Thursday, September 24, 2020
3,000 Hasidic Cossacks Congregate on Ukrainian Border
Operating in total haste, the Ukrainian government unexpectedly announced last month that in response to a serious upswing in cases of COVID-19, it would reestablish the most stringent border entry policy in the world. That public health policy has created a new problem for the Eastern European country: A large group of religious Jews prone to bouts of jubilant dancing is now marooned on the Ukrainian border, pleading and demanding entry into the country so they can carry out their annual religious rites.
Ukraine's entry ban was set to commence for the month from Aug. 28 to Sept. 28, leading some observers to speculate that it was aimed specifically at the religious pilgrims who embark on an annual pilgrimage to the Ukrainian town of Uman and engage in Rosh Hashanah festivities. The anarchic, mystical, dance-filled gathering of tens of thousands of Hasidim is very much akin to the Burning Man festival of the Jewish world. The atmosphere does not leave much room for social distancing, which led Ukrainian authorities to predict that it could become a superspreader event and prompted their intervention.
The destination for the festivities is the tomb of Rabbi Nachman, the founder of the mystically inclined Breslov Hasidic dynasty, which is located halfway between Odessa and Kyiv. The pilgrimage ritual began after his death in 1811 and continued on as a clandestine activity during late Soviet times when all religious observances were banned by the Soviet authorities. It has morphed in recent decades into an annual ritual for thousands of Hasids who arrive mostly from Israel and America but also come from France, the United Kingdom, and the wider post-Soviet world.
Notably, the pilgrimage to Uman has been a source of occasional tension and trouble for many years, with the friction occasionally erupting into local violence that has a way of transforming into diplomatic headaches for all involved. This year, both the Israeli and the Ukrainian governments had pleaded with the Hasidim—to no avail—that they take this plague year off from visiting the tomb of the rabbi. Neither government had particularly wanted the problems which were to follow and the Israeli government engaged in high-level diplomatic negotiations with the Ukrainians regarding the issue.
Last Thursday evening, a truly surreal video appeared on social media as several dozen Hasidim dressed up in traditional Ukrainian folk costumes in order to serenade the Ukrainians into offering them entry. Looking fabulous in billowy white shirts and blue sashes over the bright red trousers of Ukrainian Cossacks, the Hasids performed a shortened version of the Ukrainian national anthem in a rather minor mournful key. One of them strummed a guitar while singing the words of the Ukrainian anthem with a charming, lilting accent. The rendition was surprisingly melancholic and moving. They concluded the song by offering up thanks to Ukraine and to Ukraine's Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky personally. "Glory to Ukraine!" they exclaim in unison at the end of the video, with likely no understanding of the historical provenance of the phrase.
With all direct flights to Kyiv canceled, the Hasidim who were determined to make a run at the border needed to do so by arriving in next door Belarus. This required them to decamp in the middle of a revolutionary situation and massive popular protests that followed the falsified Aug. 9 presidential election and ensuing violence between demonstrators and state security forces. Kyiv recently broke off all political and diplomatic relations with Minsk in response to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's continued accusations that Ukraine meddled in Belarus' political upheaval and fomented problems at the border between the two nations. Ukrainian officials who were already incensed with Minsk over the accusations now suspected that the Belarusians were also funneling Hasidic mystics to their border in order to cause further problems.
The BBC reported that "the office of Ukraine's president said Belarus was spreading false hope that the pilgrims could cross. Belarus wants a corridor to be opened for them." The fact that Ukraine's President Zelensky is himself of Jewish patrimony has not put him in any rush to assist the religious pilgrims—if anything, Zelensky's background likely makes him more reluctant to be seen as offering special accommodations to the Hasidic travelers. On Tuesday, President Lukashenko took time away from the existential legitimacy crisis that threatens to topple his 26-year-long dictatorship in order to opine that Ukraine had to provide a "green corridor for pilgrims to arrive in Uman by bus." Accusations that the Ukrainians were committing human rights violations were proffered without any apparent irony.
A phalanx of Ukrainian border guards resting on their steel shields can be seen manning a checkpoint in front of hundreds of Orthodox men in videos published from the border. Some of the Hasidim at the border wait pensively, some pray, and others dance raucously.
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