Yelensky promises to ensure "proper" Hasidic pilgrimage to Uman

Hasidim in Uman in 2020. Photo: Correspondent

On August 16, 2023, the State Ethnopolitics Service held a meeting on the problem of the Hasidim pilgrimage to Uman for the Jewish New Year.

“Despite the strong recommendations to pilgrims to refrain from pilgrimage to Uman as much as possible, given the war, regular massive shelling of our country and possible provocations from Russia, the Hasidim perceive this trip as their religious duty,” the DESS indicated and stressed that “the arrival of such a number pilgrims to a warring country requires serious logistical, medical , sanitary, and other efforts of measures on the part of government agencies.

Officials said that “representatives of the city and regional authorities, law enforcement agencies, border guards, diplomats, and customs officers informed about their readiness to receive more than 30,000 pilgrims.”

The authorities are solving "priority issues” – the entry and registration procedure, ensuring the safety of pilgrims, landscaping the microdistrict, living conditions, food for pilgrims.

In particular, the DESS emphasized the need to create "decent conditions for the Hasidim to express their religious feelings".

Authorities said they faced "security challenges" this year as vast numbers of people need to be protected from hostile fire. In particular, the mayor of Uman, Iryna Pletneva, called this task impossible.

“However, both central and local authorities have accumulated significant expertise in organizing pilgrimages and managed to resolve seemingly insoluble issues,” the State Ethnopolitics assured.

Its head Viktor Yelensky "expressed confidence that all the services involved in organizing events related to the annual pilgrimage will do everything necessary for the pilgrimage to be conducted properly."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the authorities of the Rivne region banned religious processions.

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