7th Letter from Crimea

B”H
24 Mironova
Simferopol, Crimea 95001 UKRAINE
Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5757
June 6, 1997

Dear Everyone,

It’s hard to believe that six months have gone by since my last letter. Oh well, time flies when you’re having fun! I mentioned in my second letter that I thought that I would eventually run out of interesting happenings to relate, but that G-d still seems to be supplying us with new material. After my last letter, I was convinced “surely we can’t top that one.” “Not so,” said The One Above, 'there is no limit to what the Omnipotent can do!' So here are the details of our latest escapades. (But please don’t pray for us to top this one, I don’t know how much more excitement we can take.)

After Simchas Torah, the Rosh Hakahal (the official head of the Jewish Community) became ill and in October he passed away. He was a very respected man (he earned it) and it was a terrible loss to the community. He was the one who asked Chabad to send a shliach to this community, and the one to thank (!?!) for our family being relocated to Crimea. He and my husband (zg”z) had an unusual relationship. They had a real deep love and respect for each other, but because of their different environmental upbringing they would argue if and how to do each project that Itchie wanted to do. (Itchie -- a product of American upbringing -- believes that “everything is possible.” Reb Shimon a”h - a product of a communistic environment - believed “here, nothing is possible!”) In order for us to continue expanding our outreach programs without causing unnecessary over-reactions from the Rosh Hakahal, Itchie set up a separate official Chabad organization. Those activities which didn’t wreak havoc with Reb Shimon’s nervous system, were done under the auspices of the Jewish Community Religious Organization and those activities which were too “flamboyant” and “American” were done under the auspices of Chabad Lubavitch of the Crimea.

Separate from the Jewish Community Religious Organization, there exists a Jewish Cultural Organization. The head of this organization always recognized that it existed as a separate organ only by the grace of Reb Shimon. Thus there was a good relationship between all organizations. Shortly after our family moved here, an aggressive person named Anatoly showed up saying that the head of the cultural organization, (who suddenly and without prior warning left to Israel,) gave him the official organization stamp and asked him to take over as president. The members of the “provlenia,” (board,) were upset but were too afraid to challenge his authority and thus a general unease in the community began to settle in. Anatoly knew that Reb Shimon was the only one powerful enough to have him unseated and was therefore very careful not to step on his toes. A number of those on the provlenia approached Itchie, telling him numerous horror stories of Anatoly's unscrupulous nature, asking Itchie to help unseat him. Itchie’s response was that it was within their power to vote him out, and if they would do that legally, he would openly support their choice. Actually, we already knew that this man was not honest. Several months earlier, it became known that via the offices of Lishkas Ezras Achim in Crown Heights, the U.S. government designated us as distributors for their humanitarian aid program in the Crimea. We would be getting 400 tons of rice, oil and bulghur wheat to give out to underprivileged people, schools, camps and hospitals. It was at that time that this newly “chosen” president of the cultural organization approached us with an offer that he was sure we could not turn down. He "suggested" that we should give him the 400 tons and he would sell it and share the money with us. "Half will go in my pocket, and half will go in your pocket," were his words. Itchie thanked him for his kind offer, but explained that we can’t be partners in such activities since they are illegal. He then tried convincing Itchie that this is the way things are done here. That’s all too true! However, Itchie made it very clear to him that we won’t be party to it. This didn’t set too well with him and he stormed off in anger. (Only a year later did we learn that right after that meeting, he began telling people that we were only here for a short period of time.)

When Reb Shimon became ill, there was immediately talk about who would replace him as Rosh Hakahal. When a particular name came up as a candidate, Itchie took this person on the side and privately explained that for halachic (Torah law) reasons, as rabbi he would have to stand against his nomination. In order not to have to embarrass him in public, it would be better if he would decline the position on his own. He gave Itchie his word that he would decline. Suddenly, he did an about face, and let it be known that he would accept the position. (We later found out that it was our friend Anatoly who was instigating this and the subsequent happenings.) When Reb Shimon a”h passed away, the provlenia of the synagogue supported the nomination of this person, which Itchie told them clearly, he could not allow. When they said they had no one else, my husband said if they didn’t have anyone else, then he could put forth a candidate. Itchie, still not wanting to publicly embarrass him, gave a less offending reason explaining why he felt our candidate would be a better choice. The fool (what else can I possibly call him,) didn’t even have enough common sense to realize that my husband was trying hard not to embarrass him. At a public meeting, he himself got up and announced the real reason why Itchie was against his nomination. (Even Itchie was shocked at his stupidity!) At this point Itchie had no choice but to announce that it was against Jewish Law to elect this man as president of a religious organization and if the membership nevertheless elects him, then he will be forced to resign as rabbi of the synagogue. Statements were made at that public meeting that were open desecrations of G-d’s name. Among other things, a woman stood up and said that Moshe Rabbeinu was married to a non-Jew, so there is no reason why they should marry Jews either. (Moshe's wife Tziporah was a gieres, a convert to Judaism, and therefore Jewish!) My husband immediately decried and refuted them. When the vote was taken, by a raise of hands, people who had come to the synagogue for the first time, especially for the election, physically forced down the hands of many of our supporters. Despite that, our candidate won by three votes. At this point, in the great Russian tradition of democracy, the president of the cultural organization demanded a recount and disqualified many of our supporters from voting, while the riffraff he brought in off the street, who had never before set foot in the shul, were allowed! It nearly turned into a real live barroom brawl, if not for Itchie calling a halt to his angry supporters. He told them there is no reason to fight, because he is now resigning as the rabbi of this synagogue and announcing the opening of a Chabad synagogue in our home. This was on a Thursday, and that Shabbos we had the first minyan at our house. Baruch Hashem it has grown so beautifully that it now overflows the house into the yard, and we must immediately find new larger quarters!

We thought that was the end of the subject. Itchie was quite satisfied to let things run as they were. And even though they were spreading lies about him, he chose not to make any response unless directly asked. As usual, in November Itchie went to the U.S. for the shluchim convention and to do some fundraising. When it was time for him to return, Yaakov, president of Chabad of Crimea had to send him an invitation so that he could get a visa. This invitation had to be signed by the Crimean Minister of Religion. He refused to do this, saying that he received a letter from the synagogue with claims against Itchie. Yaakov explained to the minister that these claims were false, and that in any case the rabbi should be allowed into the country to at least be able to defend himself. The minister refused. When Itchie was informed of this latest development, he wasn’t fazed. He just asked Chabad in Kiev to send him an invitation and got his visa that way. When Itchie showed up in Simferopol, without even a one day delay, our opponents were shocked. They couldn’t fathom how, in a country so steeped in bureaucracy, this foreigner was able to totally ignore them and continue with Chabad programs. Our visas were still valid until June of 1997 but this was unacceptable to these people. Therefore, the president of the Jewish cultural organization, and the new “Rosh Hakahal” of the old shul signed a letter to Ovir (the governmental agency that issues visas) that because of their claims against the rabbi, our visas should be cancelled, and stamped “persona non gratis” and our entire family should unceremoniously be deported. In March, with all the pomp of an open society, Ovir requested that we bring in our family’s passports so that they could check them. Without any inkling that there was anything wrong, we complied, only to be informed that the visas were being cancelled and the family would have to leave the country within 10 days. When asked on what charges, they wouldn’t tell us. We seemed to have come up against a stone wall, with no one willing to give us a hearing. This also meant that Itchie was forced to cancel his trip to America to raise funds for Pesach and summer camp, and that we didn’t even know if we would be in the country for Pesach! An added irony was that just two weeks earlier, after 7 months of haggling with tamozhne (customs,) they had finally released our container from America. However, despite our claim that it was our own personal belongings, they insisted on marking it as humanitarian aid. Now if we were to be thrown out of the country, we wouldn’t even be able to take our personal belongings with us! Itchie, therefore, called the American embassy to intercede on our behalf to at least give us an extension and
a hearing so that we could legally defend ourselves. Our deportation date was extended to April 12th. We also called the Chief Rabbi of the Ukraine, Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, who called the Ukrainian Minister of Religion and warned him that if our visas were not reinstated this would become an international scandal. Meanwhile, Chabad in Washington already had senators making inquiries of the Ukrainian Embassy, as to what was going on. The Chabad office in Philadelphia had gotten the President’s Commission on Jewish Issues involved. At the same time the head of the Bulgarian community, which was one of the groups that were beneficiaries of our disbursements of humanitarian aid also brought the International Red Cross into the fray. To nicely top matters off, The Hilfsfonds, based in Germany and Belgium, (another humanitarian aid organization that delivers over 10 million deutchmarks worth of aid a year just to the Ukraine,) had their representative in the Crimea meet with the Prime Minister specifically about this issue. He told him that if we were deported they would never again send humanitarian aid to Ukraine! In response to this unexpected international outcry, and realizing that they really could not justify the cancellation of the visas, everyone involved, from Kiev to Simferopol, reacted as all responsible politicians do. They were falling all over themselves to show how helpful they really wanted to be, and how innocent they were. So they pointed all the blame at the Minister of Religion in Simferopol. He of course had to find a reason for his request to Ovir to have our visas cancelled, so he claimed we broke a law. [The law we supposedly broke, was that we were leading religious services without express permission from him. It didn’t help that Itchie was logically able to show that the minister himself signed the papers for our entering and leaving the country for four years, without having these so called formal papers, or that he had signed our incorporation papers which allow us to run a synagogue!] But in this case there was no room for logic, so we came to an understanding so that he could save face, and we would get extended visas for longer then we had before. So all is well that ends well. The fact that this whole problem was taking place in the month of Adar II, which is an auspicious time for the Jewish people, gave us the faith that in the end everything would work out. Sure enough, on the last day of the month we got the word that we would receive extended visas – though we actually got them right before Pesach, the festival of our freedom!

Purim we had several Megilla readings, in both Simferopol and Yevpetoria. We gave out hundreds of Shalach Monos packages in both cities, and made a festive Purim meal for well over a hundred people - despite all of the ongoing problems.

Chana, a young woman who attends our shul, gave birth to a baby boy at this time, so immediately following Purim we made a double bris: the first bris done for an eight day old baby in Crimea since before the Second World War, together with that of a 6 month old baby, who joined him. We gave them clothing for the babies for the whole first year at that time, since we didn’t know if we’d still be here to give the clothing at a later date.

We did not allow our visa problems to stop the work, and we continued to prepare for the upcoming Pesach holiday. We supplied 4 tons of matzoh for the Jews of the Crimea, and were still short. We also helped 50 families prepare their homes for keeping a completely kosher for Pesach kitchen for the first time in their lives. Thanks to organizations such as Lishkas Ezras Achim, we were able to supply these people with their Pesach needs. Of course, nothing can run straight here, and somehow the paper goods and food we had had sent to us, at great cost, from America ended up in Pesach camp in Dniepropetrovsk instead of in Simferopol! We nevertheless supplied the needs for a community seder which hosted about a hundred and fifty, (for which we brought in rabbinical students from Israel,) and simultaneously ran an in-depth seder for nearly 50 people in our own home. This seder lasted until 2:30 a.m., and everyone stayed until the very end. We also had about 40 people for each of the other holiday meals. For “Moshiach’s Seudah,” (the last night of Pesach,) we unfortunately, had to actually turn away people who showed up, because there wasn’t even standing room remaining. Each meal we hosted different people, to allow as many people as possible a chance to come.

After Pesach, I ran out to take pictures of some people’s kitchens, to show how carefully they had kept the laws of Pesach – I myself was shocked at how bare their kitchens were – with only a few pieces of fruit or a moldy cabbage besides what we were able to give them. When I returned, I got right to work, working with the kids on packing away the Pesach dishes. Suddenly, I saw a light flashing in the open window. Someone was looking into the house with a large, strong flashlight, from over the wall surrounding our yard. I was instantly on the floor & yelled to the family “Duck! Quickly get into the kids’ room (the only inside room, without windows,) … they’re back! (I assumed that this was someone trying to break in again.) The man yelled – “open the gate, this is the police.” Itchie called back to him – “we’re calling the police station to make sure.” Sholom Ber called and said there was an emergency at 24 Mironova. The person who answered couldn’t hear well and kept asking “shto? shto?” (what? what?) Sholom Ber thought it wasn’t the police station, and hung up the receiver. Two minutes later, Itchie said “Leah, it’s not one guy – they’re swarming all over the place.” “Don’t open, no matter what!” I told him. Suddenly, one held up a police badge at the window. When Sholom Ber had hung up the receiver so quickly, they thought someone was getting killed, and they broke all records, getting here in literally 2 minutes instead of the usual 2 hours! When they found out we were all alive, thank G-d, they were out the door! We prevailed upon them to check that the intruder was no longer outside, and they exited as fast as they had come. We all slept in the boys tiny room in the middle of the house that night. Two changes followed the next day, an old tablecloth became a curtain, and we now have a policeman on duty here every night, and Sundays, or when necessary.

For Lag B’Omer, we took a bus load of people to a campground by the Black Sea, where we spent a day of fun and games, complete with a picnic and a bonfire all in the Lag B’Omer tradition.

We now have e-mail again, so if you want to write our e-mail address is: [root@rabbi.silit.crimea.ua] tel./fax number: 011- 380-652-240-231

Keep In Touch! Till next time,

Leah Lipszyc & Company