Hasidic Jews Make Yearly Rosh Hashanah Pilgrimage to Ukraine

Rabbi Nachman’s tomb in Uman (Wikimedia Commons)

Around 27,000 Hasidic Jews traveled to Uman, Ukraine, this week to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Uman is sacred to Hasidism because it is the final resting place of Hasidic movement founder Rabbi Nachman. 

Ringing in the year 5780, these pilgrims from all over the world celebrated by dancing in the streets of Uman, carrying a torah case through the town, and praying in groups to thank the city for sheltering their founder, Rabbi Nachman. Two-hundred Ukranian police officers and 20 Israeli police officers protected the pilgrims, the majority of whom had traveled to the central Ukranian city from Israel.

The annual event is not always well received by locals. Police forces blocked off the sections of the city where the pilgrims were staying from the rest of the population. The reason for this separation is the excessive rowdiness and chaotic behavior of the pilgrims. This week in Uman, visitors started five different apartment fires and even took over the airport speakers in Kiev to play Hasidic music. 

The city of Uman has a rich Jewish history, and the Hasidic tradition of traveling to Uman dates back to just before Nachman’s death in 1811, when he would call his followers to be with him on Rosh Hashanah. Since that time, not only have Hasidic Jews visited the grounds, but they have settled in the city. Like many sites in Ukraine, the city also has a tragic history of violence toward Jewish people.

The Jewish New Year happens to coincide with the anniversary of one of these events. As Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky recognized earlier in the week, this year Rosh Hashanah falls on the anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre in Ukraine, in which 33,741 Jews were led into the Babyn Yar ravine in 1941 and executed. 

“Tragic pages of our history ought to be remembered not only for the sake of honoring the killed but also for drawing conclusions from the past and not allowing for mistakes in the future,” Zelensky said on September 29 in recognition of the event.

Zelensky was a source of controversy during this year’s pilgrimage, as the leader of the Association of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine criticized him for not being at the celebration himself. Zelensky, a non-practicing Jew, was in Kiev at the time, having returned from a trip to speak at the United Nations. However, other Jewish leaders in Ukraine have defended Zelensky, noting that Zelensky raised Jewish issues at Babyn Yar with the Israeli prime minister and also that it was against the spirit of the New Year holiday to criticize others.