Now I have one more thing to brag about when meeting another world traveller: I stayed at one of the few kosher hotels in Europe. At the hotel Pid Templem in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, you can neither get a cheese sandwich nor milk for coffee.

According to the Talmud, dairy products should be avoided if handled by non-Jews. The reason is that non-Jews might be careless with all the complicated rules, or fail to cook meat and dairy products in separate saucepans: 

“According to the Jewish tradition, we must cook and eat meat dishes and dairy dishes in different pans and plates. But it is very difficult to follow the rules in the kitchen of the hotel, so we decided not to serve dishes and beverages that contain milk at all,” says 23 year-old Nadja who works at the restaurant of the hotel.

Kosher also means that the meat has been drained of blood after slaughtering the animal and can be traced to a particular rabbi or a Jewish authority in charge of following the rules on kosher food. Nadja is not Jewish herself but is familiar with the Jewish customs. 

She studied tourism in high school and is now happy to have a job at a kosher hotel; According to the ILO, the unemployment rate in Ukraine is at 8.6 percent.

Nadya earns about 2,000 Swedish kroner a month; however, the prices for clothes and technical appliances in Ukraine are almost the same as in Sweden. She has not travelled abroad so much as she cannot afford it. Nadya keeps comforting herself that there is no need for her to travel since many international guests stay at the hotel:

“Most of our guests are from Poland, Russia, Germany and other European countries who come to Ivano-Frankivsk to find investment opportunities,” says Nadja.

The owner of the hotel is a Jewish lawyer. It was his idea to take into account the Jewish history in Ivano-Frankivsk and offer guests something special.

Ivano-Frankivsk is situated in western Ukraine, on the border with Poland. Everyone here speaks Ukrainian and perceives themselves as Europeans. The city has a unique history and the early morning tour around the city was really worth freezing my ears and knees. There are more than 500 buildings and statues of historical value. 

In Ivano-Frankivsk, you can still find elderly people who have lived at the same place that belonged to four different states - autonomous Kingdom of Galicia, Poland, the Soviet Union and finally independent Ukraine.

The city gives us a good example of how different religions and nationalities can coexist. On the central square one can see places of worship representing four different Christian religious denominations and Judaism: Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Catholic and Armenian churches and a synagogue.

But in spite of all the religious versatility, Ukrainian students get to learn only about one - the Russian Orthodox. Some schools begin their religion classes with a Russian Orthodox prayer. Pupils with other religious backgrounds are to be present at the lesson.

“I remember there was a girl at our school whose parents were Jehovah's Witnesses. Guys used to ask her to pray an Orthodox prayer for a fee, just for fun. And she did it, by the way, and could earn some pocket money,” says Nadja. 

Nadja is interested in various religions and thinks it's a pity that women are not allowed to get closer than ten meters to the Jewish religious scripture - the Torah- which is situated in the synagogue next to the hotel Pid Templem: Only men can admire the holy book and read from it.

Are there many Jews who come to the synagogue in Ivano-Frankivsk?

“Frankly speaking, when the humanitarian aid from Israel comes to the synagogue of Ivano-Frankivsk, the number of ”Jews” increases dramatically.”

Jana Fralova