About the Dnipro Kehillah Project (DKP)

Jewish identity and culture suffered greatly and almost disappeared in the Soviet Union, but with its dissolution in 1992 a new effort to revitalize Jewry in Ukraine began. CJP and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) launched the Dnepropetrovsk Project, now called the Dnipro Kehillah Project (DKP) to help rebuild Jewish life in Dnipro, Ukraine, a city that had been “closed” for decades. The DKP was part of a nationwide movement to link American Jewish communities with their counterparts in the Former Soviet Union. This large-scale work was organized by the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry (NCSEJ), then known as the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. 

Under the leadership of Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki, our partners in Dnipro have led a revitalization of Jewish life and built a communal infrastructure that have exceeded our wildest imagination. It is a partnership of mutual learning and cooperation. Volunteers and agencies have developed programs to care for children with special needs, house and care for the elderly, improve women’s and children’s medical care, and engage young Jews from Greater Boston, Haifa, and Dnipro in Jewish learning – all through lay-driven technical assistance and the willingness to travel and learn from each other. 

About Ukraine and the Jewish Community

Ukraine, with a population of over 45.4 million, is home to the third largest Jewish community in Europe — the fifth largest in the world. With approximately 400,000 Jews in the country, Dnipro's Jewish population is estimated to be between 30,000-50,000, second to Kiev. Other cities with high concentrations of Jews in Ukraine are Kharkov and Odessa.

With the current crisis and political uncertainty, the past two years have been a tumultuous time. Our partners have been under severe stress and anxiety while operating in an unpredictable environment. While Dnipro has been spared the violence of the Donbass region, it bears the brunt of the conflict by serving as a safe haven for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with casualties from the front line overwhelming the medical system. The entire region operates under a failing economy with severe inflation, bank closures, and pension holdouts. 

While the instability in eastern Ukraine affects global matters on a larger scale than our partnership, the Dnipro Jewish Community (DJC) has played a significant role throughout the conflict. The DJC has housed upwards of 200 Jewish IDPs and a disproportionate number of Jews are volunteering to provide medical, social, financial, and technical support to those effected by the fighting. Emergency financial contributions from Greater Boston have allowed the community to resettle IDPs and provide much needed assistance to struggling Jewish families.

While our travel has been limited due to security concerns, we continue to have working trips to Dnipro.