In Ukraine, Jews of All Stripes Fulfil a Two-Century-Old Request

This year, some 35,000 Jews arrived in the small Ukrainian city of Uman—which since the fall of the Soviet Union has become the largest Jewish pilgrimage site outside the Land of Israel. (It had a similar status before World War I as well.) They come at the behest of the hasidic rabbi Nahman of Breslov (1772–1810) who is buried there and wished that his followers would visit his grave. Although Rabbi Nahman founded his own hasidic court, many of the pilgrims are not Breslover Hasidim. Joseph Roche describes what he saw in Uman last week: