This is an excerpt from Wikipedia's article on Uman, Ukraine.
A large Jewish community lived in Uman in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the Second World War, in 1941, the Battle of Uman took place in the vicinity of the town, where the German army encircled Soviet positions. The Germans deported the entire Jewish community, murdering some 17,000 Jews,[5] and completely destroyed the Jewish cemetery, burial place of the victims of the 1768 uprising as well as Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. (After the war, a Breslov Hasid managed to locate the Rebbe's grave and preserved it when the Soviets turned the entire area into a housing project.[5])
Since the 1990s there has been a small, but growing, Jewish population in Uman, concentrated around Rebbe Nachman of Breslov tomb in Pushkina street. The local Jews are mostly involved in pilgrimage of Jewish tourists that arrive to the town.
Pilgrimage to Rebbe Nachman's Grave
Tomb of Nachman of Breslov
Every Rosh Hashana, there is a major pilgrimage by tens of thousands of Hasidim and others from around the world to the burial site of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, located on the former site of the Jewish cemetery in a rebuilt synagogue.[6] Rebbe Nachman spent the last five months of his life in Uman,[7] and specifically requested to be buried here. As believed by the Breslov Hassidim, before his death he solemnly promised to intercede on behalf of anyone who would come to pray on his grave on Rosh Hashana, "be he the worst of sinners"; thus, a pilgrimage to this grave provides the best chance of getting unscathed through the stern judgement which, according to Jewish faith, God passes on everybody on Yom Kippur.[8]
The Rosh Hashana pilgrimage dates back to 1811, when the Rebbe's foremost disciple, Nathan of Breslov, organized the first such pilgrimage on the Rosh Hashana after the Rebbe's death. The annual pilgrimage attracted hundreds of Hasidim from Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Poland throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, until the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 sealed the border between Russia and Poland. A handful of Soviet Hasidim continued to make the pilgrimage clandestinely; some were discovered by the KGB and exiled to Siberia, where they died.[citation needed] The pilgrimage ceased during World War II and resumed on a drastically smaller scale in 1948. From the 1960s until the fall of Communism in 1989, several hundred American and Israeli Hasidim made their way to Uman, both legally and illegally, to pray at the grave of Rebbe Nachman. In 1988, the Soviets allowed 250 men to visit the Rebbe's grave for Rosh Hashana; the following year, over 1,000 Hasidim gathered in Uman for Rosh Hashana 1989. In 1990, 2,000 Hasidim attended.[5][9] In 2008, attendance reached 25,000 men and boys.[10] In 2009, over 25,000 Jews came on Israeli El Al chartered flights.
Conflict
The pilgrimage has drawn protests from residents due to the large influx of visitors from Israel who arrive, and the strain on security and utility that occurs.[11]
On September 10, 2010, several cases of violence and riots broke out among Hasidic pilgrims after members of the Jewish Evangelical Church arrived from Odessa to preach their faith. They were met with violent backlash from Hasidim pilgrims who objected.[12]
In clashes with locals, cases of Hasidim provoking riots occurred. In one instance, pilgrims staying in a residential tower began tossing rocks and bottles from above onto a car, and when at one point a local policeman’s hat was knocked off, police with German Shepherds were called to scatter the crowd.[13] One woman from Uman who had leased her apartment to Hasidim pilgrims threatened to phone the police due to the excessive noise, when a neighbour came to aid in the situation and call the police for help, the Hasidim assaulted the man and chased him into the streets. A passer-by who came to the defense of the victim was also assaulted. Both men were hospitalized as a result of the attacks.[12] Two Ukrainians were stabbed by the Hasidim.[14]
On September 13, 2010, ten Hasidic pilgrims were deported back to Israel and banned from Ukraine for five years for disrupting public order and causing bodily harm to citizens. Three more were also under investigation.[12] Later, on September 26, 2010, an Israeli Hasid was stabbed and killed in an altercation that broke out following the vandalism of a car owned by Jews. In pursuing the vandals, who allegedly were retaliating for the recent stabbing and wounding of a local Ukrainian by an Israeli, the man was stabbed and his brother injured.[15][16]
An Israeli police officer sent to the proceedings to monitor security commented, explaining that “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.”[17]
On September 25, 2011, a protest rally of about 100 people was held by the nationalist All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" to demand 'stricter legal and sanitary controls on pilgrims' and better regulation of Hasidim pilgrims in the interest of risks to local security and health.[18]
On September 8, 2013, three Israeli police officers were deported after getting involved in a bar brawl during the Rosh Hashanah gathering in Uman.[19]
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