9th Letter from Crimea

B"H

Iyar 2, 5758
April 28, 1998

Dear Everyone,

Hi! Hope you are all well and enjoying this period of post-Pesach calm.

First of all, I would like to update you on the sequel to “Miracle of Mironova,” our harrowing experience with thieves and would-be murderers on Simchas Torah, in the fall of 1996. One evening, while Itchie was in America (of course!) and I was preparing to give a class, one of the women came into the house looking for me. “There’s a man here to see you,” she said. “But he doesn’t look like someone we should let in.” I went out to the courtyard and looked into the same intense hazel eyes that had last stared at me over the muzzle of a Berretta. “You know me,” said the man. “I was here before.” “A year and three months ago?” I hesitatingly asked. “Yes,” was his terse reply. This man was our old friend, the “chief thief.” I have to admit that I was nervous and started thinking about how to get back inside with the door safely locked behind me. You probably remember that we had had a long serious discussion with him about the Sheva Mitzvos Bnai Noach, and about how he could turn around from that point on and change his life. At the time he had asked, “Do you mean that if I came back to you in a week without my mask on and asked you to help me to change my life, you would?” Itchie had answered him affirmatively. Well, he now proceeded to tell me that during the week after the robbery, he’d done a lot of thinking and he’d decided to leave Simferopol for Dniepropetrovsk, where he’d met “a holy lady” (he’s not Jewish) who had helped reform him. He’d now come back to us, as per her directive, to apologize for what he’d done to us. (Not to return anything, mind you. Just to apologize.) He was sorry he’d scared us, he said, and of course, never would he have shot a child! (Tell that to the child who he held a gun on!) However, the main thing is that we’d been sure at the time that there must have been a reason — some hashgocha protis — Divine Providence — for the experience. And there it was! He had taken our words to heart, and for now, at least, there is one less crook walking the streets of Simferopol.

Purim was a blast! We brought in two bochurim from Eretz Yisroel, who stayed until after Pesach. They read the Megillah in several cities — there were a total of six Megillah readings in three Crimean cities this year. Six hundred people heard the story of Purim, and got Shalach Manos (food gifts) which they exchanged, as per Jewish law, with their friends. In Simferopol alone, 150 people attended the gala Purim dinner where they were entertained by musicians, and treated to an amusing and lively Purim shpiel, written and performed by our great new teen group. (Note: Last Shabbos afternoon, the talented authoress of the Purim shpiel was hit by a car, and has been hospitalized. She will soon be undergoing a third operation as a result of the accident. Please join us in saying Tehillim for Lieba Masha bas Zhenya, that she should have a complete and speedy recovery.) It was a very successful program, which many felt to have been our most enjoyable event to date. Many of the young people became quite “turned on” to Yiddishkeit through it.*

Not having been able to experience Torah-true Judaism for 75 years, it is very easy for the missionaries and cults to dupe the unfortunate people in the former Soviet Union. They are trying to make inroads in the Crimea, so we decided to undertake a very ambitious project — to celebrate Pesach authentically in five major cities, involving as many people as possible. We were able to accomplish this is a large part due to the magnanimity of the Rohr family, and several other individuals. The accomplishments were many.

Before Pesach even began, Eli and Moishie, the two bochurim who had come before Purim, organized a Model Matzah Bakery. This was no small feat to organize in Crimea, where Murphy’s Law reigns supreme. They did a superb job, showing the participants step-by-step exactly what is involved in baking hand-made Shmurah matzos. We also showed a video in Russian about Chabad, and all of the participants made their own small matzos. This event took place in the Kino-Teatre Simferopol (Simferopol Movie Theater) which is the new temporary home of our shul, our minyan having outgrown our home. The minimal light which is provided to us comes from the flickering “silver screen.” It is freezing cold inside, even as summer approaches, as the cold seems to be permanently stored in the thick concrete walls. I’ll bet Simferopol boasts the only movie house with a mechitzah in the aisle! (The theater’s workers “fixed” it for us so all of the panels are attached. When we asked how they would be able to move it away after Shabbos, they said, “who needs to move it? People can watch the film with the partition standing there!”

Fifteen hundred people attended our sedarim! There were as many as 350 people per seder. The sedarim were held on both the first and second nights of Pesach. This was well above our original projection of 200 people per seder. Unfortunately, in Kerch alone, nearly 500 people couldn’t be accommodated, since the hall could barely fit 180 people at a time, and well over 800 people had called to make reservations! Groups of two to four students from yeshivos in Tsfat and Kfar Chabad, as well as from another group from America, which helped us, went to each community (Kerch, Feodosia, Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, and of course Simferopol.) In each city we rented a hall, cleaned and kashered the kitchen, hired a cook, helpers, and translators, and got an apartment for the bochurim (rabbinical students.) We supplied everything that was necessary, including those imported items, such as grape juice and matzah. We also had beautiful newly printed Russian–Hebrew Haggados, again thanks to the generosity of the Rohr family. Many people were enlisted to volunteer as well, to ensure that the sedarim would run smoothly.
While we were working on this, we were also trying to patch and paint part of the house, and add some desperately needed extra storage space, which helped to add to the excitement. It became extremely hectic coordinating this, especially as the countdown got closer and closer to Yom Tov, and both phones were constantly ringing off the hook with queries from the bochurim, ranging from “The cook left. How do we cook fish?” to “It’s an hour before Yom Tov and the supply truck hasn’t arrived yet. What do we do?” to “The people here bought some fish, and every three seconds they say it’s a different kind. Each time we inform them that one kind isn’t kosher, they say it’s another kind!” The crew in Simferopol were working in what was touted as “the best professional kitchen in the city.” In desperation they called us up when their “professional stove” literally took five hours to bring a pot of water to a boil. Out we went running to buy a new stove. All of this was happening while my own helpers and I were trying to prepare for our in-depth (until 4:00 AM) seder for forty people at our home. Trucks were expected to be coming with desperately needed supplies from Zhitomir, Kiev, Kherson, and Donetsk, and of course none arrived when they were supposed to have come. Around 100 people were coming and going, selling their chometz and picking up large parcels of kosher for Pesach food with which to celebrate the holiday.

In my spare time I was running back and forth to our clothing “warehouse” in order to help outfit people for Yom Tov. (“Warehouse” is not really an accurate term to describe the place where we store new and good used clothing for people. Our childrenChanie and Sholom Ber, who spent some time in Simferopol before we moved here, found this storage place for us. It is located on a totally rutted, muddy lane at the outskirts of the city. Surrounded by a rickety wooden picket fence, our storage place is three rooms in the home of an obese and lonely alte babushka. In order to enter we must skirt our way around assorted baby goats, geese, chickens, and debris. A slightly sickening aroma, a medley of past foods put up, goat cheese, and rotting compost pervades the place.)

Boruch Hashem, everything was finally settled, and as the well-known saying goes, we did “all sit down at the seder at the same time.” At our home, we not only prepared the sedarim, but all nine Yom Tov meals to capacity. Even during the intermediary days of the holiday we had “full house” for breakfast, lunch, and supper, since we had the bochurim as well as a nice group of teenagers from three towns who were observing Pesach for the first time, and were not able to do it in their own homes. Our old office and an extra apartment became dormitories for them throughout Pesach. During Chol Hamoed (the intermediate days of Pesach) we treated the teens to kyegyelban (Russian version of bowling.) The port city of Sevastopol boasts a bowling alley. This consists of an entire four entire lanes, complete with human pin setters. Unlike the cold unfeeling computerized American system, an occasional cry of pain can be heard when a careless bowler does not “spare” the hand or foot of a pinsetter. Of special note: On the second day of Pesach, Ari and Lenny, two of the American volunteers, walked 30 kilometers in Kerch to speak to a Sunday school class about Pesach! For the last two days of the holiday the bochurim were again involved in leading services and programs in various communities, and we had several very lively “Moshiach’s Seudah” programs.

Of course, we once again provided four tons of matzah for the Jews of the Crimea as in previous years, and at one point, our entire house, corridor, and office were wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling matzah! But as people came to pick up their matzah, we were again able to see the light of day, and the freshly painted (and newly scratched) walls.

I really must go now — there's so much to do! Be well and remember us!

Love, Leah & Co.

Chabad of the Crimea
Mironova 24
Simferopol, Crimea 95001 Ukraine
Tel/fax: 380–652–510–773
e mail chabadcrimea@cris.crimea.ua

*[Boruch Hashem, Lieba Masha recovered fully from her accident. She went on to learn in Machon Alta in Tsfat, followed by Machon Chana in Brooklyn, where she transferred when her mother and grandmother moved to America. She married Yisroel Noach Kaminetsky, and they are now emmissaries of the Rebbe in Khabarovsk (Siberia) in Russia.]