I live in Ukraine — AMA

amother

Saddlebrown

Mon, Aug 23 2021, 7:06 pm

I thought of Ukraine as a place bearing no connection with my life, until I realized that my Polish grandfather was born in modern day Ukraine Smile

gr82no

Mon, Aug 23 2021, 8:41 pm

sequoia wrote:

Do we have electricity and plumbing?....

Okay, I’m going to bed.

Sorry you misunderstood me. I was trying to ask how modern your electricity and plumbing is.
Also I heard from people that a bus ride in Ukraine is extremely unpleasant is it true?

amother

Trillium

Mon, Aug 23 2021, 10:25 pm

I have a few friends who moved from Ukraine in their early teens. They always say they wouldn’t go back. It’s so interesting to hear from somebody who has a different perspective!

Are gender roles there similar to Russian gender roles? What do you find different about being a woman there than in the U.S.? (I know that’s a broad question.)

How important is religion in the general culture? Is it becoming more secular like so many European countries? Has sports replaced religion for a lot of people?

What desserts do Yidden there make for Rosh Hashanah? I’m up baking honey cakes and duvshaniot tonight and would be interested in trying something new too!

What is the cost of living like?

WhatFor

Mon, Aug 23 2021, 10:36 pm

What's your favorite borscht recipe? Any other Ukrainian foods for which you could share recipes?

If someone had a week to spend in Ukraine, what are some "don't miss" places that you would recommend they visit? (Please feel free to include any very local places including places like theaters or supermarkets if you think there's something especially interesting about them.)

Lady A

Mon, Aug 23 2021, 10:44 pm

Is there a large, frum community? Are there many tourists (aside from Covid?)
How does the Jewish community interact with the non-Jewish one?
I don’t know anything about Ukrainian culture.
Do people own cars or rely on public transportation?

What is the economy like? I am interested in the health care structure. Is there private insurance? How safe and efficient are hospitals? Are they regulated as strictly as ones in the United States?

amother

Pink

Mon, Aug 23 2021, 11:27 pm

Are you happy you moved back? Based on your other thread it sounds like things are tough there for you.

amother

DarkPurple

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 12:12 am

sequoia wrote:

Do we have electricity and plumbing?....

Okay, I’m going to bed.

You're answering about big cities. Life in small villages is very different for simple folks.

amother

DarkPurple

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 12:15 am

amother [ Burntblack ] wrote:

Why would you go back after leaving ?
After leaving the former USSR, you couldn’t pay me enough to ever even want to go back to visit …. forget about living there & I left as a child
My husband who came from Ukraine as an adult , feels 100% the same would never step foot on that soil
I’ve never heard of people going back to live there .
🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

My relatives live there for a long already, after living here for a bit in the late 90s.

sequoia

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 4:31 am

I will get to your questions later today iyh.

Raisin

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 4:46 am

Are the frum people there unkrainian born?

How easy/cheap is it to buy kosher food?

sequoia

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 10:35 am

Raisin wrote:

Are the frum people there unkrainian born?

How easy/cheap is it to buy kosher food?

1. Yes.

2. Not easy Sad

My neighbor gets me chicken through his kids’ school sometimes.
Otherwise... yeah, vegetarian/dairy.

Raisin

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 12:02 pm

sequoia wrote:

1. Yes.

2. Not easy Sad

My neighbor gets me chicken through his kids’ school sometimes.
Otherwise... yeah, vegetarian/dairy.

no kosher shops? I heard there is a kosher restaurant there.

Or are the shops too far and/or expensive?

sequoia

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 1:37 pm

Raisin wrote:

no kosher shops? I heard there is a kosher restaurant there.

Or are the shops too far and/or expensive?

Of course there are kosher stores. Just not the big chains that deliver.
I don’t go to stores. Nothing to do with the pandemic. I was a FreshDirect customer in NYC since 2007.

Yes, there are kosher cafes, restaurants, and food trucks.

PinkFridge

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 1:47 pm

You know folks, for every person who would never set foot on the cursed soil of Germany/Poland/Ukraine/other (and I totally get it) there are people who are living there. Whether as
- shluchim or other klei kodesh
- they were born there
- they have an affinity for the place because of positive more recent history
- other

they will be there and may they efforts see peiros, and may they live well and vibrantly.

amother

Peru

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 5:41 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

I have very mixed feelings about going back to these countries.

my husband's family was almost ALL murdered in their town in the Ukraine -- literally held captive in the town synagogue and then marched to a pit and shot in the head -- men, women and children. the soil is filled with their blood. one of the survivors in his family, a 12 yr old girl, watched her father and brother shot in the head by a neighbour. she ran away and then lived in the forests, hidden, for almost 2 years with others who had escaped the carnage. her story was saved/videotaped to the spielberg holocaust foundation shoah project. as you can imagine, the present day family only has bad feelings toward this country and would never set foot on that soil ever again.

my own grandparents were killed in germany; my mother survived as an infant in a neighbouring country....

all this to say, and NOT to change the 'AMA' thread -- do you , Sequoia, ever feel uncomfortable there knowing the past history of the country and how it is well known how the local non Jews literally turned on us? in other words, are you ever wary of the non jews there (not insinuating they are all bad people). I'm talking about the general average public. while I know this is past history and there were many socio-economic and political reason for the hatred towards us, I am not sure they have evolved so much. just as our pain is passed down from the holocaust, so can the resentment towards us be passed down in the ukrainians, poles, germans, etc.

it's just a question I've wondered about -- people returning to these countries knowing the history of them.

wishing you well.

sequoia

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 7:06 pm

No.

But my crowd is pretty special.

amother

Dill

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 9:58 pm

Are all the frum people and the Shuls Chabad? Are there misnagdim and MO?

amother

Eggplant

Tue, Aug 24 2021, 11:25 pm

Do they believe in global warming there? Is there a good criminal justice system? Is there a problem there of an influx of foreigners, including Muslims?
Do people generally get paid weekly? Do the workers have benefits, like insurance, sick leave, vacation leave? When I went through Ukraine, it seemed like the airport didn't have good security.

naomi2

Wed, Aug 25 2021, 12:46 am

Why did you move there? Living in Ukraine seems to have complicated your life in many ways. What is so good about that country that it's worth it for you to go there.

sequoia

Wed, Aug 25 2021, 2:37 am

naomi2 wrote:

Why did you move there? Living in Ukraine seems to have complicated your life in many ways. What is so good about that country that it's worth it for you to go there.

Subconscious reasons.

And now with covid and all the stuff happening in NY, it’s unclear what is best, what is worst...

If the world were exactly the same today as it was in November 2019, I would probably regret my choice.

But it’s not.