This is a photograph of the "Malbish Arumim and Tailors’ Synagogue" in Odessa, Ukraine. The synagogue is located at 21 Osipova Street and is currently the synagogue of the Chabad community and the centre of Jewish life in Odessa. The photograph was taken in 2006 and is part of the collection of the Center for Jewish Art. The low, grey building sits between two taller buildings. The front of the building has three large arched windows and a tall arched door. Two Ukrainian flags are flying on poles attached to both sides of the building. To the right of the building is a large, peaked arch fitted with an iron gate decorated in the shape of a menorah, leading into an alley. A security camera can be seen in the top right-hand corner of the building.
The name of the synagogue, Malbish Arumim (meaning clothing the naked), comes from the charitable society of the same name which donated funds to provide clothing for the poor and to build the synagogue. For this reason, the synagogue was also called the Tailors’ Synagogue. The original building functioned as a synagogue until 1927 when the Communist regime forbade Jewish prayer and closed it. It was reopened in 1992 after the fall of the Soviet Union and Shabbat and holiday services are now held in the synagogue. The synagogue has been named Shomrei Shabbat (observers of the Sabbath) by the Chabad community which now owns the synagogue.
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The Jewish Community of Odessa – Jews first arrived in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1789. The Jews of Odessa were involved in trade, industry, banking, and academic professions. The community consisted of Jews of different groups, but Odessa was a centre of the Enlightenment (haskala). Zionist groups were becoming popular in Odessa and prominent Zionist leaders lived in the city: for example, Meir Dizengoff, Leon Pinsker, Ahad Ha’am, Menachem Ussishkin, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and Joseph Klausner. Despite the flourishing of Jewish culture, the 1800s were also characterised by several violent and fatal pogroms that involved all segments of the Ukrainian society. The Russian revolution of 1917 brought an end to the Jewish activities in Odessa and much of the leadership moved to Constantinople and Kiev and other destinations. By the beginning of World War II, the Jewish population of Odessa reached 180,000 – nearly a third of the city’s population. About half of the Jewish community was able to escape Odessa before the German and Romanian invasion in 1941. The remaining Jews were persecuted, deported, and murdered, including an incident in October 1941 when close to 20,000 Jews were rounded up near the harbour where they were shot and burned alive. When the Soviet Army regained control of Odessa in 1944, only a few thousand Jews were living in the city, many hiding in homes or catacombs. After the Holocaust, Jews returned to Odessa but were not allowed by the Soviet authorities to practice Judaism openly. During the year of the communist rule of the Ukraine, the Jewish community declined significantly. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of the Ukraine most of the remaining Jews left the country, mostly moving to Israel. Currently there are about 45,000 Jews living in Odessa. The Joint Distribution Committee and Chabad have contributed to organizing communal life for the Jewish community. Religious life is centered in the Malbish Arumim Synagogue which is now called the Chabad synagogue. The city also has educational institutions for children of different ages, a Jewish library, a cultural society, and a welfare organisation.
Jewish Community of Ukraine – Jews first arrived in Ukraine in the ninth century seeking refuge from Byzantium, Persia, and Mesopotamia. Jews were allowed to practice Judaism openly and prospered during this period. In the 1500s, a large influx of Jews from Western Europe arrived in Ukraine, which became an important centre of Jewish life. However, in the ensuing periods, anti-Semitic sentiment grew in Ukraine, and the Cossack uprising of 1648 resulted in the murder of over 20,000 Jews and the departure of many others to more tolerant countries. At the end of the eighteenth century, Ukraine was made a part of the Russian Pale of Settlement. Although this was a difficult period for Ukrainian Jews, new ideas and organisations developed such as Hasidism, the Haskalah (the Jewish enlightenment), and Zionism. As a result of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Pale of Settlement was dissolved and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Jews moved to other parts of the Soviet Union. Under communism, Jewish and Zionist activity moved underground as the party did not allow such activity. During the Holocaust, it is believed that a million Jews were killed in Ukraine, including those killed in a large massacre at Babi Yar and others murdered by the Einsatzgruppen. The Germans were joined by Ukrainian collaborators, and according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “Ukraine has, to the best of our knowledge, never conducted a single investigation of a local Nazi war criminal, let alone prosecuted a Holocaust perpetrator.” After the war, Jews who returned to their former homes in Ukraine were met with hostility by the local population. In the 1980s and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many Ukrainian Jews emigrated to Israel and other countries. Currently, Ukrainian Jewish life is being rebuilt, with various Jewish denominations active. Today, the Jewish community of Ukraine is the fourth largest Jewish community in Europe and the eleventh in the world, with an estimated population of up to 140,000 people.
Chabad – Chabad is an acronym which stands for Chochmah, Binah, and Daat (wisdom, comprehension, and knowledge) and is the organization of the Lubavitch sect of Hasidism. The word “Lubavitch” comes from the name of the town in Russia where the movement was based. In keeping with Hasidic tradition, Chabad-Lubavitch was led by a rabbinic dynasty that began with Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745–1812), who wrote the Tanya which is a foundational text for the movement. The last Lubavitcher Rebbe was Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994). Rabbi Schneerson, known simply as the Rebbe, instituted an outreach movement that placed rabbinic representatives, shluchim, and their families in communities around the world, with the aim of helping Jews to learn about and perform mitzvot. There are currently around 5,000 shluchim in over 100 countries, with Chabad headquarters in the United States and Israel.
