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Do all roads lead to Uman? The Hasidic pilgrimage during the pandemic times
Author(s): Marchenko, Alla
Date: 2021
Topics: Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Hassidim, Pilgrimage, Main Topic: Other, Attitudes to Jews, Coronavirus/Covid, Discourse and Discourse Analysis, National Identity
Abstract: In this text, I analyze official public narratives in Ukraine in 2020 connected to the Hasidic pilgrimage to Uman, the best known and most popular destination of its kind in Europe. The pandemic year 2020 brought restrictions to mass gatherings, including the pilgrimages, for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. I have differentiated two competing discourses connected to the pilgrimage - "pilgrimage as a source of danger" and "pilgrimage as a proxy for Ukraine's good reputation", both of which unveiled the problem of representation. The case of the Hasidic pilgrimage to Uman during the pandemic times could serve as a model for building a common official position of various levels of authority on a nuanced topic.