Revitalizing the City of Berditchev
By Avrohom ben Yitzchok

 Although we are used to hearing about new shluchim being sent to yet more cities around the world, I thought the readers would be interested in hearing about the Chabad House in Berditchev. It opened about half a year ago in the city about which it is said that just mentioning its name is enough to be melamed z’chus on the Jewish people at large.

Berditchev is very far from the urban centers, and is quite primitive. It’s as though time stopped there about 70-80 years ago. I was able to spend Shabbos, Erev Chof-Dalet Teives, the Alter Rebbe’s yom hilula, at the new Chabad House, and to see the amazing work being done there from up close.

Ten years ago, with the beginning of Perestroika in the Soviet Union, shluchim began openly operating in dozens of cities and towns. Rabbi Shmuel Plotkin of New York began work in Berditchev, having received a bracha from the Rebbe to do so.

Some time afterwards, Rabbi Plotkin expanded his activities to nearby Zhitomir. Since Zhitomir is larger than Berditchev, the center of activities switched to Zhitomir. For various reasons, the work in Berditchev ceased for some time. Nevertheless, the Rebbe continued to encourage him and remind him specifically about Berditchev. Rabbi Plotkin felt obligated to follow through on his work there.

In the past half a year, a number of amazing things occurred that enabled the Chabad House to be established in Berditchev, yesh mei’ayin (ex nihilo). Throughout the summer, two bachurim had worked in the western Ukraine, under the shaliach of Zhitomir, Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm. Among other places they visited, they went to Berditchev. Rabbi Plotkin used this opportunity to suggest that they continue working in that city.

Thanks to the help of Tamim Levi Yitzchok Plotkin, funding was obtained to buy a large house in the center of town on a spacious lot. The entire process of buying the house and renovating it was miraculous. If you are aware of the primitive conditions in these cities and small towns of the Ukraine, you know how hard it is to obtain anything.

After the renovations were done, the Jews of Berditchev were invited to the new Chabad House. This was right before Rosh HaShana of this year. Two Tmimim-shluchim, Shmuel Goldberg and Moshe Thaler, began working in Berditchev with Rabbi Plotkin supplying the funding.

Until the Russian Revolution, there were 87 functioning shuls in Berditchev. Only one remained afterwards, in which no more than twenty old men davened. On the Yomim Noraim this year, nearly 200 people joined the tefillos, about 35% of the Jews of the city. As they said themselves, this was something unheard of in the past seventy years! The Jews there never dreamed that they would have an active Jewish center in their town. It should be noted that despite 70 years of communism and spiritual neglect, their hearts are warm to Yiddishkeit. Most people speak Yiddish, and even the younger generation speaks or understands the language.

A tremendous amount of work was done for Succos. Every Jew in the area was reached, as well as those living in the tiny neighboring towns. And for Chanuka, for the first time in history, a giant menora was lit in the town, with hundreds of Jews and non-Jews participating. Hundreds of Jews also attended the Chanuka party organized by the Tmimim.

Of course, brissin continue to be scheduled routinely, and it’s impressive to see the number of children who want to study at the Jewish school in Zhitomir and who travel for an hour each way to do so. Today, less than half a year since they opened the Chabad center, there are three tefillos a day attended by 20-30 people, there’s a Kollel Tiferes Zikeinim, shiurim for men and women, an ulpan for reading and writing Hebrew, Shabbos davening with dozens of people, farbrengens, and house calls – each one a moving story.

As I said, I arrived in Berditchev for Shabbos, Chaf-Gimmel Teives. About thirty men participated in the davening. Before sh’kia (sunset), the women lit candles and after the davening there was kiddush and a farbrengen, which went on late into the night.

The next day too, following the davening, there was a lengthy farbrengen, and nobody wanted to leave. Sitting at the farbrengen, the atmosphere surrounding me was so permeated with the warmth of Yiddishkeit and ahavas Yisroel that if I hadn’t known otherwise, I would have thought this had been going on in the community for years. I thought in amazement about the koach of the Rebbe, the meshaleiach, and about the great mesirus nefesh of the Tmimim who have come to this forsaken place, cut off from the rest of the world.

I also thought of the mesirus nefesh of Rabbi Shmuel Plotkin, an older Chassid. Many people his age sit in their comfortable homes in Eretz Yisroel or Crown Heights, but he left his warm home in Brooklyn for Berditchev. I wondered if Berditchev has merited to have shluchim in the z’chus of its legendary Rebbe of 250 years ago, R’ Levi Yitzchok. Who knows? Perhaps he asked his mechutan, the Alter Rebbe, to send his Chassidim there.

On Monday, the 25th of Teives, there was a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Chabad center. It will have a large hall, classrooms, a library, and mikva. The day before this we went to the Alter Rebbe’s tziyun in Haditch.

Before I arrived, I thought that the hashgacha pratis of my trip to Berditchev was in order to farbreng with the locals and give them a measure of Yiddishkeit. The truth is that I got more than I gave. When I saw how strongly drawn the Jews there are to Yiddishkeit, I sincerely wished I had the same enthusiasm. There’s no question that the world is becoming more and more ready to greet Moshiach, even in the most remote places.