Our new website

Hi! Thanks for coming to see us here at Creme de la Krim! We've moved to a new location, and would love to have you come visit us there. Our new website is http://www.chabadcrimea.org/ and the blog is on it at http://www.chabadcrimea.org/templates/blog/default.htm/aid/514938/jewish/Blog-CREME-DE-LA-KRIM.html .

We've also added a Russian blog, magazine, photo galleries, Judaica store, kosher list and hospitality information and tons more!

So please do come along and join us there, and let us know what you think of our new look.

With love,

Leah & Co.

DRY BONES: Cliff-hanger

I think this is just so descriptive of our life here!

13th Letter from Crimea

B”H

Spring, 2006/5766

Dear Everyone,

So many of my friends keep asking me for my letters. I know I’ve been terribly remiss. It’s been a combination of many factors. For one thing, there is just so much work, and so few hours to do it all. Things pile up, sleep is pushed to the side, and when can I possibly find the time to write? For another thing, in spite of our “trials and tribulations,” I’ve always tried to keep my letters upbeat. Usually I can look back at what has happened, and laugh. I keep on waiting, sometimes more patiently, sometimes less, for the time when I can look back and laugh, and write you one of those funny letters, but it just hasn’t come yet. I know it will, but it just ain’t happened yet.

This past Thursday night, someone scrawled swastikas and “Death to the Jews” on our gate. Tonight, following a football game, there was a street war between the skinheads, rappers, and other groups. We were warned about it ahead of time. I sent all the girls to stay in the apartment of Baila, the school’s mashgicha. The boys locked themselves into the house. There are bars on the windows – for whatever they’re worth in a serious situation, chas v’sholom. We haven’t had any guards for the last two months, because we don’t have the money with which to pay them, so there was nobody guarding the house. My son Dovid spoke to someone from “security” (the 3 letter guys) and pre-arranged that chas v’sholom, if they would hear anyone climbing over the wall, they would call him immediately, and he would get a SWAT team over right away. It was a very tense night, but Boruch Hashem, it passed without incident.

Not so last January, when a group of 17 of us, mainly children and young adults, (I was the only older person,) were walking home from shul at 8:00 one Friday evening. Born and bred in suburban America, Boruch Hashem, I was never personally faced with anti-Semitism before. Yes, this is one of the many problems facing us – the resurgence of prejudice and hostility towards Jews in the Former Soviet Union. We were walking along the dimly lit street -- it used to make me feel like I was walking on the set of an old movie -- when suddenly two groups of 17-20 year olds, (a total of nearly 30,) who were waiting in ambush for us on both sides of the intersection, called out "One, two, three! There they are -- get them!" Most of the older boys had already passed, and they cowardly mainly attacked the girls. They zig-zagged crazily towards us. One ringleader ran in my direction, narrowly missing me as I dumbly stepped aside, thinking that he was running from his peers, not at us! But missing me, he targeted frail 11 year old Beila Zhvakalyuk, smashing his fist hard into her face and knocking her to the ground in a pool of blood. He immediately punched Svieta Abramovych, a 20 year old teacher (who was learning for geirus at the time) in the head, knocking her over as well. Then he punched Ettel Dolgaya in the jaw, and ran away. Others attacked 2 young men, Lonya and Sasha.* The entire attack probably lasted only a few minutes, but was shattering. Beila and Svieta (now Sarah Rivkah) are both still suffering the effects of their concussions, and little Beila's nose was broken and required surgery. Worse yet, her mother changed her mind, and won't let her learn in the school! Obviously the attack caused traumatic repercussions amongst those present and other students of Bais Menachem, the only Jewish Day School in Crimea, as well as in the wider Jewish community. One precious child, (who was not present at the time of the attack,) has been taken out of the Jewish School as a result, since her family is afraid of her growing up Jewish now. Beila, the most harshly attacked, immediately said "my mother is a psychologist and will let me keep coming for Shabbos." In the hospital, the first thing she told her parents (only her mother is Jewish) was "those guys spoiled my Shabbos!" (Unfortunately, her mother hasn’t lived up to Baila’s expectations, and she is no longer permitted to come for Shabbos, camp, or school.)

Within days of the attack, 20 of the individuals involved had been apprehended, and most had admitted to participation in the attack. They eventually located everyone who had been involved. However, almost all of them were released back onto the streets after only a nominal appearance at the police station. They are now claiming that they only found 4 suspects, (as most of them successfully bribed their way out,) and have put off the trial to yet a 4th date.**

As a result of the attack, we had to very steeply reinforce our protection. Besides security in the synagogue, school, and at our home, three guards are needed to accompany the group of people who keep Shabbos, while walking from our home to the shul and back several times on Shabbos. But as I mentioned above, we no longer can afford the guards. We now would need to pay $1,000 a month for guards, and probably the same or more for a security system. This is on top of an already exceedingly strained "budget" (otherwise read as major deficit.) [We had to discontinue the guards due to lack of funds, but desperately need to start again with anti-semitism building up, as evidenced by the recent attack in Kiev, and at least 20 publicized incidences in the Former Soviet Union this year.]

The attack was a follow-up to other recent attacks by these skinheads or "parodies on skinheads" as the police tend to call them, in an attempt to keep this low profile. In August, I walked into shul, after lighting candles at home, and people were saying something about the boys being downstairs, and bloody. I thought they were talking about my sons, Schneur Zalman and Shmuelie, and that they had fallen or something -- not something to get majorly bent out of shape about. However, the two American rabbinical students, Avi and Shmuelie, who had come to run the summer camp, had been severely beaten up and left unconscious in a small park in the center of town, while on their way to shul. When Avi and Shmuelie were attacked, the incident had begun when a group of 10-15 youths walking behind them asked if they were Jewish, then calling out anti-semitic slurs while kicking them in the faces, kicking their heads with their steel toed boots, and punching them. Avi did manage to give one of the attackers a broken arm in the process, but nothing like what they did to them. (The father of the injured boy later had the chutzpah to say that G-d will punish us for filing a complaint against him!)When Avi tried to help Shmuelie, they all jumped on him, and Avi's face was beaten up -- lacerated, and swollen, with a huge black eye, bruises, and a concussion. The two of them were left unconscious in the bushes, across from a cafe. When they came to, a waitress offerred them some napkins to clean off some of the blood. That was the beginning and end of the help they could expect from the bystanders! Unfazed, the two of them found their way to shul, entering singing "I'm a Jew and I'm Proud," which made a tremendous impression on all those present! (Okay, actually at first they thought they were nuts, but then it did make a kiddush Hashem.)

Last Yom Kippur, my then 11 year old son Shmuelie, and his friends Don Yaakov and Levi Yitzchok were also attacked and their yarmulkas were stolen. On Friday night of Sukkos, my husband was strongly shoved against the wall in an underpass by one of the youths involved in that incident. It happened that that night, walking next to my husband was a huge Jewish bouncer, who had come to shul for the first time. The two of them grabbed the teen who had pushed him and brought him up to the street to a policeman. Being that it was Yomtov, and with a houseful of guests waiting, they weren't able to go to the police station at the time, so my husband suggested that the attacker be assigned to community service, something they'd never heard of before. But even that was never acted upon. This same young man is the one who organized the attack last January.

********************
On a more positive note –

A number of the students in Bais Menachem have become fairly fluent in English. Therefore I looked, and found, Boruch Hashem, a sponsor for some of them to take part in Bais Chana’s Teen Camp and the women’s program. The results of the trip were very positive. The girls did quite well in the Bais Chana Programs, in spite of the fact that English is not their first language. One girl has become much stronger in her desire to learn in Machon Chana next year. Hopefully, we will be able to convince her mother to allow her to go. Another had decided prior to the program to go to a non-religious program in Israel this year, but she has stayed and is living with us again. The third girl in the camp program had already applied to learn in the machon in Zhitomir, but has been strengthened in her Yiddishkeit, and wants to return to spend her holidays with us. One older girl took part in the women’s program. She was dismayed at first that, unlike the younger girls’ camp program, she was in for serious morning till night learning. However, after a day or two, she grew to enjoy the classes, and the program has had a very good effect on her. Before she went, she was leaning strongly towards going to a very watered-down program in Israel this year. Now she told me that she realizes that “although the texts they use may be the same, they are not teaching real Judaism.” She has increased her observance of kashrus, Shabbos, and tznius, despite the extreme pressure in her home from her parents, who were thoroughly indoctrinated with communist ideology.
********************

Bais Menachem is hanging in there. Precariously, but we will survive!

As you probably remember, in September of 1999 we founded the only Jewish Day School in Crimea, The Bais Menachem Jewish School of Simferopol. The school began with two grades, and the hope was that each year would see an expansion of two more grades until it would eventually encompass all grades from preschool through high school. But the unexpected positive reaction to the school’s phenomenal level of success, as well as to a most amazing summer camping experience, put the continued existence of the school in jeopardy, as the school suddenly jumped from two grades to eleven, and the monthly budget soared from $1,500 to nearly $15,000, in one year! In addition, we have students dorming in our home and a nearby apartment. With new students constantly signing up, Boruch Hashem, it required the school to unanticipatedly move into its own building, with all that is entailed.

In Bais Menachem, our students receive an excellent secular education, in uncrowded classes, together with Jewish tradition, encouraging a pride in our rich heritage. Once again this past year, all of our students who entered national competitions in mathematics, geography, the sciences and Jewish tradition took highest honors! There are now eleven grades, (meanwhile students graduate after 11th grade here,) with hopes of opening a preschool soon if we quickly receive the necessary funding (approximately $10,000.***) Our students are unable to pay tuition, and therefore are all attending on scholarship, with several making a token donation of the equivalent of $7 or less per month. Students daily enjoy delicious breakfasts, lunches, and snacks from the school's kosher kitchen. 11 specialists check their medical needs and give them immunizations.

Ukrainian Law binds the licensing of a school to the building where classes are held in order to ensure proper classrooms, according to code, and conducive to study. At one point the owner of the building which we had been renting, put the building up for sale, and we were in serious jeopardy of losing our license. Thanks to a generous friend of Chabad of Crimea, Mr. M. Tabacinic, who donated over $250,000, we were able to purchase the building.

The budget for the school is currently $182,500, including the dormitory facilities. Originally, we had been promised a grant of $80,000, but during the school year a stipulation was made that was inconsistent with the ideals and direction of Jewish education, thus we were forced to decline, and the funding was rescinded, leaving us without a sponsor. This left us with a crippling debt of $53,000 to close up last year’s books. Additionally, we urgently need $168,000 for necessary repairs, renovations, and furnishings. The roof is now leaking very badly, causing untold damage. If we can switch over the heating system to gas, at a cost of about $100,000,**** we can save at least $2,000***** per month, year round, on heating. The heating season will be starting very soon, and with the amount of money we owe the city for last year's heat, they will not provide us with heat, potentially forcing the school to close down chas v'sholom. The electrical system is antiquated as well and needs replacing. The Licensing Board has given us only short extension to have the bare minimum of repairs and renovations completed.

These funds are vitally needed. We need a minimum of $89,000 immediate cash flow to keep the school open. Where it will come from is anybody’s guess. G-d willing, by my next letter we should be able to pass on the good news. Meanwhile, if any of you have a clue as to where we might find it, we would appreciate your passing the information to us.

Bais Menachem’s principal, Elka, is constantly asking me why we can’t just find 1,000 people to give $18 per month, (or 500 people to donate $36 per month, etc.) which would cover the school and the guards. A handful of people do make regular monthly donations in varied amounts. If more people would only follow their example, we could achieve our goal.

Itchie is forced to spend most of his time abroad, seeking funding, while I “man the fort,” sometimes nearly literally, at home. It would be nice to be able to resume some kind of a normal life again, with the both of us on one continent!

I'm going to have to call it quits for now. I really must get back to work!

Be well!

Leah Lipszyc and Company

*Sasha was also learning at the time for geirus, and was m'gayer this year just before Pesach. He is now Shmuel, and is learning in yeshivah.

** In the end everyone was let off scott free, with the four getting a little "slap on the wrist." They cannot learn in university (like they were anyway) and can't get good jobs. Which leaves them out on the streets!

*** Unfortunately, we're still waiting, and the cost will now be at least $25,000 because of the rising inflation.

**** We have now found a much cheaper electrical system that should cost under $20,000 -- if we can get the funds for it right away. The other system was gas, which would cost more because we'd have to bring in a gas line from another street, but would have cost much less to run.

***** Now $5,000 per month!

12th Letter from Crimea

B”H

To My Dear Friends Abroad,

Remember me? I guess I have really been a “naughty girl” – I haven’t written a letter for over two years! Not that I haven’t written letters -- I write quite a number every day in e-mail form. But I haven’t written a LETTER -- like one of these. My excuse is that I have been so extremely darned busy, that there just wasn’t time for it! It used to be that we got very busy for one holiday or program, and then there was a short break till the next. But now things have gotten so eventful that one thing just runs into the next into the next into the next... Pesach, which is a major deal here and takes time to wind down from runs into Lag B’Omer -- which runs into the end of the school year -- which runs into Shavuous -- and meanwhile since well before Pesach we’ve been hard at work on summer camps -- with a trip to Israel for a conference of shluchim from the Former Soviet Union set exactly between the two camps -- which runs into preparations for expanding the school -- then the Yomim Tovim, -- and back to school again -- then youth clubs to set up -- the Kollel learning Institute -- meals to be served daily in the school, shul, and dorm -- people who need clothing and food and other essentials – farbrengens and classes and Shabbatons -- and soon it will be Chanukah and winter camp and Purim and then back to summer camp and Pesach again! Meanwhile I’ve succeeded in making one of the world’s longest run-on sentences, which my high school English teacher would be appalled at, but it was intentional, to give you a mini idea of what’s going on here; and he isn’t around anyway!

Meanwhile, life goes on as usual. The electricity goes on and off at will – the will of the sadist who sits in his warm office pushing buttons all day to turn the electricity on and off in the various sections of town; except his own, of course. The area where “They” live (near the center of the town, where the new shul will be, G-d willing,) always has gas, electricity, and running water. I am wary as I print these words, because yesterday morning at 7:10 a.m. “They” turned off the electricity till about 9:30 a.m. “They” play games with us. They’ll turn off the electricity at the same time every day so you think you know when it will be on and when it will be off, and when you’re pretty sure you know just what to expect, they change it on you. So now at 6:30 a.m. I am frantically typing, and “saving” after every couple of sentences; because one of the most maddening things is when you’ve typed an entire document, and then the electricity goes off on you and you lose the whole thing! [Save.] I also prepared by turning the heat up to high so that maybe the house will stay warm for a little bit longer when the electricity (probably, maybe) goes off. The other maddening thing is this #*&%?@#!* computer -- which somehow lost its control panel, and continues somehow to do half a job without it -- keeps on omitting letters, so I have to keep going back to correct it. We learn to be pretty efficient with our time, so I’ve brought a flashlight out here and nail polish, and when the lights go out I can nail polish the computer. No, I haven’t gone totally bananas -- The Russian letters on the keyboard keep coming off. So I finally cleaned the keys, wrote the letters on again -- for the umpteenth time -- with “permanent” marker – and plan to cover them with clear polish when I can’t type anyway! [Save.]

Whew! False alarm! Another infuriating thing about this awful computer is that a window keeps popping up saying that I’ve done something illegal (like drug dealing? Nah – that’s only out in the street in front of the house!) and the program is going to be closed down. At least since I had the foresight to save the letter ahead of time, I can open it again. In fact I can open it lots of times, maybe even hundreds of times, because the dumb computer makes copies of documents every time you open them. In My Documents they look like: Leah’sLetter, ~$Leah’sLetter, ~WRLLeah’sLetter, etcetera!

Okay. I’m running into the house to wake the kids, and maybe this will still be on the screen when I get back -- I”YH! [Save.]

Made it! As I was saying -- life goes on as usual. Without water a lot of the time! We unfortunately share our water system with seven neighbors. One of them makes illegal vodka, and uses an awful lot of water -- for the vile stuff itself, cleaning and sterilizing (right!) the bottles, etcetera -- leaving the rest of us with just a trickle of water. One of the neighbors tampered with the water pipes, digging up the street, to get himself more water, and leaving us with even less. There is never any pressure, and often no water at all. We thought to put in a pump, (it would have “stolen” the water back from the neighbors -- which they accuse us of doing anyway --but it's electric, and would have made problems on Shabbos -- when we need it the most -- to wash everyone’s hands! Yes, we still have lots of guests, though we’ve toned it down somewhat. We used to have wall-to-wall guests, with tables set up in like a “U.” However, after a sizeable number of household items “walked off” with the guests we put the tables back together, to look more like a normal dining room table, and guests are “by invitation only” -- most of the time. For everyone else, we make a full meal kiddush in the shul, consisting of challah and bread, salads, pickles, fish, cholent, cake, and drinks.* To give you an idea of the mentality prevalent here, we have to put out the drink bottles without caps, or else people but them in their bags and carry them home on Shabbos! Nebach one lady was so desperate that she dumped a plate of cholent into her pocketbook! (Like without a bag or anything!)

Other than the lack of electricity, water, modern conveniences and space, and the fact that all of our neighbors are either Tartars (Moslems -- getting a little scary nowadays) or Tzygani --Gypsies, and the place is crawling with druggies who leave their syringes all over the place, life is fine on the home front.

Then there’s the school. We were told how much red tape there is to open a school. It takes a good few years to wade through the paperwork. Which was discouraging, because we really need a Jewish school here. So at the very end of the summer last year, we got the idea to rent part of a building from a private school and call our school a part of theirs. It worked, and B”H on September 1st we opened with twelve adorable, bright children in the first two grades. This year we opened for grades 1 – 9 and already have over 50 children B”H. Our main problem (other than lack of funds) is getting a building. We were in the process of getting one for free from the government. However, Satan must have felt it was going too smoothly for us! The week the papers were to be signed, the director of the “progressive” group here in town saw us in the mayor’s office, and started his dirty work. Unfortunately he is a known and established crook. He monthly receives a double tractor-trailer truck of humanitarian aid from a Christian organization and sells almost all of it to the market! He then distributes a miniscule part of it, and stuffs his pocket with the proceeds from the goods. It’s not the first time he’s done it. He heads a fund here for orphans. He convinced us to donate food to it, but we found out later the orphans never got that food. If you remember, the first year we were here, we were the official distributors of humanitarian aid for the United States government. He kindly offered us to sell it and split the profits. An offer which we immediately turned down, earning ourselves an Enemy with a capital "E." He then proceeded to make himself the representative of a major Jewish organization which distributes humanitarian aid. He restarted his business of selling the aid, distributing a small part of it, and pocketing the profits. After awhile, his workers reported what he was doing to their superiors abroad, he was deposed, and they took over the reins from him -- completely. All this time he sat on the board of the Orthodox community. Somehow, while he sat on that board, he simultaneously opened a “progressive” community and began his business of selling Christian humanitarian aid. So he thought, why should we get a building? Only he should (he had already illegally grabbed one existing old shul.) So the plans to give us a building were put indefinitely on ice. And we still don’t have a building. Meanwhile the other organization seems to feel that opening a school isn’t such a bad idea, and they are also planning on buying a building to open a school. Which is really sad. Because Simferopol does not have enough Jewish children (committed to Jewish education) that warrants the opening of more than one Jewish school; especially when there already exists a topnotch certified school with which the children, parents, and teachers are very pleased. It would be more productive for them to put their money and efforts into something that is not already being done, and which is in their own field. So right now we are putting a lot of effort into trying to procure a building for the school, meanwhile paying a high rent on a building that can only be rented for another month!

To give a complete report in one letter on everything we’ve done for the past two years just isn’t possible, but I’d like to share a small part of it.

Pesach preparations begin way before Purim. First of all, we have to order many Pesach needs from the states, both for the 10 public sedarim, and for distribution to the many people who carefully observe the holiday. We bring in two bochurim to help with the numerous Megillah readings and celebrations, and then immediately begin preparations for Pesach. The two boys travel from town to town, organizing the local sedarim; contacting local Jews, and finding a restaurant or hotel or other hall which can accommodate all the people, and which is willing to allow us to kasher it and keep it solely for our use durng the holiday. They take care of the advertising, finding cooks, and the many other details involved. This year, when the 26 additional bochurim arrived during the week before Pesach, they held a seminar to prepare them for their job, and the many details and problems that might occur. This lightened our load a little, as in previous years we would find ourselves on all three telephones simultaneously answering questions from the bochurim in various cities. This year the boys also made 5 model matzah bakeries in various towns before Pesach. Children of all ages got hands on experience in making matzah, learned about the holiday, and went home with their own matzah which they’d baked, a paper matzah bakery hat printed in Russian, and warm memories of the experience. They also ran a Pesach mini-camp, which consisted of exciting programs including a trip to Yalta with a boat ride, on the Sundays before, during, and after Pesach, as well as their own Children’s Seder. The pairs of bochurim go out to "their" cities, help clean and kasher the large institutional kitchens -- not at all an easy task -- buy local products at the open air markets, and then supervise and help with the cooking. Then they run the local sedarim, making them as interesting as they can, and giving thousands of people a chance to observe some of the mitzvos of the holiday, which would otherwise not be possible for them. More often than not, they follow this up by returning the following week to make the last days of the holiday in various localities, culminating in a joyous Moshiach’s Seudah, a celebration on the eighth afternoon of Pesach, just before the holiday draws to a close. Of course as every year, we still distribute a good several tons of matzah before the holiday.

During this two-year lull in my letters, new people have joined us to help with all the work. First Rabbi Dovid Yaakov (lovingly called “DJ”) Lewis came last year to run the school. After his marriage to Nachi in the spring, they moved here, and she is also teaching in the school.** Rabbi Yaakov Avraham Gusyatinsky, a Simferpol alumnus who had ben living in Israel, also returned with his wife Zehava, who is teaching in the school. Yaakov Avraham himself has been running the Kollel learning institute for men. Following an amazing summer in camp, four bochurim also decided to join us. Elie Estrin, Eli Pink, Benny Lew and Shmuli Brown are running the Tzivos Hashem clubs, and helping in the school, with Elie being the dorm counselor.

Which brings us to our other really big seasonal project -- camp of course. This year for the first time, after 5 successful years of day camp, we ran a girls’ sleepover camp in July. For the boys, the August camp was their second such experience. After much searching, we found a suitable campsite. Most Jewish camps find hotels or sanatoriums to rent for their camps, but we were fortunate enough to locate a real American-style campground. It had a big bright dining hall (it was called a mess hall in my day,) a private waterfront with a dock and paddleboats, and individual bunkhouses. We put in a volleyball net and basketball hoops, and they converted a spare room into a shul for us. We installed indoor bathrooms, and were ready to roll! The drawbacks to the campsite were that 1- it was located in the steppe – which I learned the hard way -- is wide-open, scorchingly hot plains. 2- the running water was on again, off again -- mainly off again -- as the owners felt they should deliver it to us – contrary to what they’d promised. Our 40 imported counselors soon had the place decorated and the kids got right into the camp spirit. I’ll let one of the counselors tell you a little bit about camp, in his own words:

Last year's success was great. This year, my question was, can it get better? Well, it sure did! From the first, the feeling of excitement was more than mutual -- it permeated the camp. My original bunk consisted of some of the greatest kids I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, and this year proved no different.

One day we showed up wearing "Krazy Kipas" -- multi-colored skullcaps with all sorts of wacky hand-painted designs. One said, "This side up", one had a tic-tac-toe board, etc. Suddenly, yarmulka wearing became the “in” thing, and part of the fun!

Shabbos we rocked the house with a lot of banging, clapping, and dancing. Lack of voices may have had something to do with that! By now, the kids were fired up, and, even without my persistent encouragement, they really took off.

Shabbos we felt a taste of real mesiras nefesh, as the father of one camper came to visit for his son's birthday. Although he had minimal Jewish knowledge, one snippet of information he did know was the tenet: do not drive on Shabbos. As such, he walked FIVE HOURS to camp to be with his son! You can only imagine the self-sacrifice such a man might have undergone in the Communist times, had he only known more! We honored him with hagba when we read the Torah, and the head counselor, Yossi pointed out his heroic effort in front of the entire camp at the third Shabbos meal. In the spontaneous dancing that followed, I saw true joy on his face, a beaming smile utterly impossible to express on paper.

We took the kids on a trip to another camp, to meet more Jewish kids. Upon our arrival, there were complaints. But these complaints were music to my ears! "When are we going back to OUR camp? OURS is great!" I never heard a single complaint about our campground after that visit!

There was a trip to Sevastopol for bowling, and one Tuesday we went banana boating in Yevpatoria. Then again to Yevpatoria to the Dolphinarium. Last year we had also gone, and like this year, Misha sat on my lap. However, last year when the keyboardist started playing Hava Nagila and the kids sang along, Misha looked at me with panic-stricken eyes. "Elie, NYET!" he pleaded, and clamped my mouth shut with his two little hands. The Jewish fear ingrained by 75 years of communism was still alive within him. This year, when the musician played Hava Nagila, Misha joyfully sang and clapped along! I felt such immense happiness and pride seeing how this child has grown so in his Jewish pride. We treated the kids to ATV rides and the only place where we didn’t drive was in the flowerbeds!

Sunday was Bris Day. Nine more boys have joined our ranks and are so proud of their new Jewish names. More than 2/3 of the campers have now had brisim! As Yoel Tchurkin's bris was going on, we broke out color war with a bang. Of course, the kids had no idea what color war is, so we had to start from scratch, explaining the rules and the ideas behind it and soon the two teams were lined up: Goila (Diaspora) and the winning team of Geula (Redemption.) I was on Goila, and I was placed in charge of the song. Lev and I simultaneously thought of the same song to translate, and it later proved to give a real boost to everyone’s feelings about camp. (See end of this letter for the song.) Sergei and I spent three hours writing it. Due to the lack of a xerox machine, we copied it onto posters in huge letters. The song took up four 4-foot pages. The problem was that it was very windy, so four staff members had to hold each of the posters! Eventually, we narrowed it down to two. When we introduced it to the kids, we were met with surprising negativity. They complained that the grammar wasn't good enough! I gave them a brief lecture on the benefits of poetic license, Srulie gave them an inspiring speech about singing from the heart, and, believe it or not, they did –- and won points for the best song! An important factor in singing with Russian kids is to drown out the many tone-deaf ones. This was the case with Sasha-in-da-house, a little kid with a big pair of lungs. Somehow we managed to convince him to keep his singing a little less heartfelt for the duration of Color War. Having Sergei do a soliloquy during the play interlude set a truly unique feeling. As soon as he finished reading his words the team belted out a rousing round of "Paka Gan Yisroel!" Their arms waving goodbye, one could see every one of the children completely immersed in the words. Many of them told me they had to consciously hold themselves back from crying. Yossi told me that although he did not understand the words, the message from their hearts came across loud and clear. What an amazing group of kids!!!

Banquet meant prize-giving, and the question was: Out of a solid bunk, who was the best camper? We had to deselect Misha, as we’d already presented him with a pair of good sneakers midway through camp for his contributions and because he couldn't play soccer in flip-flops, and he can't afford to buy regular shoes. Yoel was out because he is the Rabbi's son. Between Nikita and Nikita, I chose --- guess who? Nikita of course! Well, Nikita L. that is. Nikita K. got another prize for the most learning accomplished in camp.

That night, as the moon waned and the campfire on the beach died down, the kids stayed up all night just to breathe a few last breaths of Gan Yisroel air -- just to stick around their beloved counselors a few minutes more -- and, most importantly, to keep the Judaic fire burning inside still a bit longer.

As we got off the bus some parents quickly removed the tzitzis and yarmulkas from their sons, as if to say "goodbye, G-d!" Many of the boys tenaciously held on. Unfortunately some of the parents do not yet understand the beauty of Judaism that their children had just experienced. But now there is hope. The Jewish Day School of Simferopol has multiplied in size five times this year, now boasting nearly 60 children, including Yonasan, Michoel Levi Yitzchok, and Tzemach who live in other Crimean cities and dorm here in order to continue their Jewish studies. Misha, Nikita, and of course Yoel also learn here. So, until Moshiach is revealed to the world and Hashem takes us out of this bitter exile, these children are working to fulfill the prophecy of "returning the parents through the children." And what incredible children they are!!!

Here’s a rough translation of our song, T.T.T.O. Avraham Fried’s Kanei L'Simcha:

PAKA (GOODBYE) GAN YISROEL

Time has passed
We must say Goodbye
To every counselor and teacher
And our home Gan Yisroel.

Your warm atmosphere
Is to us very dear
When I think that I must go
It's hard to hold back the tears.

Oh Gan Yisroel
How much does it hurt!
If I leave from here,
I think my heart will stop!

But, Gan Yisroel!
Now I have come to recognize
My soul definitely knows
That you are not an ordinary camp!

(Interlude):

Goodbye Gan Yisroel!
Now we're going home!
But wherever I go,
I will always be with you!

Whoa! I didn’t realize quite how long those excerpts would be! I originally wanted to include other counselors’ feelings also, but I guess that will have to be all for now. Basically I think you get the idea that both kids and counselors had an awesome time and a lot was accomplished! And that we are accomplishing a lot in all of our many projects. (If I may humbly say so myself.) If you’d like to write me, please feel free to contact me at chabadcrimea@cris.crimea.ua -- I love to get your mail.

Be well.

Love, Leah Lipszyc & Company

P.S. Just to give you an idea of how we’ve grown I am also sending you a copy of our budget.***

* Nowadays we all eat in shul, and the Friday night menu has expanded to include challah, fish, salads, pickles or olives, homemade mayonnaise, chicken or turkey, at least two side dishes and soda, all followed by pareve ice cream & cake. Shabbos afternoon the chicken and sides are exchanged for a delicious fleishig cholent with kneidlach or kishka, kugel or knishes, and eggs 'n onions or a variation thereof.

** Unfortunately, due to poor health, they had to return home.

*** The old budget is long gone, so I'll post a new one soon in its place.

11th Letter from Crimea

B"H

Chabad of the Crimea
Mironova 24
Simferopol, Crimea 333001 Ukraine
Tel/fax: 380–652–240–231
e-mail chabad@cris.crimea.ua

To my dear friends --

This always seems to happen. The summer and the holidays fly by, so packed with camp and work and projects, and suddenly it’s time that I must sit down and write a letter again, and I can't believe that so much time has flown by since the previous one, and that I haven't written already!

Camp was wonderful! Thank goodness, with a lot of hard work, and by offering a discount for early registration, (off the regular huge price of under $10 per kid per season!) most of the kids were signed up earlier than in previous years. (Usually they have this bad habit of waiting until the last few days to sign up.)

I am going to "cheat" a bit now, and tell you about my first day in camp by quoting from a letter I wrote to someone at that time. (Most days ran in a similar vein.) “It is now midnight, and my name is rubber ball, not Leah. Today was the first day of camp. I have been running back and forth, back and forth, with two drivers, simultaneously taking care of the girls’ and boys’ camps and being the mashgiach in the kitchen. (The kitchen is in the girls’ camp, and we shlep the food over to the boys’ camp, and then bring back all the empty containers.) There is a combined staff of 27 people, who all need me. Two boy translators showed up late, (one in the girls’ camp,) the girls’ tour guide changed her mind about working for us, two girl translators cancelled on us, (one without informing us,) the counselor from Kharkov whom I expected tomorrow is going to Moscow instead, there was no water in the camp kitchen, and the electricity went out twice for two hours each time (and the stoves are electric.) The boys forgot to take money to the pool to pay for swimming, and one of the translators seems to be too shy to translate, but in spite of everything, it was really a great first day! The kids are all happy. (Except for the girl whose shoe broke; though I imagine she’s happy already too. After seeing the broken shoe and her clothing, which looked like it was from my mother’s time, we sent her home with a new pair of shoes and a bag full of clothing.) The cook is happy too, because the kids all ate the food! I have a guest who had been a counselor in another camp who is leaving from my house at 2:00 a.m. (if she shows up on time – she is out playing billiards with her campers.) Two more of our counselors are due in from Israel at around that time, so there’s one very unhappy driver who is up all night waiting at the airport again (he had to do this last week also.) Wow! I can’t believe that the bochurim are only here a week. I still have to put one more bed in each apartment, find two replacement translators, and try to deal with some people who are really “teaching” me how to be calm and diplomatic. Of course, Itchie is not here – he is in America, trying to raise the funds to pay for all this! Basically, the counselors are all great, and have all put a tremendous amount of work into preparing for camp. In between everything else, I spend time trying to type things into the computer without falling asleep over it, which unfortunately is what I was doing till a few minutes ago.”

Besides all the great Jewish things our campers learned, our counselors learned a lot also. I think that after the experience of a summer here, they will always remember to appreciate what they have! For example, eight families on our block share one water line. One of them is the gypsy family that lives across from us. (Most of them are gypsies and Tartars.) They make illegal vodka, and use the water nonstop...which leaves the rest of us without water. I have learned to live with it (unhappily,)* and do laundry on those occasions when there is water. However, when there are ten counselors who also need the washing machine, it's another story -- especially before and after the "nine days,” when everybody needs it at once! For some inexplicable reason, although there is no water in the house at the times the neighbors are making vodka, there is water at the pump in the yard. So the counselors shlepped buckets of water back and forth to fill up the washing machine for each cycle! (In case maybe they were lacking in sufficient exercise.) The boys had a really beautiful apartment right in the middle of the town. It only had one drawback -- the water again -- the only time there was hot water in the apartment was on Shabbos and Sunday, so they had to boil their water in order to bathe -- except Fridays, when they all needed to shower at the same time, so they visited the bathhouse! One of the bochurim had to officiate at a woman's funeral while he was here, only to discover that the woman in charge of the morgue was dead drunk, and therefore the body was not ready -- which made it necessary for the translator to dress the dead woman. And then there was the time that the girl and boy counselors went touring separately in Yalta. They purposely left at separate times, and with different itineraries so as not to meet. The boys’ car broke down, and they ended up being towed all the way back to Simferopol (a good hour and a half) by being pulled behind the girls' van, the vehicles being tied together by a rope!

Now I am going to "cheat" again and quote from another letter which I wrote in the third week of camp:

“ 'Twas the day after Tisha B’Av and ...

1- While doing routine everyday things like escorting my kids to two camps, delivering breakfast to the boys’ camp, and making sure both camps had money for swimming and the park, I had to relieve one of the translators of her duties, since she thought they included smoking with the campers in the bathroom.
2- After too many products were being “used up,” I had to look in the bulging bags of our “trusted” workers who were stealing products. This was especially difficult to understand since after camp is finished, I usually give them most of the leftover unused products anyway. [Note: the cook was subsequently fired and I now have a lovely Jewish cook (poo, poo, poo!) whose daughter is learning in yeshiva.]
3- I had picked up money to make a payment on the (hopefully) new shul, when the bank manager threw some cold water on the idea. He wasn’t sure if all was well and kosher in Denmark; so I had to put the money back into the account (since I was afraid to keep such a sum in the house) and run around the block and up four floors to speak to a lawyer, finishing just before closing time. Tomorrow I need to draw up additional papers with a notary before we make the payment.
4- I came home. There were exhausted teenage boys lying all over the house. They looked like they wanted to be fed.
5- Eli and Yoel were the only guys still up and running, so Eli gave the shiur for me and not-quite-ten-year-old Yoel translated.
6- I gave Daniel (a boy who learns in yeshiva and only eats kosher) his dinner to take home, packed a doggy bag for (local counselor) Yaakov, sent home some leftovers from camp with (camp helper) Mendy, and gave Raya (a lovely woman who is inflicted with Parkinsons’ disease) the siddur she requested so she can read it late at night when she is in too much pain to sleep.
7- I was finally about to serve supper when the phone rang. “Get Leah quick!" came the frantic request. Two of the girl counselors had been alone in the apartment, when they heard a sudden loud pounding on the door. Someone was trying to break down the door. They had already had problems with potential intruders on Shabbos. In record time the bochurim flagged down a car from the street to go help them, and I called the police. The bochurim arrived first, on time to see a very irate neighbor attempting to climb in through the third story window. The neighbors outside were all screaming “nyet, nyet!” and the bochurim thought the girls had been attacked already, and they were too late! They sped up the stairs, but on the way they were nearly abducted into the apartment of the downstairs neighbors. They were “simply” complaining that the girls had let the water from their bathroom leak into theirs via the ceiling, and they had called the police to complain about that and the fact that the girls kept late hours! They wanted to show the bochurim the damage. They were furious that the girls hadn’t opened the door when they knew that they were at home, therefore they had attempted to enter by way of the tree! Then the police arrived – four brawny guys decked out in bulletproof vests with pistols and a submachine gun! Boruch Hashem nobody was hurt! They immediately started demanding passports from the foreigners –and in the rush, one of the boys had forgotten his. Meanwhile I was on the phone with them the entire time. The police were arguing with the counselors, who didn’t understand more than a few words of Russian between them. I asked to speak to the police in order to explain to them what was going on. After almost five minutes, one of them finally agreed to take the phone. I started explaining, but he wasn’t in a mood to listen, and started shouting at me instead, his words bursting forth as if from his machine gun. I asked him to please speak a little slower so I could understand, so he said (in Russian) “I – will – speak – slowly – okay?” Then he continued in the same rapid-fire manner as before, which the bochurim thought was hysterical, so they started to laugh, which didn’t make the policemen very happy campers! Over the phone I could hear the neighbors complaining, the baby from downstairs wailing, the girls demanding that everyone get out of their apartment, the police demanding passports and an explanation, and the bochurim trying in their limited Russian to explain things. I put the counselors on hold while I called Shoshana, one of our translators. By a miracle (I had been trying unsuccessfully to reach her for the last few hours regarding another matter,) I reached her on the first attempt, and she was able to straighten things out somewhat with the police, and get the apartment emptied out of all extraneous people. The neighbors are still demanding that if we don’t pay their estimation of the damages by ten o’clock tonight they will call the police again. And the police say that if there is one more call about our apartment they will have us evicted and they will take the landlady to the tax police. Apparently she is behind in paying them their few grivni.
8- Our group of local Jewish teenagers showed up again, but after a rundown of what they’d missed, (but don’t worry, you’ll be there next time something exiting happens…) they were off.
9- I finally served the by-then-cold-supper to the bochurim and my kids.
10- The bochurim left, I went out to the office to work, and waited till the girls were semi-finished with their laundry, at which point they took pity on me and left “early” – since by then I could no longer keep my eyes open.
11- G-d willing today will be better. Amen!
Of course the next day was better -- it almost had to be, right?”

At the end of camp the campers each told what she remembered or liked the most. One said that she'd been in other Jewish camps before, but none of them compared to ours. Others told about the mitzvos they learned about in camp and were trying to keep at home. One girl, Esther, said she'd never be able to forget the Shabbos when she'd met her counselor in the street. The counselor had wished her "a guten Shabbos," and asked her where she was going. She replied that she was going to a wedding -- she didn't know the people who were getting married, but her mother had told her to go there to collect the coins that are traditionally thrown here at weddings. Her counselor reminded her that it was Shabbos, but she asked how could she disobey her mother? The counselor told her that keeping Shabbos is the right thing to do, and that if she would go home and keep Shabbos, she'd give her 5 grivni afterwards (which would make her mother happy as well.) So Esther went home and kept Shabbos and made 5 grivni on the deal!

The counselors did so many nice extra things for their campers. One thing that really impressed me was the following -- a counselor was concerned that her campers should be able to listen to Jewish music, so she spent several days running around town to find blank cassettes. Then she stayed up all night making a special 90 minute tape of Jewish music for each of her campers, in spite of the fact that she had already gone several nights without sleep!
Now, an excerpt from one last letter from the week following camp: “Today we made five brisim. Three boys were from the camp, and the other two were brothers -- "Gorskii Yevrei" ("Mountain Jews" or "Tati.") You learn something new everyday! They look like Sephardim. All five want to go to yeshiva, and also several of the girls from camp. The girls ended the season with a Shabbaton, and their singing was so beautiful it could move you to tears! Do you know the song "The Little Bird Is Calling"? The girls translated it into Russian and sang it. It was so beautiful! After Shabbos they couldn't stop crying for the next two hours, they were so upset that camp was over and their counselors were leaving. The kids and parents all said it was the best camp ever -- they've never seen another camp as good, and they’d been to Sochnut, YUSSR, Beitar, etc. They said that every year that their kids come to us their eyes get bigger and their smiles wider. One mother, whose daughter we are sending to yeshiva in England said "Thank you for removing my daughter from the gray dreariness that is our existence -- at least one person in our family will be able to be a real Jew." Another, who couldn't afford to pay for camp, because she is unemployed, and they literally live on bread and water, came over to me, practically falling over herself to thank me and offering to do anything she could to help. A teenager from another city, who dropped in on us several times, and joined the teenagers some evenings, said "her" camp (YUSSR) wasn't anything like this, she never saw anything like it, and can she please be a translator for us next time. Anyway, Boruch Hashem it was a very satisfying camp season, but we must proceed from here! Some of the counselors are going on to make programs in other cities in the Crimea this week, and they say that they very much want to make a winter camp! I desperately need to find some girls or bochurim who will come here on a year-round basis and make programs for these kids.”

* * * * * * *
Immediately after camp, we closed on our new building, which after extensive restoration will, G-d willing, become the Synagogue and Jewish Center of Simferopol.
I will just add a little more now, about the holidays. Eli is a bochur who spent Purim and Pesach here, and then came back to work in camp. Before camp he wrote to the Rebbe about activities in Simferopol. He put the letter randomly into a page of the Igros Kodesh, upon which was written the following answer. "Since the new shul most likely will not be ready by Tishrei, a place should be rented nearby, since the place where people daven for the yomim tovim is where they will daven all year." While the theater we'd been renting till then is in the general vicinity of the new building, it was an absolute icebox in the winter, and we'd have to look for another place anyway. After searching for several weeks and coming up against a blank wall, we were amazed to find a cooking school with an auditorium right down the block from the new building, and rented it for the yomim tovim. The first night of Rosh Hashana there were over 200 people -- standing room only, Boruch Hashem. And guess what? The old men from the old synagogue, who hadn't come for two years, all showed up! The rest of the time, there were less people, since yomtov fell out on working days this year, but there was very nice turnout. Over sixty people walked home with us and ate here the first night! (We had to put up additional tables in the corridor,) and we had full house for all the other meals as well. Three bochurim from Morristown came to help us for the holidays, and two of them went to Yevpatoria where there were 50 people attending services, and where it was also very nice.

Aside from the one in Yevpatoria, we built two sukkahs here in Simferopol – one at the house, and one on the new property. The first night, the guard there didn’t show up, so by the morning the fabric of the walls was all gone of course. Then the guards misunderstood and thought they should leave, so by the afternoon the wooden frame was also gone! Itchie arranged to meet the guards at the new property at 5:00. A neighbor, reeking of vodka, stumbled over and told him the following: "Raaaaabbi, you should have been here – at exactly 4:00 this huuuuge wind just came along and blew down the hut. Then it blew all the wood [minus the light schach from the roof of course] right into the Salghir River, and it all floated downstream! It was such an amazing sight!” Of course we had to rebuild the sukkah the next day, and we were able to celebrate there with a very nice Simchas Bais Hashoeva. About 75 people came, and enjoyed the Israeli style food and live band. The bochurim made a second party for teens in the sukkah the following night. Meanwhile the entire town heard us (being that the band was playing outside with amplifiers,) and heard about the great celebration. As a result, some local women from another organization asked me to speak at the inaugural meeting of their ladies’ club. Simchas Torah was even greater than usual, and not only were the regulars and the "golden oldies" there, but a whole crew from the Joint crowd came also and everyone had a blast.
Immediately after the holidays, the old men from the old shul approached us, saying that they want to make peace with us. Their leader has finally officially resigned**, they are publicly (in two newspapers) apologizing for their untrue statement that “Moshe Rabbeinu was married to a shiksa and therefore, why should we have to marry Jews.” They are disbanding their board**, and joining together with us to form one strong unified Jewish community. Just like the Rebbe’s answer, that “the place where people daven for the yomim tovim is where they will daven all year!”

Hopefully we will have lots more good news to share with you all in the near future! Till then, I will sign off -- hope to see you all soon in Yerushalayim!

Love,

Leah Lipszyc & Company

*In 2005, the water situation finally got so bad, that we put in an electric pump to increase our supply. Of course it has to be turned off on Shabbos, when we need it the most, but at least most of the week we have water.

**Unfortunately several years later, we found out that this was a farce, and he secretly kept up his own “religious” organization.

10th Letter from Crimea

B"H

Tammuz 18, 5758
July 12, 1998

To my dear friends,

I want to begin by telling you about an amazing personal incident that happened to me not long ago. As you may know, after Pesach I went to America to receive medical attention. The previous time I had been in America, in February, I had suddenly and unexplicably become very weak -- so weak, that sometimes if I walked even a very short distance, I had to stop to renew my strength. Returning to Simferopol, I had to face cleaning for Pesach and helping to organize the six public sedarim, which I could not have done without the household help that I had B"H, due to my weakened state. (Usually if I'm a little weak, I pop a few vitamin pills, and I'm fine, but this time, that simple solution did not work.) Next, in the middle of a class, I suddenly had extreme chest pain, which lasted 15 minutes, and this repeated itself while I was saying the morning blessings at home on the first day of Pesach. Finally, several hours before the "last days" of Pesach, I felt my heart racing, took my pulse, and found it to be 140! A doctor friend of ours in the states told Itchie to give me half a cup of wine, and get me into bed, which is where I stayed for the remainder of the holiday, and the next week.

My pulse lowered to 120, then 100, which was still way over my usual 60, and I was suffering frequent chest pain. By then I was hardly able to walk -- I was shuffling like an old lady. This all seemed very strange to me, since till then I had been in pretty good condition. I had all of our mezuzos checked, and they were fine. One had to be moved to the other side of the door, since at the time we had put it up, that had been the front door of our house; however since we had built a corridor connecting the house and the old office in February, it was no longer the main entrance, and the mezuzah should have been moved to the other side. However, this still did not correct my problems.

Since we don't put too much faith in local medical facilities, I had to travel to America together with Itchie to seek treatment. B"H my cousin, who is a very good doctor, connected with an excellent hospital, was able to see me the day after I arrived. After checking me and performing a number of tests, he said that he felt that I was in quite good health, but because of my fast pulse, he suggested that I see a top cardiologist. B"H we had connections to a Bikur Cholim, (a Jewish medical referal organization that also helps to obtain medical attention for those who don't have insurance,) that we used to work with years ago, when we lived in Alabama. They made the arrangements for us, and (since we have no medical insurance in the States,) they took care of the fees for the doctors and most of the tests. Well, I had a check-up with a big Fifth Avenue cardiologist, he did more tests, and he also found me to be in great shape, except for the fast heartbeat!

Considering all of the symptoms, and the fact that I am not prone to hypochondria, I felt that this was very strange. I was quite nervous about the prospect of returning to the Crimea, and then having an emergency, Heaven forbid, and not having anywhere to turn to for medical help. I thought "Rebbe, I want to return to Simferopol to continue your shlichus, so please give me some kind of a sign as to what the problem is!" That was on a Thursday. The same evening we went to visit our oldest daughter Elkie and her family. They had just bought a new house, which I had already seen, so originally, only Itchie was supposed to go to look at it. However, since we were planning on being in Montreal for Shabbos, and were short on time, instead of driving back and forth, I also went with them. The house was now in the middle of renovations. In the dining room, where there had been a mural and lovely wall treatments, they had ripped open one wall, and two old windows were now exposed. I asked Elkie why they would do such a thing, and she told me the following. Her contractor had told her about the "ethical will" of Rabbi Yehudah HaChossid, in which it states that windows and doors should never be entirely sealed up, since it could be harmful. If sheidim* had come in through them, they needed to be able to go out through them also. (Sheidim is usually translated as "demons." They are phenomena that can't be experienced with the five senses, yet they interface with the material world. It's pointed out in the Talmud that sheidim are around us all the time.) A friend of my daughter's who was standing there told me "It's true -- I have a young niece who was always falling and hurting herself badly. Her family discovered a plastered-over window in their home. As soon as it was opened, she stopped hurting herself. The opening remaining only has to be as big as a nail hole." Itchie said, yes, he remembered having heard about this before. Well, I did some quick thinking, and realized that I started having my symptoms at exactly the same time that we built the new office. It had been a basically unused garage. It was so poorly constructed that you could put your hand through the paper that was part of the walls. The kids were afraid to go in it, because they insisted they saw weird animals running around there, but I never saw anything. When the builders took down two of the walls to rebuild them, I had suggested removing the garage door, and building a new wall there also. However they told me that if I did that, my taxes would go up -- since it would now become a living area -- but if I left the door as it was, and just built a new wall on the inside, sealing up the door, it would be fine. So that is what we did! That Shabbos we spent in Montreal, at the home of our second daughter Bashie and her family. Friday morning, shortly after we arrived, I told her the strange story. Her husband Yossie is a locksmith. "Mommy," Bashie said, "Yossie is frequently called by people who are doing renovations. When they want to close up a window or door, they always ask him to install a peephole there, so it won't be entirely closed up!" Friday morning I tried contacting our office in Simferopol with the strange request that they quickly drill a hole in the wall. However, they said that (due to the time difference) it was almost Shabbos, and the earliest they could get the proper drill would be on Monday. Well, Monday our driver in Simferopol was finally able to drill the hole in the wall in our hole-in-the-wall. Tuesday I started feeling better, and by Wednesday all of the symptoms had disappeared, and I was back to my old self! Baruch Hashem, all's well that ends well, and this episode did.

* * * * * * *
I ended up missing Lag B'Omer altogether, as I flew back to the Crimea then, and it was lost in the difference between time zones. But Sholom Ber, who had stayed with the younger children while I was in New York, and Moishie, one of our Pesach bochurim, (who stayed in Crimea from before Purim till just before Shavuous,) made a nice bonfire, picnic, and program for the teenagers.

Just before Shavuous, and in preparation for the holiday, we had one of those minor miracles that (very) occasionally happen here. It is always a problem of where we will get dairy products for the holiday of the giving of the Torah, when most people eat blintzes topped with sour cream. In a country where almost nothing kosher is available, we discovered a small supply of kosher, cholov Yisroel, chocolate covered ice cream bars from Vienna! And what a price -- 35 kopeks each -- under 18 cents! The only way we can account for these unusually low prices - (last year Snapple was available for a short time at the same price, and once at Purim we got Israeli candies that usually cost 85 cents for 8 cents; good Vered chocolate was selling for 40 cents a bar, and Shoprite products can be bought in Kiev and even occasionally here) -- is that they are sent here as humanitarian aid. Whomever these items are sent to sells them instead of distributing them, and makes a tidy "profit." Anyway, it was very timely for us, and we were able to advertise that the "Ten Commandments" would be read in shul followed by an ice cream party for everyone, just as we had done in America, thus we had a very nice turnout for the holiday.

The most exciting news, of course, is that we are in the process of buying a building for a shul. It would still take us years to get back any existing old buildings that belonged to the Jewish community. The large Choral Synagogue in the center of town was burned down during the communist regime, and stores stand there now. The other buildings are mainly very small shteiblach. They and even the former yeshiva (now a "Physical Culture Institute") are located in "not the greatest" neighborhood. The yeshiva and another Jewish school building are now owned by the mafia, which makes getting them back a problem. The one "synagogue" (state radio station) that still stands, we have an extremely tenuouuus claim to, since it was a Karaite synagogue. So we looked for something close to the center of the town, where it would be convenient for most people.

We found a building on the corner of Archivniy Spusk and Na'birizhnaya (Archives Lane and The Embankment.) It is a corner building facing our picturesque little willow-lined river, near the "Center" (downtown.) It has a great foundation, and walls, and a nice sized yard, but needs a ton of reconstruction and remodelling to make it usable. We hope to include in the building a soup kitchen, library, classrooms, and mikvah as well as the sanctuary. Of course, the major obstacle* is money, because once we have that, we can proceed full speed ahead. We hope that we can depend on you, our good friends in the states, to help us overcome this one minor hurdle! It was interesting, Eli, the boys camp's head counsellor, who was also here for Pesach, recently wrote a report to the Rebbe about his activities here. Included in the answer from the Rebbe was "since it is obvious that the new shul will not be ready for use by Rosh Hashana, you should rent a building nearby, since it is known that the place where people daven for the holidays is where they tend to daven the remainder of the year." (The place that we are currently renting is very near the new site.) All of our time now is being spent on preparing for camp. Boruch Hashem we have great counsellors coming in from New York, England, and Israel. We felt that it was worth the extra expense to bring in "foreigners" to run the boys' camp as well as the girls' camp this year, so that the program would be run according to the same high standard. They have all been working really hard to prepare for a great summer, and we truly appreciate their efforts.
I guess that that's about it for now! I hope you all have a wonderful summer. Be well!

Sincerely,

Leah and Co.

*[We would later have much bigger hurdles to surmount.]

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.]