Jewish life and its attempted revival in Soviet Odessa
By Craig Terkowitz (*)
A lone worshipper in the only functioning synagogue
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This fragment of a gravestone is the only sign that a Jewish cemetery once existed in Odessa. The two tablets of the Ten Commandments are engraved on the stone. The cemetery was destroyed during the Communist era. It is thought that the other marble gravestones were used to pave the streets.
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A look a Jewish life in Odessa, Ukraine in August, 1991. These photos were taken on a ten day assignment to document Jewish life and its attempted revival in Soviet Odessa. One week after these photos were taken Gorbachev was kidnapped, and the Soviet Union was in disarray.
I was sent to Odessa on assignment with a reporter to document Jewish life in Odessa, and the attempts at reviving Jewish culture.
At the turn of the 19th century, Russian Jewry confronted a fundamental choice: to remain in the Soviet Union and face economic hardship and anti-Semitism, or to emigrate. Many Jews chose to emigrate. Historically unsympathetic to their plight, the communist regime ostensibly put an end to emigration options and systematically attempted to destroy the rich tapestry of Jewish life which had developed over hundreds of years of Eastern European Diaspora existence.
In 1991 there were approximately 60,000 Jews living in Odessa. Many were planning to leave. Most of them have spent their lives cut off from all forms of Jewish worship, ritual and culture. But there was and currently is a revival of interest, especially in the younger generations in Jewish learning.
Odessa is rich in Jewish history. The city, located on the Black Sea, was considered liberal and historically had a large Jewish population.
(*)Note: This is an extract of the article originally published at the Baltimore Jewish Times in 1991. Thanks to Neil Rubin for his permission to reproduce it here.
The article was also published on Craig Terkowitz website that unfortunately is not longer online.
