More than just ‘Fiddler on the Roof | JTA - Jewish & Israel News

More than just ‘Fiddler on the Roof | JTA - Jewish & Israel News 1999....At the concert, Violetta Karpenko, the chairwoman of the Reform Jewish congregation in Zvenigorodka, performed the Yiddish song "Shpilt a Freilakhs." Since it repaired and remodeled its own synagogue, her community has become one of the major spiritual centers of the region. Elena Mironova, a Jewish community worker, was born in Zvenigorodka. She leads Shabbat and holiday services at several of the communities in her region, and also works as the teacher of Jewish tradition. She said the small-town association is responsible for the growth of interest in Jewish tradition among those Jews who live in communities with no permanent Jewish facilities. "Jews, who previously had no knowledge of Jewish religious life, are now coming to the Zvenigorodka synagogue, some from as far as 200 kilometers away. Our own community is quite small, so the very fact that every holiday brings together 100 to 150 Jews from as many as 10 nearby towns is a holiday in itself." As part of the celebration, an opening of a museum on Jewish shtetl history was held in Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy. The exhibition, titled "We Were Born in Shtetls," includes 450 exhibits from 28 small Ukrainian towns, representing both religious and secular aspects of life in Ukrainian shtetls. A feature of small-town Jewish life is the large percentage of intermarried families, which doesn�t prevent Jews with mixed background from becoming active in community affairs.