A day in Kiev and Hnativka Saturday, May 16, 2015
A day in Kiev and Hnativka
Saturday, May 16, 2015
by Aaron Ginsburg
I am posting this now because I will return to Hnativka and hope to discuss the preservation of the site of the Jewish cemetery and a monument to the Jewish community with local officials.
I decided to go to the progressive (reform) synagogue near me in Podil. I had contacted the Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny of Congregation Ha-Tikvah” when planning this trip. I also contacted Jeanna Burgina a shul member and tour guide and offered to speak or show the Dokshitsy video. After the warm greeting in Cherkasy I was hoping for a similar experience in Kiev.
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| Ten Days of Tishrei: Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny at the Kiev Hatikvah Religious Center for Progressive Judaism. source http://www.wupj.org/ |
Soon I was ushered into the synagogue. The minute he became aware of my presence the Rabbi started announcing the pages in English. I chuckled since I was capable of finding them. The prayerbook was in Hebrew and Russian. It was a reform Siddur, and on the short side, but everything was familiar and I felt right at home. At the end of services the Rabbi was very cordial. He apologized for running out of talesim saying that not enough people brought them from home. He then invited me to stay for lunch, and to speak and offered to translate, as long as I didn’t go on for more than 30 minutes.
At the pot-luck lunch, Boris Zebarko and I were introduced. Boris must have been a first timer. Boris is the head of the Organization of Holocaust Survivors and Partizans in the Ukraine. I spoke about my experiences in Belarus. While the Rabbi translated, I would think ahead to the next anecdote that I would share. One American present was a teacher of music in Kiev. He was only the second American I met in the entire trip. The other was Frank Swartz who helped me in Belarus and Vilna. I did not meet a single American tourist.
Walking to my apartment, I stumbled on a farmer’s market It was on the sidewalk, and many of the people appeared to be farmers who had impromptu stands. Nothing formal, it was just there.
By 2 PM I was back. I happened to look out the apartment window for the first time, and noticed that I had an excellent view of the Andriyivskyy Descent, a street that winds down from the plateau overlooking Podil. Podil is along the Dnieper, which has cut though the plain over the eons.
Anastasiya and her boyfriend picked me up so we could visit Ignatowka, where I believe my grandmother was born. Sarah Karnowsky Pokross had told me she was from Kiev. I found the 1913 ships manifest for her aunt Rebecca Karnowsky Arbor (Obershowski) gave her place of birth as Ingnatowka. In Yiddish it is Ignativka, and is believed to be the village Anatevka, of Fiddler in the Roof fame. Ignatowka is about 13 miles from Kiev and in an area that is transitioning from rural to urban to accommodate an expanding city of two million.
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| Ohel of Mordechai of Chernobyl |
By looking on jewishgen.org I learned that there was a jewish cemetery in Hnativka with an ohel, although I had no idea what an ohel was. After my visit I checked wikipedia and learned that it’s a building or tent built over the grave of a Tzaddik.
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| Ohel note in door |
When we arrived the Ohel was a small building in a vacant lot down a long driveway behind a house. A slip of paper visible In the door window had a phone number. Soon a woman came running with the key. The ohel was said to be over the grave of Mordechai of Chernobyl. He had chosen to be buried in Ignatovka so his grave would not be overlooked by a cross, i.e., by a church.
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| The woman with the key |
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| “Here lies Yehuda Lev Ben Naftali Shtekleberg” |
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| Site of Jewish Cemetery and Community |
The woman pointed out the area of the cemetery, and a vacant lot beyond where the Jewish neighborhood had been. Indeed there was no sign of any churches in the immediate neighborhood, or of a Christian cemetery. There were no headstones. We were informed that during the Soviet era Ignatovka was combined with a nearby village, and that all the headstones where brought there and used in construction. Nearby were two exceptions. We went over to them and they were well preserved and the last names were legible….Hannah Volfvovna Bolshavskaya from Gregorichka and Yehuda Lev Ben Naftali Shtekleberg.
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| ”Hannah Volfovna Boshavskaya from Grogorichka 1869-1911” |
Nearby was construction material. We were told it was for a hotel, but when completed it was a dormitory and synagogue to house Jewish refugees.
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| Future hotel? |
It was very exciting to visit Hnativka, despite the lack of anything to see. It took me fourteen years, 2000-2014, to understand the clues and link them to an actual location! My quest started in 2000 when Reuben Arbor, a grandson of Rebecca Karnowsky Arbor told me that his father said that, “he was from the same town as Tevye the Milkman in Fiddler on the Roof.”
We then went to the neighboring village to see if we could find any of the stones. We did find some from a Christian cemetery that were used to support a building. We asked at the local church but our informant was not aware of any stones from the Jewish Cemetery. They could still be there of course.
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| Shav at Katyusha |
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| Waitress, Anastasiya Kasilova and her boyfriend at soviet style Katyusha |
Then it was back to Katyusha for supper. I decided to have schav instead of borsht. Anastasiya explained that the restaurant was designed to look like a soviet-era apartment. This included the chairs, the wall paper, and the books and radio and phones that provided the decorations. By this time I was a known quantity, and got a little grin from the waitress when I included her in a photo. @hnativka
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