Volume 5, Issue 10 / Tishrei, 5763 / October 2002
What A Difference A Decade Makes
By Simon Griver
Philip Galpert participated as a teenager in the first Midreshet Yerushalayim Ramah Yahad summer camp in Ukraine back in 1993. Then a Ukrainian high school student, he immigrated to Israel the following year, and this summer returned as a counselor to the tenth consecutive annual Ramah Yahad camp.
"How things have changed," observed Galpert. "When I was at the camp we knew nothing about Judaism. We could not read or write Hebrew. This summer most of the children at the camp were familiar with Hebrew and some could even speak the language.
Having grown up in the former Soviet Union and knowing very little about his Jewish heritage, Galpert, who studies sports physical rehabilitation at the Wingate Institute in Israel, recalled that when he attended the camp he felt very alienated from prayer. It was the first time he had ever seen, let alone opened a siddur.
"It was very different this time around," he explained. "The children seemed very comfortable with the tefilot and so was I. That gave me great pleasure."
In August, 180 youngsters aged 9-17 came from 10 cities across Ukraine to spend two weeks learning about Judaism and Israel at the Ramah Yahad camp. The camp, run by Midreshet Yerushalayim, the Eastern European and FSU outreach arm of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, the Masorti (Conservative) Movement's graduate and rabbinical school in Israel, reflected how far Russian-speaking Jewry has come over the past decade. The camp was also funded by the Jewish Agency.
Galpert, who regularly returns to Ukraine to visit his parents in his native city of Uzghorod, is impressed at how the Jewish Agency and other global Jewish organizations have re-built Jewish communities and re-kindled the Jewish spirit across the FSU.
"As a child I knew almost nothing about Judaism and my Jewish identity," he explained. "My grandparents had survived the Nazi concentration camps and my grandfather would tell me stories about the Jewish festivals when they came round. He would tell me about Passover and we would pretend we were celebrating it. But at the same time he was a devout communist."
Located in the Carpathian Mountains in a part of Ukraine that used to belong to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Uzghorod once had a large Jewish community and an attractive synagogue, which the Soviets turned into a concert hall.
"Today there is a small synagogue in the city," he said, "and the former synagogue remains a concert hall. Most of the young Jews have left the city and it is mainly the elderly that remain."
Galpert came to Israel on his own. "I have uncles and aunts here," he said, "But it was difficult building a new life here without my parents." Having served in the army and qualified as a hotel chef, he changed his career direction several years ago and is now committed to a career in rehabilitation.
"When I receive my Bachelor of Education degree I would like to go on for a Master's degree and ultimately combine western and eastern methods of healing - blending such disciplines as physiotherapy, yoga and tai chi together," he said.
"I have always felt at home in Israel," he stressed. "Wherever I've been working or studying I've always found colleagues who treat me like family. I left Ukraine because I saw no future there. I was really an immigrant seeking a better life. But over the years I have come to appreciate the importance of my Jewish heritage and its central place in Israel's culture."
Credits: Photos by Vera Etzion.
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