Many synagogues have a rummage sale in the summer, usually to benefit themselves. The one being held at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun on July 18 and 19, however, is significantly different.
This is the synagogue’s first major benefit event for their sister community, the Jews of Simferopol in the Crimea region of Ukraine.
Simferopol is a community plagued with many problems, according to e-mails sent from Anatoly Gendin, chair of the Association of the Jewish Organizations and Communities of Crimea. As Emanu-El reports in the fact sheet it sent with its release about the sale:
“Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the society and the economy of Ukraine have essentially collapsed…. Average wages for those with jobs is the equivalent of $80 per month and jobs are not readily available, especially for the old.”
Moreover, “the situation for Jews may be worse than average. Anti-Semitism remains prevalent.”
Evelyn Rosen, co-chair of the rummage sale with Ed Sternberg, said Gendin told them that the Simferopol Jewish community’s hall has such a bad electrical system, it can only handle one space heater during the winter; if people plug in a second one, the fuses blow.
“That truly got to me,” said Rosen. “We need money at Emanu-El, but Jews there need it even more.”
Even so, said Sternberg, “It’s always astonishing to me when I talk to Anatoly or read [the community’s] publications, you never get a sense of a community in want. Rather, you get a sense that their community is an island of strength” and “that it’s a resource for people, some of whom may not have many resources otherwise.”
The process connecting the communities began about two years ago, when Harvey Goldstein, president of Emanu-El’s brotherhood, saw an article in Reform Judaism magazine about needy Jewish communities in the FSU.
“I remembered that when we were still fighting the Soviet Union that there were communities for which we would do things,” like twinning b’nai mitzvah ceremonies, Goldstein said. “It occurred to me that since the fall of the Soviet Union, we hadn’t done that much to maintain the connection and to foster the relationship. So I felt that one thing we could do was adopt a Jewish community and give them some assistance.”
He spoke about this with Emanu-El’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Marc Berkson, who approved. “Whatever our own financial concerns may be, it is appropriate to try to help our brothers and sisters in need,” Berkson told The Chronicle.
Berkson suggested that Goldstein contact Chicago Action for Jews in the Former Soviet Union. This organization’s activities include a Yad L’Yad program, founded more than 10 years ago, that links about 50 Midwest synagogues and Jewish community groups with Jewish communities throughout the FSU.
Chicago Action linked Simferopol to Emanu-El, which so far is the only Wisconsin synagogue on the Yad L’Yad list posted on Chicago Action’s Web site.
To date, individual members of the synagogue and the brotherhood have made financial contributions of about $4,000 to the Simferopol community. This weekend’s rummage sale is being run by the brotherhood and the Women of Emanu-El (formerly the sisterhood) and has “rallied a large portion of the congregation,” said co-chair Sternberg.
Moreover, “there is hope down the road” that members of Emanu-El will travel to visit Simferopol, said Berkson.
For more information, call the synagogue, 414-228-7545.
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