Religion in Odessa

Svjato-Iversky Monastery

More than four years ago. with the blessing of the highest metropolitan of Odessa and Ismail, there was opened the friary in Odessa, devoted to the Iverskaya Virgin icon.

One can view the history of this icon from IX century – the time of iconoclast persecution in Byzantine. According to the emperors order the icon worshippers should be executed, and the icons – burnt.

Not far from town Nikei, during the reign of iconoclast emperor Fcophil (829-842), there lived a pious widow with a son. She had an ancient Virgin icon. Once, at night the soldiers burst into her house and stabbed the icon. The CUE began to bleed. The executors got frightened and agreed to wait till the dawn, for the widow to collect the money for ransom. The widow prayed at the seacoast and lowered the sacred image into the water. She noticed with joy that the icon didn’t sink but turned its front side to the coast and began to move away floating. Then it vanished. At that very night the mother had entreated her son to leave the house, while she herself remained to be martyred for icon worshipping. In the time of St. Euphimy being the Father-Superior of Iversky monastery, the monks were stricken by a strange and dreadful vision: on Tuesday, April 27, 999 they had seen the fiery pillar, and an icon in the waves at its Foundation. In three days Euphimy, accompanied by canticles of numerous monks, who stood on the shore with gonfalons and censers, entered the sea and stepping in a miraculous way above the waves, assumed a saint look.

The icon was hung forever at the top of the gates, behind which the monks had built then a temple to the Virgin, With the blessing of Odessa and Ismail Metropolitan, there was ordered an exact copy of Iverskaya Virgin Icon on sacred mount Aphon. The Aphon old man combined the work at the sacred image with prayers and fasting. In June, 2000 the wonderful image of Iverskaya Virgin was delivered in Odessa, on the territory of Iversky monastery, the place is constantly visited by the parishioners with the matter to get the consolation in prayers. The folk prayers are various: thanksgiving for mercy, appeal for healing and for blessing for the good deeds.

Nowadays. the prior of the monastery and deputy – archimandrite Veniamin together with the small community do their best reconstruct the destroyed temple. On the territory of the monastery they produce coal for censers, consecrated oil, mosaic tiles, ceramic church plates. There was opened an artesian spring with splendid pure water “Iversky Istochnik” (“Iversky Spring”) there.

The Signs of Renascence

Soon after the foundation of Odessa in 1798, there began the building of the first synagogues in the town. In 1855 the house at the corner of Jevreiskaya and Kichelievskaya streets underwent the reconstruction. The synagogue became large and light.. It calls the Chief synagogue of the city.

Round the whole hall, except the ambo wall, there runs a big gallery for praying women. It is one of the few monumental buildings in Odessa, designed by architect F. Morandi, which WAS built from shell stone (including the foundation, walls, columns and the vaults).

It should be noted that the Jewish community in the young Black Sea [own was finally formed in 1809. when Odessa Jews invited the first rabbi Izhok Rabinovich from Bendery. In the recently edited book by professor of Stratford University Steve Zipperstein “The Jews of Odessa, The History of Culture, 1794-1881″ the author notes the authorities favoring the building of synagogues and pray-houses in that period, because it was viewed as one of the means of drawing new settlers into the young city That is why the Government of Odessa found it necessary to take part in the solemn ceremony of opening of the Chief synagogue, with famous cantor Nisan Bluementahl also being present there, The Chief synagogue excited everybody’s admiration. It had entered even the classics of Jewish literature. In the story “Menahem-Mendl” by Shalom Alehem we read: “Odessa synagogue is worth while seeing! First of all it is called “choral” as it has the vaulted ceiling. Besides, there is no special eastern wall, everybody sitting with his face to the East. And what about cantor (his name is Pine: he’s such a cantor!)…” Here the author means great cantor Pinhus Minkovsky, whose incredibly beautiful and expressive voice amazed the parishioners of the synagogues around the wall.

In the Soviet period the Chief synagogue was one of the first establishments that were closed. After the Physical Training faculty of the pedagogical institute (nowadays Southern Ukrainian Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushinsky) having occupied the building, the latter began to lose its primary look in the course of reconstruction: the high hall was separated into two floors, the former main entrance being hidden behind the annex, where there is up till now the Anatomy and Physiology department. The figures “1899″ on the mosaic floor at the western wall of the synagogue – the date of the last hut one restoration – is the only reminder of the main entrance. New democratic time has come. On September 14 and 15. 1996, on the Jewish New Year’s days, there took place the first service after the seventy-years-long interval at the synagogue. It was hold by the Chief rabbi of Odessa and Odessa region Shlomo Baksht.

In October 1996 there happened a remarkable event the building of the Chief synagogue in Jevreiskaya Street, 25 (tel.34-78-50) was finally returned to the Jewish Religious Community. The Chief The Prayer rabbi of Israel. Aliagu Bakshi-Doro sent a letter of thanks to the Chiefman of Odessa regional state administration of that time.

Ruslan Borisovich Bodelan. In this later he says: ”We are thanking and blessing You for this important cause that You have done. It makes possible the development and existence of the Jewish Community. We are sure that the Creator of all the worlds will repay You for Your good deed; You will have success in all Your beginnings, connected with the common weal”.

During the following years the synagogue was thoroughly reconstructed, with bima (the eminence for reading Torah) and mikva being restored. Now there regularly take place the prayers there, which gather hundreds of parishioners. On big holiday’s there come not only Odessa citizens, but also the believers from Belgorod-Dnesirovsky, Ismail and Iljichovsk. Odessa Community is in a constant development, with the Jewish spiritual, cultural and creative life being restored. Recently there was founded the specialized school “Ohr Samcah”( tel. 731-10-67,34-07-19,715-13-30,732-42-01), functioning on the charity basis. The school is free of charge, as well as two boarding schools and a kindergarten. The children learn there about the traditions, religion and culture of their folk.

In 2001, in the system of charity organization “Ohr Sameah”, within the borders of the united secondary educational institution there studied more than 600 pupils from Odessa and the region as well as from the other parts of Ukraine. The school “Ohr Sameah” follows the state educational programs. Moreover, there is the row of additional subjects, devoted to the national specificity. Jewish traditions, history, Ivrit, Jewish literature, the history of Holocaust being studied is a separate subject. The lessons are conducted by Doctors and Candidates of Science, professors and senior lecturers, by highly qualified teachers from Odessa and Israel. From 1997 they made it possible the work on probation at the Jerusalem department of “Ohr Sameah” – the school “Ohrdessa” – according to the intergovernmental agreement (within the borders of the program “Naale-16″).

The basic traditions of the school “Ohr Sameah” suggests that love and respect to the national values, cultivated in the young generation, should harmonize with the respect for the culture of all the nations inhabiting Ukraine.