Uman, Ukraine – Hundreds of Jewish pilgrims rioted with police in the Ukrainian city of Uman Friday during a pilgrimage to the grave of a Jewish sage. Local police used dogs, violence, and pepper spray to disperse a crowd of about 500 Jewish pilgrims which had surrounded two Ukrainian men in a parked car they allegedly caught stealing from a residential building rented out by Jewish visitors.
Two Israeli policemen in uniform helped calm the situation. No one was reported hurt.
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The riot began when the two men, both Ukrainian locals from Uman, fled to a waiting parked car. Within moments it was encircled by hundreds of irate pilgrims who banged on the roof and doors, screaming “Ganaf” and “Ganav”. Ukrainian police and security services arrived on the scene and formed a barrier around the men and their car. As the crowd surged the police began pushing and using German Shepherds to herd the mob. At one point, an officer sprayed mace into the crowd, leaving dozens scattering and wiping at their eyes.
The scene remained tense until two Israel police officers stationed in Uman for the pilgrimage showed up and began to speak to the Ukrainian police and calm the crowd at the same time. After a short deliberation, the two suspects were bundled into a Ukrainian police SUV and taken to town for an investigation.
The Israeli police officers, one from Tel Aviv and one from the Negev District, then told the crowd that the situation was under control and that everyone should go back to prayer. As they and the Ukrainian police walked off, the mob began booing and jeering the Israel police.
After the crowd subsided, Israel police officer Zohar Riar stood next to a Ukrainian police post smoking a cigarette and smiling with his local counterparts.
Riyar said it was his first time in Uman, but that every year the police send two officers to help patrol the event and that they deal with “no shortage of nonsense”
When asked to elaborate, Riar said “people get drunk and act crazy in the streets, go out to pubs and hit on women and harass them. They do all types of things that they would never do in Israel, but they come out here and feel like they can do it.”
Riar, who along with his colleague from Tel Aviv is unarmed, said they are beholden to Ukrainian law and “work as a go-between for the Jews and the local police. We are between the hammer and the nail.”
Though the pilgrims almost universally view the local Ukranians and their police as hostile and rabidly anti-Semitic, Riar said he gets along with them well, and that “it’s not them that are tough or harsh, it’s the law that’s tough. They have no concept of “proper use of force”, if they want to use force, or arrest someone, they just do it. I speak to them about these sorts of concepts and they just give me a blank expression.”
Friday’s disturbances followed a similar event on Thursday evening, when Jewish pilgrims swarmed the car of a local man who was driving at high speed through a crowd returning from the Rosh Hashana “Taslich” ceremony at a local river.
Hundreds encircled the man outside a residential tower a block away and began shouting to “tear him apart” and that “he almost killed a kid, we’ll show him.” Pilgrims staying in the residential tower above began tossing rocks and bottles down onto the car and when at one point a local policeman’s hat was knocked off, police began to push back the crowd, as police German Shepherds scattered the stragglers.
This year’s Uman pilgrimage, which takes place on the 200th anniversary of the Rabbi Nachman’s death, has brought a record 25,000 foreign Jewish pilgrims to this sleepy Ukrainian town three hours from Kiev. Pilgrims and locals have a mixed relationship, with locals complaining about noise, rowdy behavior, widespread drinking, and general aggressiveness from a number of the visitors. For their part, a large percentage of the pilgrims complain of unprovoked hostility and violence from a populace they view as altogether rude and unwelcoming.
“When asked to elaborate, Riar said “people get drunk and act crazy in the streets, go out to pubs and hit on women and harass them. They do all types of things that they would never do in Israel, but they come out here and feel like they can do it.”
What a kiddush hashem. Thousand of Breslover chassidim spend tens of millions of dollars to fly to Uman to spend the Rosh Hoshanah getting drunk and trying to pick up goiyehse women in the bars rather while their wives and children spend Rosha Hashanah alone. And this comes from an Israeli policeman and not some Ukranian antisemite. Rav Nachman must be turning over in his kever watching these antics going on around him.
R’ nachman would not be pleased
Why is anyone surprised. This whole meshugaas has morphed from a small pilgrimage of really ehrlich Breslov who would come and spend all day and night by the kever saying tehillim and davening. Now, its become part of the Breslov “party culture” where they get drunk on local schnaps and sing נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן
“Though the pilgrims almost universally view the local Ukranians and their police as hostile and rabidly anti-Semitic” – yeah and no wonder if our “frum” brothers behave that way. Going en masse into a quiet town, getting drunk, chatting up the women and making trouble – this according to the Israeli policeman, who would, I am sure, prefer to be somewhere else. If I lived in the town, I wouldn’t like them either.
I think Rav Nachman would be pleased – The Ukrainians are the people who massacred countless Jews over centuries – they should get their heads bashed in, b’kef.
I mean, not with the philandering etc – that’s awful – I mean just with bashing the Ukrainians’ heads in
the whole thing is a mishugas and avoda zara, never in the history of the jewish ppl was such a craziness
Its not all the chassidim who engage in this drunken and lewd behavior. There are still some who actually come to Uman to daven and seek Rav Nachman’s intercession with the Ebeshter. Can you imagine how the families of the rest of these bretslover party animals feel though when they turn on their TVs motzi yom tov and see their husbands and children rioting and wandering around intoxicated and fighting with the Ukranian police.
Despite this event being advertised as a “religious pilgrimage” in recent years it has become a kind of “Woodstock” attracting the same type of people who are not at all religious, but looking for a “spiritual” experience also including drugs, alcohol and promiscuity.
Don’t believe everything you hear or read. When you have 25000 people, you will find some MASHUGAYIM. It is very few that act this way. Most are nice frum people and go to pray for a good year.
i dont beileve a word this is the only description depicting the process in uman
this article is highly skewed and antisimetic its like talking about woodstock and mentioning music as a afterthought
this article is deliberate hate-mongering
is that a fact officer riar.how about the police officer (moshe a .) who was walking down the street in kiriot got and he saw two drunks.when he tried to approach them they beat him and hospilized him.oh that was ok as it turned out they were also police officers off duty.nothing will change the fact there are plenty of loosers on the force and apparently you are one.
shtip zich arein a bissel yidishkeit???
It’s really painful reading some of the above comments. No wonder we are still in golus when our own brothers and sisters can be so critical on their own when they read an article which is quite slanted to say the least. I had the zechia to spend a Rosh Hashana in Uman (2003) as I understand there were about 15,000 – 20,000 people there. I davend on the terrace of the big shul (kloiz) which surrounds most of the building, I believe there were about 7,000 people in that minyon, YOU COULD HEAR A PIN DROP when the Baal Tefilo was davening. I’m not a Breslover Chusid and I’ve davened with big Tzadikim of our time, this one Rosh Hashana will never leave my mind the atmosphere of tefilo and teshuva was amazing. There were many there who were not religious and were davening with feelings that you don’t see with our own frum community anywhere. Maybe this is the turning point for these people, Reb Nachman did reach out to the masses and obviously is still succeeding 200 years after his petira. Don’t be so harsh on other yidden we need achdus so badly to continue to exist..HEVEI DAN KOL ODOM LEKAF ZECHUS…Specially these days of the year. May we all be blessed with a GEMAR CHASIMA TOVA AND A YEAR OF ACHDUS which will most definitely bring MOSHIACH TZIKEINU Bimheiru Beyomeinu..
officer riar.i apoligize for what i wrote.i misread the article i i beg your forgiveness.
I was there and this story was written by someone who knows how to fabricate stories and get our own people to be dan lekaf chov right before yom kippur. Try to be dan lekaf zechus for a change. The readership here is about lynching not getting to the truth. V I N reprinted an article written by a goy. If they would have asked someone who was there to write this article it would sound very different and truthful. For the record there were two incidents. One where a Ukrainian stole passports and one when a drunk Israeli got into a fight with a Ukrainian.
A lot of things take place in Uman. Over 30,000 people come together to daven at the tziyon of a tzadik for klal yisroel. Make fun all you want, if you’ve never been there then you did not walk in the shoes of those who do and therefore you cannot judge them at all. Nobody writes news about the positive effect this has on all walks of life. I am NOT a breslover chasid. Yet, I wouldn’t go anywhere else for Rosh Hashana.
Its before yom kippur maybe this readership can find it in their hearts to be dan lekaf zechus. Gmar tov|!