Happy Passover from PK
After the breakup of the USSR, Jews of the region practiced Jewish life in Russian. But since the escalation of the war in February 2022, Ukrainian Jews are increasingly committed to living Jewish life in Ukrainian. Project Kesher Ukraine recently launched the first-of-its-kind Ukrainian-language haggadah. In addition to the story of Passover and accompanying music, the haggadah offers an opportunity to elevate Ukrainian Jewish identity by including special readings and prayers by famous Jewish writers who were always categorized as Russian, but came from places like Kyiv, Odesa, and Berdichev, and are more accurately Ukrainian. For example, the haggadah includes passages from the 1925 book “Passover Nights,” by Hava Shapiro, a Kyiv-born Jew and journalist who authored one of the first Hebrew-language diaries known to have been written by a woman.
The additions offer an element of pride for those Ukrainian Jews who plan to use the new haggadah. “It is bringing you to the roots of those Jews who were living here before the Holocaust,” said Lena Pysina, who lives in Cherkasy, southeast of Kyiv. “It’s about rebuilding the Jewish communities in Ukraine as ‘Ukrainian Jews.’”
Below, please find two of the special readings in English. We invite you to incorporate them into your Seder.
Excerpts from "Passover Nights"
Hava Shapiro (1925)
Hava Shapiro (1878-1943) entered the “Garden of Eden” – the world of Hebrew learning and literature – as a child in Slavuta, Volhynia (modern-day Ukraine) in the Pale of Settlement. Calling herself Eim Kol Hai (“Mother of All Living,” like the biblical Eve), she became a partner to the male creators of modern Hebrew literature. Over a four-decade career, she wrote fiction and reported for the Hebrew press, as well as kept the first known Hebrew diary by a woman. Click the link below for a reading for the front of the haggadah, a reading for before the Four Questions, and a reading for before the Magid.
A Prayer for Peace in the World
As the war in Ukraine rages on, we pray for peace in the world. The following prayer has been adapted and translated from the Jewish prayer book Siddur "Gate of Prayer" (Hebrew שערי תפילה).
Thy will be done, o Holy one, God of our Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah to abolish and end wars and bloodshed throughout the world.
May You send great peace on earth. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore. May all people on earth find and recognize Your truth: for we have come into this world not for quarrels and divisions and (God forbid) not for hatred and envy, not for rebellion and bloodshed (God forbid), rather we have come into this world to find and know You, blessed be Your Name forever.