View on right showing the current mekhitse (the lower wooden wall at the left separating the women's section) and the older original mekhitse in the balcony at the left. The wooden structure on the left, in the center of the main area, is where the rebbi reads the Torah, a traditional European shul layout.

We are in a café and I want to leave my impressions right away. We went to the synagogue on Shabes. It was just incredible. The service was very traditional.You know the women are separated from the men. Also, they are very short of sidurim so they really use whatever they have, all mix matched - you know it was kind of hard for me to follow along. There was someone there who made sure I had a sidur and who made sure I had one that had both English and Hebrew. In fact it was a funny irony because the sidurim they have are generally old ones that people have donated from synagogoues from various places all over the world. The one they gave me was an old one from the original Anshe Chesed synagogue (in New York City). It is very funny because of course, I belong to Anshe Chesed now, but I belong to the new Anshe Chesed (new congregation, re-established in the early 1970’s when the original congregation was dwindling in numbers) and this was an old one from 1910 from the old Anshe Chesed. (The new congregation was started by Michael Strassfeld and Paul Cowen and their families who all had very progressive and egalitarian ideals. As I looked at this old sider, the irony was amazing.) It was very traditional. It even had a blessing in the book....I don't know if they said it or not because I had trouble finding my place because it wasn't really following exactly the one that I had or the one that anyone had I think. It even had a very old fashioned translation of a traditional blessing for a man to thank God that he wasn't made to be a woman. An ultra, ultra humble version for a woman thanking God for making her from twigs of the earth or something. [My apologies to anyone reading this who feels that these are important traditional prayers. I do not intend to be disrespectful; I'm merely recording my personal impressions, based on who I am.] I was happy to be there. It felt most meaningful.

I really enjoyed talking to you last night mayn shayne mamale and laughing about my reaction to the women sitting separatly from the men. Anyway, it was a very serious service. When I first arrived, there were only about 16 men and two other women besides myself. The two women who were there were probably in their 60s and they were very serious about their own type of praying. Then, later towards the very end of the service, about 8 or 10 more women came. They just stood behind the wall so they could see over it. They didn't even bother to sit down, so they could see. So, in the end there were about 16 men and about 11 women. (About four or five of the men wore tefillin, the traditional leather box with a prayer inside and long complex leather arm and head straps, an ancient prayer ritual.)

Then afterwards I was invited to go to kidush ( after services buffet) by the Rabbi and also by a couple of other people in the synagogue. Really, hardly anyone there speaks English at all. I had arranged for Alex [Dunai, my guide and translator] to come at 12:30 . The Kiddush started at 12:00 so the Rebbe and also two of the women invited me to sit. It was a separate table for women, and one for men at the Kiddush. They had boiled eggs and tomatoes cut into wedges and cold white navy beans and canned sardines, bottled mineral water . Far makhn L'Khaim zay hobn gehat vodke. (For making a toast, they had vodka.) So that was pretty unusual to me, since we usually use wine in America. [Wine is too expensive in Ukraine - and kosher wine very hard to find.] (Note from Ray Juni: Actually, in my memory [in America - 1920s and '30s], the Shabes kidush usually did have shnapps. For the fish, it was usually herring. I am thinking of the old Union Hall street synagogue in Jamaica, Queens, but I think this was customary at the orthodox kidush.) So, there was a blessing over the wine which the Rebbe did with the special goblet. Then we all hobn gemakht L'Khaim mit vodke ( then we all said the blessing with vodka) So, we were all sitting. There was a woman sitting next to me who knew just a few words of English. But, she did not know any Yiddish. We were trying to talk, but it was a little difficult. In the middle of trying to talk, suddenly from the men's table they started singing. They were singing a song about about the Rebbe tantsn. I think it was maybe Sha Shtil and I just burst into tears. (Note from Ray Juni: I used to sing this to you a bit. My grandfather used to sing it to the grandchildren, too. You have heard it often on various records that we have.) I just had to apologize and I was trying to explain that my grandparents knew this song.

There was one woman there, a couple of seats away, who knew some Yiddish (Rosa) and she found a little piece of napkin for me because she could see that I couldn't stop crying. They just were singing lots and lots of songs. I really wanted to turn on the tape recorder but I think it was kind of impossible . You know, I didn't want to offend anyone because it was Shabes. Lots of songs, lots of pieces of Yiddish songs and all of which I knew. Also, Hebrew songs like Shomer Shabbos that Marilyn Krimm [a dear family friend in America] used to have us sing at the Beth Emeth synagogue in Ann Arbor [Michigan]. She had us sing it a certain way with clapping our hands. It was a lot of fun. She said some people didn't like to sing it quite in such a fun way. Actually, that was exactly how they sung it there with the clapping on the knees and whatever, "Shomrey, Shomrey, Shomrey Shabes."  It was just so wonderful.

The Rabbi was calling out to me and someone there, a man, you know it was a small room, a men's table, a women's table, but we were all shouting back and forth to each other. Alex came at 12:30 and he of course had to sit with the men . He was wonderful. Whenever possible, he was shouting out translations for me from all the little jokes and everything. It was so wonderful. Someone was teasing. There was one man, sort of a big makher at the shul and he was really getting into singing some Yiddish songs. It was just like a verse of each one and that was it. The Rabbi would come in with some [lovely] old Nigun things. Someone was teasing him and said "What makes you so happy today ?" He nodded towards me futily trying to wipe away my tears of joy, and said, Shoshana. Because they could see how happy I was and then they asked me how I was feeling. Through Alex , I said, "Well, I am crying , I am so happy. I feel the souls of my grandparents," and he translated for them. They were smiling and nodding and singing more songs. I think they were really enjoying seeing how moved I was. I really was moved, indeed. I just wish you could have been there and Jack [my brother] and Pop and everybody. I was just so much thinking of Grandma and Grandpa. They kept pouring me more vodka. It was very funny. They kept giving me more food. It was very nice. Anyway, I'm thinking of you very much.