{"id":2372,"date":"2010-09-09T17:15:36","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T17:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2010\/09\/50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new.php"},"modified":"2010-09-09T17:15:36","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T17:15:36","slug":"50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/09\/50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new","title":{"rendered":"50,000 Hasidic Mark Jewish New Year in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Associated Press &#8211; September 9, 2010<br \/>\nKIEV, Ukraine &#8211; Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews from around the world gathered in a small Ukrainian city Thursday to mark the Jewish New Year at the tomb of their spiritual leader &#8211; an apparent record for the annual all-male pilgrimage banned for decades by the Soviets.<br \/>\nUkraine&#8217;s chief rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich estimated this year&#8217;s turnout at up to 50,000 pilgrims in the city of Uman, located 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.<br \/>\nThe Hasidic men and boys were praying, dancing and reciting psalms around the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav on the 200th anniversary of his death.<br \/>\nNachman was renowned for his mystical interpretations of Jewish texts and his belief that higher spirituality could be achieved through a combination of prayer, meditation and good deeds. On his deathbed, Nachman is said to have promised to be an advocate for anyone who would come and pray beside his tomb.<br \/>\nRecent turnouts at the pilgrimage had been around 25,000 people.<br \/>\n&#8220;I came here because Rabbi Nachman made a promise that if you came here he will intercede for you in heaven and try to help you out,&#8221; pilgrim Jonathan Noah of the United Kingdom said as Jews streamed into the eastern Ukraine city of 100,000 earlier this week.<br \/>\nThe pilgrimage was outlawed when Ukraine was part of the officially atheist Soviet Union, although some Jews secretly made their way to the area despite the threat of arrest.<br \/>\n&#8220;Arrests, persecution from the securities was a part of &#8216;adventure&#8217; that Hasidic Jews paid to pray at the tomb of Rabbi Nachman,&#8221; said the Brooklyn-born Bleich.<br \/>\nAfter Ukraine obtained independence in 1991, its first President Leonid Kravchuk, who opened Jewish schools and synagogues in then mostly anti-Semitic Ukraine, removed the Soviet ban and officially allowed the pilgrimage.<br \/>\nIn the last decade, commemorations have ballooned into a massive event. A few recently built hotels cannot supply the pilgrims with enough space, and many still stay in tents.<br \/>\n&#8220;Very bad water and electric supplies, and the whole infrastructure does not fit the world standards,&#8221; said Bleich.<br \/>\nBenjamin Holm of Jerusalem had to sleep in a tent but was not disappointed.<br \/>\n&#8220;I came to Uman to open my heart and to feel more. To feel the love that I want to feel, to care more, to give more and to share more,&#8221; Holm said earlier this week.<br \/>\n<em>Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Associated Press &#8211; September 9, 2010 KIEV, Ukraine &#8211; Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews from around the world gathered in a small Ukrainian city Thursday to mark the Jewish New Year at the tomb of their spiritual leader &#8211; an apparent record for the annual all-male pilgrimage banned for decades by the Soviets. Ukraine&#8217;s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>50,000 Hasidic Mark Jewish New Year in Ukraine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/09\/50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"50,000 Hasidic Mark Jewish New Year in Ukraine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Associated Press &#8211; September 9, 2010 KIEV, Ukraine &#8211; Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews from around the world gathered in a small Ukrainian city Thursday to mark the Jewish New Year at the tomb of their spiritual leader &#8211; an apparent record for the annual all-male pilgrimage banned for decades by the Soviets. 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Ukraine&#8217;s&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/09\/50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2010-09-09T17:15:36+00:00","author":"aroan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/09\/50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/09\/50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new","name":"50,000 Hasidic Mark Jewish New Year in Ukraine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-09-09T17:15:36+00:00","dateModified":"2010-09-09T17:15:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c6e65092118456e72064bc1332984cfc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/09\/50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/09\/50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2010\/09\/50000-hasidic-mark-jewish-new#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"50,000 Hasidic Mark Jewish New Year in Ukraine"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/c6e65092118456e72064bc1332984cfc","name":"aroan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f35\/f3587d75a20cb88f1c76fd277ee82fc5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f35\/f3587d75a20cb88f1c76fd277ee82fc5x96.jpg","caption":"aroan"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/aroan"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}