Between 1,000 and 2,500 Jewish pilgrims were stranded on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border after the Ukrainian government tightened border controls and crossing restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hundreds of Jasidim pilgrims, who stop at the tomb of a respected rabbi in Ukraine’s Uman to commemorate the Jewish New Year, are stranded at various border points, media reports said. About part of them crossed the Belarusian border but were unable to enter Ukraine, where they were greeted by a strong military force of border guards.
Pilgrims have flocked to Belarus in recent days to enter Ukraine by land. The Jasidim, most of whom came from Israel, gather to celebrate Rosh Hashaná (Jewish New Year) in the Ukrainian city of Uman. Rabbi Najman, 18th-century luminary and founder of Bratslav’s Hasysidic movement.
While pilgrims can enter and leave Belarus freely, Ukraine closed its border to foreigners for 4 weeks on 28 August, resulting in a worsening of the COVID-19 situation.
“An organization of 170 hasidim controlled to locate a legal loophole and, according to its account, in exchange for a payment ($3,000 each), the government agreed to let them cross the border [Monday] at night,” Bratslav Hasidim’s secretariat said in a statement. “In practice, after the arrival of more hasidim cargoes at the border crossing, Ukrainian border guard forces deployed forces and the Ukrainian border commander himself arrived at the site to make sure no one entered.
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