Shmuel Kaminezki, Chief Rabbi of Dnipro, was featured in a recent story in the Jerusalem Post, describing his remarkable and inspiring accomplishments. After growing up in Israel, the son of Russian immigrants who escaped the programs in 1946, and studying in the United States, he and his wife were dispatched to Dnipro, Ukraine where they reestablished the Jewish community.
When Kaminezki arrived in the Closed City in 1990, the years of pogroms, Nazi conquest, and Soviet oppression had reduced almost fifty synagogues to one small house of worship.
[T]he congregation was not happy about being Jewish, said the chief rabbi, ascribing to what he called “oy vey Judaism…[m]any were ashamed to be Jews,” said Kaminezki.
[The rabbi faced a great task in changing the mentality from shame to pride. While many Dnipro Jews were concerned about any Jewish displays of celebration, Kaminezki said that he hosted parties with singing and vodka to break the grim fear that had crystallized around the stagnant community.
“[M]y job is to make Jews happy,” said Kaminezki, rejecting any grand purpose or recognition for himself…He saw himself as only a small lever, [a]ttributing everything to “luck” and the goodwill of donors and partner organizations, such as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
[F]ar from the subdued community of post-Soviet Jewry, the Jewish Center that was built [w]as an unabashed statement of Jewish pride. The Menorah Center stands 22 stories tall, with seven towers topped with glass domes [a]nd is home to two hotels, two restaurants, a kosher supermarket, a museum, a lecture hall, and offices.
[F]oreign aid was not the sole element that led to the building of such an impressive community; Kaminezki also credits the local Jewish residents for rising to the opportunities that were presented.
In addition to the Jewish Medical Center attached to the Menorah Center, which treats Jews and Non-Jews alike, there were also plans to build an emergency room with attendant ambulances.
The local community recognized that the leading cause of death among Dnipro’s Jews was delayed emergency response times. A Dnipro man whose father died from a fish allergy because an ambulance failed to arrive in time became a major donor for the project, one of the many locals to support such endeavors.
[T]he Menorah Center holds great importance not just to the local community, but also for Jews across the region. Dnipro is a major hub for the Jewish Relief Network Ukraine, which uses the Menorah center facilities to prepare holiday packages for needy and elderly Jewish people in the country.
[J]ewish education has expanded…[w]ith a Yeshiva with dozens of students, and the Levi Yitzhak Schneerson school, which has a mixed school, boys school, and girls school. Founded in 1991, its 500 students receive Hebrew lessons and Judaic studies in addition to their secular curriculum.
Dnipro Jewish community director Zelig Brez said that having children who could speak Hebrew as a second language in the same way that their parents spoke Russian was a source of pride.
Growing up, Brez was subjected to persecution and bullying, which he said was typical for Jewish children under communist rule. He couldn’t understand why his teacher denigrated him, what made him different as a Jew.
While bullied at school for his differences, at home, families like his struggled to hold on to the Judaic practices that the Soviets so despised.
[T]he renewal of traditions among Dnipro Jewry is not just a matter of pride but also hope. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Brez said that there were 100,000 Jews in the city and the surrounding area.
Almost half left in mass Aliyah and mass emigration, and the Jewish population was further halved by flight from the 2022 invasion. It was difficult to know how many Jews there are in Dnipro in 2026, but Brez estimated 15,000 to 20,000, of which 10,000 were active in Jewish life.
[K]aminezki said that a good life could be had living in Dnipro, a nice city with a large boardwalk along the river of the same name, ample parks, and hope for the future.
Brez compared the reconstruction of the city’s Jewry to the destruction of the city’s large Jewish cemetery. The tombstones had been repurposed by the communist government for construction materials.
The modern community built a memorial in the cemetery’s place, and tombstones were still being discovered and repatriated to the site. Dnipro’s Jews, like many Soviet Jews, suffered persecution and degradation.
By breaking free from the shadow of the past, they’ve been able to build a monument to Judaism worth being proud of, a beacon for ingathering the Jewish community remnants discovered daily.
When asked about the difficulties of the Dnipro Jewish community and how it felt to see how far the congregation had come, Kaminezki quoted Psalms.
“They who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy.”
Excerpted from: The Jerusalem Post / Dnipro Chief Rabbi: Joy in Being Jewish Restored Post-Soviet Dnipro Jewry / February 1, 2026
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