Up to 50,000 Hasidic Jewish pilgrims are set to descend on the Ukrainian city of Uman to mark next week’s new year festival of Rosh Hashanah, with the faithful determined to continue to celebrate their traditions despite the dangers of Russia’s invasion.
Notwithstanding official warnings against travel to Ukraine, hundreds of visitors have already begun to arrive at the gravesite of the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, Rabbi Nachman, which has been a place of pilgrimage since his death in 1810.
“The pilgrims – they’re afraid of nothing,” said Irina Rybnitskaya, a local lawyer who leads a heritage foundation that protects Uman’s ancient Jewish cemetery and historical sites.
“A lot of people come on Rosh Hashanah because they believe if they begin the year in Uman at the grave of Rabbi Nachman, the year will be very happy for them.”
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As Ukraine’s airspace is closed to passenger flights, pilgrims from Israel, the United States and elsewhere have begun flying into countries that border Ukraine and taking buses or taxis to Uman, which had a population of about 80,000 before many women and children left due to the war.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy discussed the potential security risks to the gathering with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Thursday.
“Ukraine always welcomes pilgrims with warmth and hospitality and is responsible for their security,” Mr Zelenskiy said in a statement after the call, describing the event as a “security challenge”.
His office warned that there were only enough bomb shelters in the city’s pilgrimage area to accommodate 11,000 people.
“In the context of Russia’s full-scale aggression and the constant threat of attacks by Russian missiles and Iranian drones, this year’s pilgrimage will be accompanied by high security risks,” the statement warned.
Natan Ben-Nun, the president of the Rabbi Nachman Foundation, said pilgrims would be “praying for peace” as well as for a good new year. “We hope Russia does not make a mistake,” he said.
Though Uman is not at the front line of the war, in April Russia launched a cruise missile into a block of flats in the city, killing 23 civilians including six children.
Even in peacetime, the city of Uman has struggled logistically to cope with the annual surge in population, which can strain its water supplies and rubbish collection capacity.
A ban on the sale of alcohol this year is expected to help avert the rowdy scenes associated with the event in the past, when it was dogged by reports of excessive drinking, drug-taking and disorder.
All visitors must also observe Ukraine’s midnight curfew, and will have to pass checkpoints to enter the city and the pilgrimage site.
The pilgrimage accounts for a significant part of the local economy, as many locals rent out their apartments or provide services to the pilgrims, and the city raises significant revenue through a nightly tourist tax.
The number of pilgrims to Uman began to swell after the fall of the Iron Curtain made it possible for outsiders to travel to the site once again, and visitors proved determined to continue to make the journey even during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Uman’s Jewish community was massacred during the 18th century and again during the German occupation of the second World War, and believers only narrowly managed to rescue Rabbi Nachman’s grave from being built over for a housing project during Soviet times.
The sense of having prevailed over history lends some pilgrims an additional determination to continue to observe their traditions and live life to the fullest, whatever the circumstances.
“Whether it’s war, or a pandemic,” said Mr Ben-Nun. “The show must go on.”
