October 07, 2005
A record-breaking number of Jewish pilgrims have celebrated Rosh Hashanah in the Ukrainian city of Uman. About 20,000 Chassidic Jews from around the world made the pilgrimage to Uman, the burial place of Rabbi Nachman, founder of the Bratslav Chassidic movement. Some 9,000 to 12,000 Bratslavers have come to Uman each year since the annual pilgrimage to Ukraine was revived in 1988, after the Soviet Union loosened restrictions on religious practice. “Last year there were people from 53 countries", said Dov Kramer, director of the International Charitable Fund of Rebbe Nachmann, considered the central organization of the Bratslav Hasidic movement. "We had pilgrims from Iran, Iranian Jews. Many come from America, more than 1,000 annually, but most come from Israel."