Summer has faded into autumn here in Kyiv as daytime temperatures seldom push 60 and nighttime chill covers the city. Scarves are out, hats are on, and the leaves are beginning to turn. In many ways, this is my favorite time of year. Warm, cozy cafes beckon (Kyiv has no shortage) and — yes — it’s that time of year when I get to celebrate my birthday. Happy 23 to me!
It’s also around this time that the holiest days on the Jewish calendar are observed: Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and a number of other festivals and celebrations. The time from Rosh Hashanah (which begins at sundown on October 2) to the end of Yom Kippur (ending at sundown on October 12) are known as the Days of Awe. It is a time for introspection. While we’re not officially there yet on the calendar, I think now’s a good time to start and with that, reflect not only on myself but on the place in which I find myself and what that means at this time of year.
What I’m thinking about right now is Babyn Yar (or Babi Yar as it is commonly known from the Russian transliteration). Less than two weeks after Nazi forces began their occupation of Kyiv on September 19, 1941, they rounded up the Jews that remained behind -as many as 100,000 are estimated to have fled before the German advance – and executed their plan to annihilate them. From September 29-30, 1941, the Nazis marched the Jews of Kyiv to the Babyn Yar ravine in the northwestern part of the city and shot them – 33,771 people were executed over the course of two days. It was the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust. Over the course of the war, up to 100,000 people would meet their untimely ends at the ravine, including other Jews, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Catholics – anyone on the Nazi’s death list.
The site and the events that occurred there remain an integral part of the history of Ukraine and particularly of Ukrainian Jewry. Under the Soviet regime, commemoration of the events at Babyn Yar was not tolerated. Acknowledging the victimhood of Jews in Ukraine was essentially non-existent on an official level. In 1961, Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote a poem about Babyn Yar on which Dmitri Shostakovich based his 13th symphony. Both faced severe criticism for their work. The graves of the tens of thousands of innocent murdered souls remained neglected both physically and in official discourse.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, access to archives, reports, and witness testimony have revealed more about Babyn Yar and public commemoration has become common practice in Ukraine. This year is the 75th anniversary and a number of events have been planned. On a side note, this is not to say that commemorations today are not controversial — they are, in fact, loaded with controversy, especially given Ukraine’s often confusing political dynamics. There are a number of stakeholders involved in discourse on Babyn Yar and World War II in general. Ukrainian nationalism and patriotism play large roles in this conversation of remembrance, often minimizing the impact of Nazi atrocities on Jewish people and instead universalizing events at Babyn Yar. In today’s Ukraine, a country at war with Russia and trying to hold on to its sovereignty in the face of an aggressive neighbor, many national heroes who fought for Ukrainian liberation from the Soviets are lauded. Many of these figures worked with the Nazis as a means of resisting Stalin. The history of Nazi-Ukrainian cooperation in the deaths of Jews is a difficult one to discuss but is one that must be discussed. Otherwise, the fact that Babyn Yar was a site for the killing of Jews, simply because they were Jewish is lost in a narrative that instead seeks to universalize their deaths, thus obscuring the identities of the victims.
For now, back to the commemoration events: this past Sunday, the National Philharmonic hosted a concert to memorialize Babyn Yar. My academic advisor, the head of the Jewish Studies department at Kyiv-Mohyla, was kind enough to give me a ticket. The concert featured a number of moving pieces, including works by the Israeli composer Baruch Berliner. His music weaved the reading of Biblical texts (including the story of Cain and Abel) into a score for choir and orchestra. In many ways, Babyn Yar is so difficult to talk about, so difficult to comprehend, that music provides a new medium to convey thoughts and emotions in a way that words cannot. I felt incredibly fortunate to be there. Other events will include a large youth conference to begin tomorrow (Saturday) evening, lasting through next week. An official state commemoration with a number of Ukrainian and foreign dignitaries is to take place on the 29th. I will be covering much of these events along with my Fulbright colleague from Kharkiv, Julie Seidman. I look forward to sharing more about all of that with you very, very soon.
Baruch Berliner addressing the audience with the National Philharmonic of Kyiv and the National Academic Choir of Ukraine “Dumka.” The concert was sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in Ukraine; note the two flags at the top right of the photo.
And now, I am going to turn this around completely.
I voted today.
I voted today in the 2016 Election for President of the United States. I went to the Fulbright Office, printed out my ballot, scanned it in and emailed it to the election board in New Jersey. What a time to be alive, and I don’t just mean in terms of technology.
An illiterate, authoritarian racist could be our next president. And no. Their name is not Hillary Clinton. His name is Donald Trump. Every morning, I along with millions of other people wake up in countries that were irreparably changed by a man whose political force was brought to power on a populist wave. That election, by the way, was not rigged unlike Trump’s claims that our upcoming votes will be miscounted.
I am not nor am I likely to become a permanent citizen of Ukraine but this feeling still affects me deeply as the descendent of people who fled these lands because of anti-Semitism. (And yes, I think Trump is an anti-Semite, despite the disgraceful faux-reassurance of his cowardly, son-in-law. Read further: Donald Trump and the Jews.) I look out the window every morning and I am reminded that every inch of this city and country bears the memory of the evils of Nazism. I am reminded that if my family had not left when they did, I would likely not exist. This history is alive. It is real. I am not suggesting that Donald Trump has any grand designs to commit genocide – he does not. He is not a fascist. He is not going to declare World War III (though whether or not he’ll start one anyway seems to be up in the air, frankly). Unlike Hitler, I am not really sure Trump has any plan other than to come to power. The point is, he plays on real social and psychological forces that lead to mass atrocity and crimes against humanity through other-ing and scapegoating. Do I really need to elaborate? Do I really need to remind you of the things this man has said and done to stoke deeper hatred and division in our country?
Hillary Clinton isn’t a perfect candidate. By any means. And we can have a lengthy discussion about how she is an establishment candidate who will perpetuate the status quo: a country riddled with inequality and strife. I have woken up to news nearly every day this week about another innocent black body ruthlessly murdered by police. Do I think Clinton is going to put a stop to that? I hope she’ll try but I am sure it won’t be enough to stem the tide of racism in our country. If anything, I am fearful for what we will do with Trump supporters should she become president. They aren’t going to just go away, and they certainly aren’t interested in protecting black bodies, allowing black lives to thrive, to show that black lives matter.
But if the status quo is so bad, why should we vote to perpetuate it? Because if Donald Trump becomes president, the status quo could become incontrovertibly worse. If you think we are struggling now, just wait until he finishes his first term. Any voice we have as a society to speak out against current injustices will be met with legislation that further disadvantages marginalized groups, especially black and Latinx people. Instead of being able to hold a left-of-center leader accountable to a progressive platform, we will have a right-wing crackpot for whom progressive politics are totally anathema. Hillary isn’t the world’s most progressive candidate but she is certainly more amenable to positive change than her counterpart. He has the power to undo every executive order President Obama has signed into law, and then some. Under Trump, a new status quo would be a massive leap backward that would exacerbate our social ills, entrench the barbarism of a racist and isolationist America, and drive our country on a path of imminent decline.
Tomorrow, I am going to Babyn Yar. And when I look into the ravine, at the final resting place of those who were othered in a genocide, I will be thinking about the Holocaust, I will be thinking about my ballot, and I will be thinking about our future. While we should not universalize the identities of victims of Babyn Yar, there is a greater message to be taken for the present when we consider how Babyn Yar came to pass.
He cannot win. He simply cannot.
Kvelling in Kyiv 