Day 1, Kiev
• Arrive in Kiev
• Transfer to the hotel
• Hotel check-in
• Walking tour of Kiev (2 hrs.)
During our walking tour you will see St. Sophia Cathedral in (UNESCO World Heritage Site), St. Michael's Monastery, Golden Gate, a monument to Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Khreshchatyk (the shortest main street in Europe) and much more.
• Time at leisure
*Option:
• Night Performance at the Opera House
Day 2, Kiev
• Breakfast at the hotel
• Hotel check-out
• Continue Privately guided Jewish tour of Kiev (4 hrs.)
We will visit the restored Podol Synagogue, the oldest Synagogue in Ukraine. Also the tour includes the Babi Yar Memorial. Here in 1941 the Nazis decided to wipe out the Jews of this city. We will see the home of Prime Minister Golda Meir and the monument to the great Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem – author of “Fiddler on the Roof” and other stories of Ukrainian shtetl life.
• Time at leisure
• Overnight train Kiev – Odessa
*Option:
• Tour to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (2 hrs.)
The memorial complex contains "The Glory Flame", a site with World War II military equipment, and the "Alley of the Hero Cities".
Day 3, Odessa
• Arrive to Odessa
• Transfer to the hotel
• Hotel check-in
• Privately guided Jewish tour of Odessa (4 hrs.)
Start to explore this city, which has gained the sobriquet “Gateway to Zion”. Such world-famous names as Jascha Heifetz, Emil Gilels, David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, Leon Brodsky, Isaac Babel and of course, Vladimir Jabotinskiy are closely connected with Odessa.
• Time at leisure
*Option:
• Night Performance at the Opera House
Day 4, Uman
• Breakfast at the hotel
• Hotel check-out
• Transfer Odessa – Uman
• Hotel check-in
• Uman Sightseeing tour + Sofievka Park (4 hrs.)
In Uman there is the burial site of Rebbe Nachman, great-grandson of the founder of Hasidism. Jews from all over the world make pilgrimages to this site; Rebbe Nachman vowed to bless all who came here, as well as their families. Uman's landmark also is a famous park complex Sofievka which was is a scenic landmark of world gardening design at the beginning of 19th century.
• Time at leisure
Day 5, Medzhybizh, Berdychiv, Zhytomyr
• Breakfast at the hotel
• Early check-out
• Sightseeing tour of Medzhybizh (2 hrs.)
The most important rabbi from Medzyhbizh was Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer Baal Shem Tov "Besht" (1698-1760), the founder of Hasidism. He lived in Medzhybizh from about 1742 until his death in 1760. His grave can be viewed today in the Medzhybizh old Jewish cemetery.
• Sightseeing tour of Berdychiv (2 hrs.)
Visit Jewish Cemetery, Grave of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak and Synagogue. According to the census of 1789, the Jews constituted 75% of Berdychiv's population. By the end of the 18th century, Berdychiv became an important centre of Hasidism.
• Sightseeing tour of Zhytomyr (2 hrs.)
Zhytomyr apparently had few Jews at the time of the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648), but by the time it became part of Russia in 1778, it had a large Jewish community, and was a centre of the Hasidic movement.
• Transfer Zhytomyr - Kiev
• Hotel check-in
• Time at leisure
Day 6, Kiev
• Breakfast at the hotel
• Hotel check-out
• Transfer to the airport
