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| - The Ukrainian and Israeli governments on Tuesday called on Hasidic Jews who traditionally go by the tens of thousands in September on a pilgrimage to Uman, in central Ukraine, not to go there this year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. "We urge all pilgrims... to refrain from travel to the city of Uman due to a threatening epidemic situation," the two governments said in a statement posted on their respective official websites. The mayor of Uman, which has a population of 80,000, said on Tuesday that he had slept under the stars in front of the presidency to obtain a meeting with the head of state Volodymyr Zelensky in order to persuade him to ban all pilgrims from arriving this year. "If we allow 20,000 people to enter the city, who will then help us treat the inhabitants?" Mayor Oleksandre Tsebrii told the Glavkom online news site. Uman is transformed once a year into the capital of Hasidism, with thousands of faithful going to the tomb of Rabbi Nahman of Breslev (1772-1810) on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, celebrated this year from September 18 to 20. Rabbi Nahman is one of the main figures of Hasidism, a mystical branch of Judaism that appeared in the 18th century and which developed in particular in Poland and Ukraine. The pilgrims refer to a text by Rabbi Nahman who promised his devotees he would "save them from hell" if they went to his burial place during Rosh Hashanah. Last year, more than 30,000 Hasidic pilgrims visited Uman, according to Ukrainian figures. Ukraine has registered more than 94,000 cases of Covid-19 to date, including 2,115 fatalities for around 40 million inhabitants. ant/tbm/bds/bsp/lc
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