The Half Shekel: Jewish Americans and Ukraine

Shabbat Vayakhel/Shekalim 2022/5782

During the summer of 2008, when I was the rabbinic intern for the University of Florida Hillel, I was asked to lead an Alternative Spring Break trip to Ukraine to visit the Jewish communities there under the auspices of the Joint Distribution Committee, a leading global Jewish Humanitarian Organization. Going to Ukraine, I did not know what to expect, and it turned out to be one of the most incredible trips I had taken. 

Honestly, I did not know there were Jews still left in Ukraine, as so many left after the fall of Communism. I thought the only Jews that would be left would be Jewish seniors, who perhaps did not have family living in Israel or the U.S. to join, but I was mistaken. Our students interacted with their Ukrainian Jewish students who were involved with their Hillel. Together, we helped Jews who were food insecure, and we even helped clean up and performed minor renovations on people's homes. 

It was an interesting experience to see the interplay of an older generation of Jews who lived in poverty, but were Yiddish speakers, knew that they were Jewish, and lived under the shadow of Russia for their entire lives, and the younger generation, a few who spoke Hebrew, were proudly Ukrainian, and didn’t know much about their Jewish background at all. 

There was one young woman in particular that I remember. She was the president of the Hillel group. She said her father was Jewish, her mother not, but she chose to be Jewish because she just felt it in her heart.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of our parashah this week, and the words that Moshe gives to the people:

וַיָּבֹאוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים עַל־הַנָּשִׁים כֹּל  נְדִיב לֵב הֵבִיאוּ חָח וָנֶזֶם וְטַבַּעַת וְכוּמָז כּל־כְּלִי זָהָב וְכּל־אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר הֵנִיף תְּנוּפַת זָהָב לַיהֹוָה׃

“Men and women, all whose hearts moved them, all who would make an elevation offering of gold to the LORD came bringing brooches, earrings, rings, and pendants, gold objects of all kinds…” (Exodus 35:22)

These young people may have been much better off not being Jewish, and they had the freedom to leave it all behind, but they kept Judaism alive. 

It was a complicated trip, but so is the relationship between Ukraine and the Jewish people. It was the country where our people were massacred from 1648-1658 where 100,000 Jews and 300 Jewish communities were destroyed, and of course, the Holocaust where an estimated 1.5 million Jewish Ukrainians were murdered. 

But, it was also the cradle of the Hassidic movement. The Hasidic masters shared their names with the cities they lived in, like Reb Levy of Berdichev, the Chernobyl and Mezeritch Rebbes, and it is where Rav Nachman of Bretslov is buried, in Uman. 

But, there’s another side:

Rabbi Jeff Salkin wrote this week: 

But, then again, let us bring even more nuance into the story. Many Ukrainians risked their lives to save Jewish lives.

• In Hoszcza, a Ukrainian farmer, Fiodor Kalenczuk, hid a Jewish grain merchant, Pessah Kranzberg, along with his wife, their 10-year-old daughter and their daughter’s young friend, for 17 months. During the last week of September 1942, 500 Jews in Hoszcza were slaughtered. Because of Fiodor, the Kranzbergs were not among them.
• In Kiev, a Russian Orthodox priest, Aleksey Glagolyev, hid five Jews in his home.
• A farmer near Trembowla allowed 13-year-old Arieh Czeret to stay in his barn.
• In Budzanow, a Roman Catholic priest, Father Ufryjewicz, saved a Jewish family by baptizing them and falsifying baptismal certificates. He forged his parish register so as to give them an entire Christian ancestry.
• In Turka, Sister Jadwiga, who was also the head nurse at the local hospital, hid 12-year-old Lidia Kleiman in a cubicle in the men’s bathroom, which was used as a broom closet.

Yes, the relationship between the Jews and Ukraine has been complex, and even delicate at times.

Let us, therefore, remember that the current president of Ukraine is Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He is a Jewish comedian.

For a while, the prime minister of Ukraine was Volodymyr Groysman.

He is also Jewish.

So, ask yourselves the following questions.

How many countries have had Jewish presidents and Jewish prime ministers — simultaneously? (That would be Israel.)

Could the United States ever elect a Jewish comedian as president?”

Our trip went between Babi Yar, the site where 34,000 Jews were shot in two days, and learning and working with this vibrant Jewish population. 

Those young adults are now likely parents of small children, hiding in their homes as their country is being attacked by Russia. As the crisis continues, I know that the Jewish community in Ukraine will need our help. 

Today is a special Shabbat, Shabbat Shekalim, the first of four special Sabbaths, which are also called Arba Parashiyyot, and which occur in spring. Shabbat Shekalim is observed on the Shabbat immediately preceding the month of Adar. 

We are about to read Exodus 30:11-16, where our ancestors gave a half-shekel toward the upkeep of the Temple. This half-shekel offering gave the people a sense of equality, no matter how poor or rich you were, you gave the same amount to the center of the community. For the wealthy, it was likely a humbling experience, for the poor, an uplifting experience. 

We, the Jews of America, are the wealthy in the sense that although we have experienced antisemitism in recent years, we are in a stable country with true freedom. The Jews of Ukraine are now the other side of the coin. 

The Half Shekel is an interesting image - with the flip of a coin, we could be them, or they can be us. 

The Half Shekel unifies us as Jews, but I also as beneficiaries of living in western-style democracies. As we have learned, the liberal democracies that have led to our flourishing can be tenuous, even here in America. 

The Half Shekel gets us to practice giving, tzedakah, to help our ‘center’. Back then, it was the Mishkan, but at the center of the Mishkan were those willing hearts. 

And their hearts are breaking today, and so too should ours. 

To take it a step further, as Jews, we have entered into a new era where we stand shoulder to shoulder with other liberal democracies against autocrats and dictators. Israel stands with other liberal democracies, and the world is watching. 

This is not the time to only look at our side of the shekel, to be isolationist, both as Jews and Americans. It is time to see ourselves as being the other half of the coin to others who share our values.