish their level of quality!
Then there is also the Holocaust Museum and the Odesa Museum of Jewish History in the city as well as monuments and plaques on buildings commemorating the history of Jews and Jewish culture in Odesa all over the town. As one walks around the city, one is constantly reminded of how multi-ethnic Odesa has always been and how important a role Jews have played in its cultural and social life.
Isaac Babel once wrote that Odesa is “a city built by the Jews,” and this is true in more ways than one. Firstly, Jews were already living in Odesa when instead of Odesa there was an Ottoman Turkish port and a settlement called Khadjibei, which was founded in the early 15th century. It is more than probable that Jewish merchants were already active in Khadjibei in the 15th and 16th centuries, but the first factual records of Jews in the Odesa area are a few gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions from the second half of the 18th century found in the region. In any case, Jews are present when José de Ribas marches into the town at the end of 1789 without a single shot being fired and takes Khadjibey over from the Turks. This means that the Jews do indeed start to build a new city, Odesa.
Secondly, there was never a Jewish ghetto in later Odesa either. There were certain Jewish streets and districts in the city, but the movement and activities of Jews were not restricted, allowing them to control much of Odesa’s commerce and crafts. The development of these sectors, in turn, gave an impetus to other sectors of the economy, which needed more and more able hands. As Odesa grew, it attracted new settlers from near and far. Jews were numerous among them, and by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Jews made up a third of Odesa’s population.
People as diverse as Ze’ev Jabotinsky (the founder of revisionist Zionism), the writer Ilya Ilf (born Iehiel-Leyb Faynzilberg), the first commander of the Israeli Defence Forces General Staff Yaakov Dori, and the US-based composer Jacob Weinberg, all of whom were born in Odesa, illustrate the size and diversity of the city's Jewish culture.
Of course, first the Second World War and later the oppressive Soviet rule put their depressing stamp on it, but the Jews of Odesa have proven to be stronger, and today Odesa is proud of its Jewish heritage.
People as diverse as Ze’ev Jabotinsky (the founder of revisionist Zionism), the writer Ilya Ilf (born Iehiel-Leyb Faynzilberg), the first commander of the Israeli Defence Forces General Staff Yaakov Dori, and the US-based composer Jacob Weinberg, all of whom were born in Odesa, illustrate the size and diversity of the city's Jewish culture.
Of course, first the Second World War and later the oppressive Soviet rule put their depressing stamp on it, but the Jews of Odesa have proven to be stronger, and today Odesa is proud of its Jewish heritage.
And that it is not just a lost or bygone heritage or empty nostalgia is shown, for example, by the great celebration of the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah, when a large nine-candle menorah is erected at the top of the Potemkin Stairs, next to the statue of Duke Richelieu on the Primorsky Boulevard, with one more candle lit every day. This is not only a sign of what once was but a symbol of the fact that Odesa still has a vibrant Jewish community.
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