In the fall of 1993, and again in February 1994, Miriam Weiner, a certified genealogist who specializes in Ukrainian-Jewish research, traveled to Ukraine on my behalf. She visited the towns of interest to me and discovered in the regional archives, records of my mother’s family tracing back to the mid-1700s. Miriam also located Baruch’s birth record and was able to obtain an official birth certificate for him. She helped to dispel the myth that all Jewish records were destroyed during the Holocaust. However, the most significant find of Miriam’s journeys was the discovery of living relatives—my mother’s second cousin Paulina and her daughter and family.

After learning about Paulina and reviewing the videos, photographs, and other materials that Miriam brought back for me, I knew had to make the journey myself. I wanted to see what was left of Jewish Ukraine, such as cemeteries and synagogues, and visit in person the remnants of Ukraine Jewry. This urge to walk in the footsteps of my ancestors seems to be inherited—my parents visited Ukraine on their honeymoon in 1937. Remarkably, my newly found cousin Paulina remembered meeting them. She also remembered that my mother’s mother had been killed in a pogrom.

So with Miriam’s assistance and additional logistical support from the Action for Post-Soviet Jewry, I planned my trip and solicited material from friends and relatives to donate to the Jewish communities of Novograd Volynsk and Korets (Korets was the home of my grandmother Gittel and her siblings, and is the place where my mother and her three brothers initially took refuge after Gittel’s murder.)

Learn more about Miriam Weiner

The response to my request was amazing. Sewing materials (cloth, needles, thread, etc.) were donated by Ron Isaacson, Peter Isaacson, Jerry Rogers, Steve Strasner, Alan Getz, and Mike Schwartz. Rosalie Gerut provided Jewish music on audiotapes and CDs. Medical supplies, such as insulin and prescription drugs samples, were contributed by the North Shore Congregation in Glencoe, Illinois and Action for Post-Soviet Jewry. Before I left home I stopped at Costco, the huge discount warehouse, and bought large quantities of over-the-counter- medicines, such as aspirin and other pain relievers. Judaica (prayer books, tallit, yarmulkes, etc.) came from the North Shore Congregation and me. Cash contributions were provided by many members of my family, as well as by the North Shore Congregation, and me.

I filled twenty duffel bags with supplies and on the afternoon of September 18, 1994, I went to Kennedy International Airport in New York to catch a Delta Airlines flight to Warsaw, Poland. I almost missed the plane though, because I couldn’t find my uncle Baruch. We were waiting at two different places in the airport and when we ran into each other by accident we started yelling at each other.

Paul Gass embarking on his trip to Ukraine

Delta Airlines checked our extra baggage at no extra charge after we explained that they were for a humanitarian mission. However the next morning when we switched planes in Warsaw for the flight to Kiev, Ukraine, we had to take a Polish airline. The personnel there wanted to charge us an astronomical fee. Baruch yelled and I bribed, finally settling in cash for a lesser amount. One of the duffel bags contained canned tuna fish and large salamis. A luggage handler helped himself to a salami.

Baruch refused to walk through the screening machines at airports. When the security personnel insisted, he raised a ruckus, demanding to see the supervisor and telling them he had a pacemaker. He won every time. I have absolutely no knowledge of Baruch ever having heart problems or needing a pacemaker. But he had one or more bullets and pieces of shrapnel in his body that had never been removed. He probably didn’t want to have them set off metal detectors in airports.

Read how Baruch got his bullets.

Baruch in conversation with the rabbi who met us at the airport

We were met at the Kiev airport by Miriam Weiner’s able assistant, Vitaly Chumak, the mayor of Ataki, a city in Moldova. He served as our guide and translator, and put in many long days on our behalf. I cannot overstate how crucial Vitaly was to the success of our trip.

Vitaly was accompanied by our photographer Dmitry B. Peisakhov of Kiev, and Dmitry’s son, Maxim. Vitaly, Dmitry, and Maxim were our traveling companions for the Ukrainian leg of our trip. We were also greeted at the airport by a rabbi, whose name unfortunately eludes me. That evening Baruch and I attended Sukkot services at the Kiev Synagogue and we spent the night at Hotel “Russ”.

 

     
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