Hi! This is Alex and Emily blogging from Melitopol, three and a half hours south of Dnepro. We’ve just spent the past two days renovating the Hesed here. The Hesed is on a compound 
with different buildings including the main center, former synagogue, old saloon and mikvah, playground, and JCC. This compound has been standing in Melitopol for 120 year
s, which had a thriving Jewish community before World War II. Half of the city’s population was Jewish; however, today, only 3,500 Jews call the city of 500,000 home.
When we first arrived, the director of Hesed in Melitopol warmly welcomed us and led us on a tour of the facility. We got right to work fixing up the historic Hesed building. Let’s just say there was a lot of work to be done! We split into two groups – one group worked inside and the other outside. The group working indoors worked on painting two rooms in the Hesed, a nursery and a computer lab. Members of this group first stripped the old paint and plastered cracks. If there were large cracks in the walls, they stuffed gauze and cotton balls in the cracks and then plastered over this. Next, after allowing the plaster to dry, they
sandpapered to smooth the wall, applied paint primer, and painted the rooms a cheerful hue of lavender. The other group focused on repainting the brick exterior of the Hesed building. The painting process outside was very similar to that inside. The group scraped the old paint off of the building, plastered any holes or cracks, primed the building, and painted the building a shade of peach with white and brown trimmed windows. It was a lot of hard work, but we were all happy to help out and get dirty! Some local news cameras and photographers even came and interviewed a few people for the news! In addition, the mayor of the city stopped by and praised our work. She explained to us that there are over 100 ethnicities represented in Melitopol, and that our work is very much appreciated.
While doing home visits has been a unique part of our trip, painting the Melitopol Hesed is meaningful in a different, yet equally important way. A well-kept Hesed, with fresh, newly painted walls will allow the Jewish community to feel a sense of integrity and pride every time they enter the Hesed. In addition, a cared-for exterior shows regular passer-bys that the Jews care about this place.
Similarly, Jewish pride was felt at dinner last night at the Hesed. After lighting a bonfire, we sang, danced, and ate under the stars
. Members of the community, including a dance troupe spent time with us and entertained us. We danced to Israeli and Ukrainian folk music. One man strummed his guitar and serenaded us; we even sang “Yesterday” by the Beatles together. Dinner was delicious. We ate fresh cherries and strawberries, pickles, olives, bread, coleslaw, potatoes with dill, Emily’s favorite, sautéed onions and mushrooms, and roasted chicken drumsticks.
We’re having a great time, and looking forward to celebrating Shabbat tonight back in Dnepro.
with different buildings including the main center, former synagogue, old saloon and mikvah, playground, and JCC. This compound has been standing in Melitopol for 120 year
s, which had a thriving Jewish community before World War II. Half of the city’s population was Jewish; however, today, only 3,500 Jews call the city of 500,000 home.When we first arrived, the director of Hesed in Melitopol warmly welcomed us and led us on a tour of the facility. We got right to work fixing up the historic Hesed building. Let’s just say there was a lot of work to be done! We split into two groups – one group worked inside and the other outside. The group working indoors worked on painting two rooms in the Hesed, a nursery and a computer lab. Members of this group first stripped the old paint and plastered cracks. If there were large cracks in the walls, they stuffed gauze and cotton balls in the cracks and then plastered over this. Next, after allowing the plaster to dry, they
sandpapered to smooth the wall, applied paint primer, and painted the rooms a cheerful hue of lavender. The other group focused on repainting the brick exterior of the Hesed building. The painting process outside was very similar to that inside. The group scraped the old paint off of the building, plastered any holes or cracks, primed the building, and painted the building a shade of peach with white and brown trimmed windows. It was a lot of hard work, but we were all happy to help out and get dirty! Some local news cameras and photographers even came and interviewed a few people for the news! In addition, the mayor of the city stopped by and praised our work. She explained to us that there are over 100 ethnicities represented in Melitopol, and that our work is very much appreciated.
While doing home visits has been a unique part of our trip, painting the Melitopol Hesed is meaningful in a different, yet equally important way. A well-kept Hesed, with fresh, newly painted walls will allow the Jewish community to feel a sense of integrity and pride every time they enter the Hesed. In addition, a cared-for exterior shows regular passer-bys that the Jews care about this place.
Similarly, Jewish pride was felt at dinner last night at the Hesed. After lighting a bonfire, we sang, danced, and ate under the stars
. Members of the community, including a dance troupe spent time with us and entertained us. We danced to Israeli and Ukrainian folk music. One man strummed his guitar and serenaded us; we even sang “Yesterday” by the Beatles together. Dinner was delicious. We ate fresh cherries and strawberries, pickles, olives, bread, coleslaw, potatoes with dill, Emily’s favorite, sautéed onions and mushrooms, and roasted chicken drumsticks.We’re having a great time, and looking forward to celebrating Shabbat tonight back in Dnepro.
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