Travelers paid no heed to Ukrainian and Israeli warnings not to take part in the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage.

By JNS

Tens of thousands of pilgrims flocked to Uman, Ukraine, for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which commenced on Wednesday last week, despite official warnings urging travelers not to do so due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, alongside other security concerns.

Citing officials, the Associated Press reported that 35,000 pilgrims had traveled to Uman, the same number as in previous years.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and Israel’s National Security Council issued a joint statement urging Jews to avoid the journey.

“The security situation in Ukraine continues to be extremely intense, which includes air strikes and rockets that pose real threat to human lives. In addition, an Israeli citizen holding another citizenship, Ukrainian or Russian, might be barred from leaving Ukraine or Moldova, and might even be, according to local law, conscripted into the military,” according to the statement.

Due to the ongoing war in Israel, Israeli travelers were advised “to play down Jewish and Israeli symbols as much as possible, avoid crowded places, and maintain vigilance,” the statement continued.

Speaking to pilgrims in Uman, AP quoted Nachman Shitrit, an 18-year-old Israeli from Haifa, who said, “The war here didn’t scare me from traveling to Ukraine; there’s also war where I came from.”

Commercial flights to Ukraine have been largely unavailable since Russia’s invasion of the country in 2022, complicating the pilgrimage.

This year, an alternative route into Uman was prepared through Romania.

Israel’s Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar also traveled to Uman this year, Hebrew media reported.

The minister’s office released a statement noting that Zohar had avoided private travel since Oct. 7 but “towards the new year, as a faithful man, decided to leave, at his own expense, in the enduring journey to Uman, to arrive at the tomb of righteous Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and to pray for the people of Israel and for the hostages and for the success of the Israel Defense Forces in the war.”

In September, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that “Russia’s ongoing full-scale military aggression against Ukraine poses real threats to people’s lives and safety.” The ministry went on to say that the conflict “makes it impossible to guarantee the safety of foreign citizens on the territory of Ukraine.”

Kyiv noted there is a “regime of martial law which provides for a number of additional regulations, including restrictions on freedom of movement, a curfew and enhanced patrols, a ban on holding mass events and gatherings, as well as the application of coercive measures against persons who will not comply with the established restrictions.”

Uman, located some 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Kyiv, has become in recent years a popular destination of pilgrimage for tens of thousands of observant Jews who make the journey to pray at the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, an 18th-century luminary who founded the Breslov Chassidic movement.