Hasidic pilgrims are arriving in Ukraine to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, at the grave of Rebbe Nachman, founder of the Breslov Hasidic dynasty, in the town of Uman.
More than 10,000 pilgrims are expected to arrive, twice as many as last year due to the bicentennial of Nachman’s death in October. Seventy flights will bring pilgrims to Odesa airport on September 5-14.
Boryspil Airport would also receive Hasid pilgrims – the temporary passenger terminal has already been opened to serve the pilgrims.
"At Boryspil International Airport the annual program for servicing flights with Hasid pilgrims, who are arriving to celebrate Rosh Hashanah in the city of Uman, will be held September 5 through September 14, 2010 … The temporary Terminal X has been opened, which is expected to serve 12,000 passengers during the arrival and 13,000 during departure," the press service of the Transport and Communications Ministry of Ukraine reported on Monday.
Every year Hasidic pilgrims mark Rosh Hashanah at Nachman’s gravesite.
Nachman was born in Medzhybizh, a town in today’s Khmelnytsky region, in 1772.
He lived in various parts of Ukraine, and in 1802 moved to the Ukrainian town of Bratslav (Breslov). After fire destroyed his home in Bratslav in May 1810, he moved to Uman in today’s Cherkasy region, where he died of tuberculosis.
His death was followed by annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to his gravesite.
In 1920, the Soviet government closed the cemetery where Nachman was buried and used the land to build housing, but a wealthy Jewish man in Kyiv bought the plot of land with Nachman’s grave.
Pilgrimage to Nachman’s gravesite ended in the 1930s and only resumed in 1988.
