KIEV, Ukraine—Once a relatively obscure rabbi, Moishe-Leyb Kolesnik is now a budding celebrity throughout Ukraine.
'I saw you on national television—quite often I hear this on the street,' said Kolesnik, a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi in his native town of Ivano-Frankovsk in western Ukraine.
The rabbi owes his sudden wave of fame to several appearances on '613,' a Jewish-themed show that is broadcast biweekly on UT-1, the main state-run channel in Ukraine. According to Kolesnik, most of those who recognize him on the street are non-Jews, as are the majority of the show's audience. ...
Both programs, "613" and "Mazel Tov," are produced by Jewish organizations, but the show's producers and Ukrainian Jewish activists are well aware that the influence of the shows extends to the entire nation—which is a good thing, since Jews make up approximately 100,000 to 250,000 of the country's 47 million people. "Having Jewish shows on the airwaves of the main state TV channel is a positive thing and a good sign of democratic development of Ukraine," said Zhanna Burgina, the chairwoman of the Reform Jewish congregation in Kiev. "The shows help promote Jewish culture and Judaism both for Jews and non-Jews."
Jews are the only religious minority to have shows on Ukranian national television. The only other religion-themed program on UT-1 is the Orthodox Christian program "Blagovestnik"...
Where do I find these things?
1 comment:
interesting--of course it may be noted that for many jews and non-jews
in ex-ussr it's the chabad -lubavitch
version of judaism that = judaism or what they take as mainstream judaism.
kolesnik himself is not a formally trained rabbi.
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