Pesach Lifshitz, who has lived in Black Sea port Kherson, Ukraine, his whole life, can’t help but see the renovations of his hometown synagogue as historic.
“This is a new page of history for our community and for the whole city,” Lifshitz, who directs the local Jewish burial society, says of the just-completed project led by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Yosef Wolff and the local Jewish Community Center. “After all the work, we have a new building.”
Built in 1895, the ornately-designed synagogue was seized by Communist authorities in 1930 and was heavily damaged during World War II. The city turned it into a rehab center in the 1960s, but in 1991, returned control of the structure to the local Jewish community.
Since his arrival in 1993, Wolff – whose brother, Rabbi Avraham Wolff, serves as the chief rabbi of Odessa – has been on a mission to rebuild Kherson’s once thriving Jewish community. He first set up shop in a small room inside what used to be the synagogue; but over the years, as more and more locals decided to get back in touch with their traditions, the expansion of his center necessitated ever bigger spaces.
“As the needs of the congregation grew,” says Wolff, “we slowly broke down the walls of the rooms, until it was one big room.”
The community found itself using all of the historic building, but the building was in dire need of repair. Wolff turned to the Ohr Avner Foundation and private donors to help restore the interior while keeping the original façade.
After eight years of renovations, Yosef and Chaya Wolff continue to see the rolls of the synagogue’s membership increase.
“Every day, more and more people are coming,” says the rabbi.
Lifshitz says that the synagogue can’t help but draw people in.
“One can come into our place and get food for the soul,” says the 40-year-old. “One can sit and pray, or not even open a prayer book and rest and think.”
Lifshitz first walked into the building 16 years ago after spending a decade in university.
“I was very smart, but in my soul it was empty,” he explains. “I didn’t understand the world; I didn’t see G‑dliness. I searched and searched and I found the synagogue.
“Here, I felt good in my soul,” he continues. “I understood that it was my place.”
After studying with Wolff, Lifshitz worked as a kosher supervisor in the Jewish day school. Now, his three daughters attend the Ohr Avner Chabad School in Kherson. As an assistant to Wolff, Lifshitz does everything from helping a grandmother purchase medicine to finding a host family for a boy attending a yeshiva in another city.
On Monday, the community celebrated the synagogue’s rededication by welcoming a new Torah scroll and housing it in a grand ark designed by Kherson native Pavel Miripolsky.
Looking to the approaching holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which begins Wednesday night, Lifshitz predicts that the new space will be packed.
“I hope that there won’t be enough space for everyone,” he laughs. “If so, we’ll make arrangements for people to pray in shifts.”
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