Can Good Come Out of Ukraine?

The purpose of this blog is to promote pattern-seeking at the Shabbat table....please print, share, and forward.

Just in time for Purim, here's a coincidence to share at the table.

By chance, yesterday I learned something about my Ukrainian ancestry.

If you recall, two weeks ago I mentioned that three of my four sets of grandparents' parents came from Ukraine.

The fourth set - the Seinfelds - officially came from "Galicia" (Ga-LIT-sia).

On today's map, that could be in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary — who knows?

So ever since Isaac Singer told my father, "You look like Seinfelds I knew back in Poland," our best guess was that the Seinfelds came from somewhere near Krakow. We had no other evidence. 

But this week I was contacted by someone researching the original Jewish community of my hometown. She found grandpa Seinfeld's US naturalization card in some Chicago archive.

It turns out that my father's father's father Sigmond was born in Solotwina, now called Solotvyn, Ukraine in 1881. 

That area called Galicia has the disgraceful distinction of being the home of history's first and possibly worst pogroms, the Chemielnitski massacres. (Also known as the Cossack Riots.)

Even today (as I mentioned last week) Ukraine retains much antisemitism. 

For example, despite its Jewish president, to this day the city of Kyiv continues to honor Bogdan Chemielnitski with an huge equestrian statue in the middle of town:

(Here's a detailed close-up.)

How would you feel if you lived in Kyiv and every day drove by that memorial to one of the biggest murderers of Jews in history? 

(And don't hope that the Russians are going to target it - in Moscow there's the fairly new Bogdan Khmelnitsky Bridge)

These pogroms continued sporadically for centuries throughout the region, including Warsaw (1881), Kishinev (1903), and Kiev (1905).

Imagine growing up Jewish in that environment. It's no wonder that thousands of young Jews, including my great-grandparents, ran away.

Question for your table: What's today's war all about for you and me? Is it mainly politics, is it mainly history, is it mainly economics, or is it mainly a Jewish story of Jewish suffering and a Jewish call to arms?

(There are many ways to help. See last week's post.)

A few more random questions for your table:

- Is the fact that Poland is accepting millions of refugees — many of whom are Jewish — a sign of human progress?

- Should we do everything we can to encourage Jews to leave Ukraine, or should we mind our own business?

- Does it matter where you came from or how far back you can trace your ancestry?

- Purim is next week - due to current events, should we maybe skip Purim this year, or at least tone it down?

- Choosing to help someone is obviously a tremendous mitzvah; is not helping also a choice, or would that be considered a lack of a choice?


Shabbat Shalom

and 

¡ɯᴉɹnԀ ʎddɐH


PPS -  This week's 6.5-minute podcast is called "Healthy ɯᴉɹnԀ!" and there are 10 ways to hear it:

iTunes/iPhone … YidPod … Spotify … Google Podcasts … Pocketcasts … Stitcher … Podbean … Amazon Podcasts … RSS … or just on the web.

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