Last Updated on April 27, 2022
Join us this coming Shabbat and light an extra candle for the displaced Jews in the Ukraine who are unable to perform this simple mitzvah. Please hold them in your thoughts as you bless your candles.
Kiev Candle Lighting Times
March 25 – Shabbat Starting: 6.01pm
March 26 – Shabbat Ending: 7.09pm
This Week’s Torah Reading
This week’s Portion of the Law is Parshat Hashavua SHEMINI
The Jews of the Ukraine
With deep roots, Ukraine is home to one of the world’s largest Jewish communities and it is the birthplace of the Hasidic movement.
Ukraine has also been the site of extreme antisemitism and in fact, the the most horrific violence ever committed against the Jewish people was committed there, during the Holocaust.
Ukraine’s Jewish Population
The European Jewish Congress estimates that there are between 360,000 – 400,000 Jews living in the Ukraine. Kiev, Odessa and Karkhiv are home to the biggest communities. The next census is scheduled for 2023.
Uman is a small city but is well known for the grave of 18th-century Hasidic Rabbi Nahman of Breslov. Every year around Rosh Hashanah Hasidic Jews make an annual pilgrimage to Rabbi Nahman’s grave. A few hundred Jews live in Uman permanently.
