The Rosh Hashana kibbutz (Hebrew: קיבוץ; plural: kibbutzim: קיבוצים, "gathering" or "ingathering") is a large prayer assemblage of Breslover Hasidim held on the Jewish New Year.

In recent years the pilgrimage to Uman has attracted Jewish seekers from all levels of religious observance and affiliation, including introducing Sephardic Jews to Hasidic spirituality.

Hundreds of followers would gather for the holiday prayer service, festive meals, and special Torah lessons taught by the Rebbe.

"[4] Elsewhere, Rebbe Nachman explained that traveling to a tzaddik on Rosh Hashana is a time-honored practice which helps to mitigate and "sweeten" Heavenly decrees at their source, at the beginning of the new year.

Afterwards, Reb Noson explained to the other Hasidim that Rebbe Nachman had stressed the importance of the Rosh Hashana kibbutz that year because he wanted them to continue to "be with him" for the holiday even after his death.

Fearing that people would stop attending the kibbutz, Reb Noson acquired a property, applied for a government permit, raised funds and oversaw the construction of a large Breslover synagogue in Uman in 1834.

Rabbi Yitzchok Breiter, a Breslover Hasid in Poland who drew thousands of his countrymen closer to the Hasidut in the 1920s and 1930s, established a Rosh Hashana kibbutz in Lublin for their benefit.

Hasidim who emigrated to Israel established Rosh Hashana kibbutzim in Jerusalem and in Meron (the latter at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai), which continue to this day.

Shmuel Horowitz, a native of Safed, Mandate Palestine, was the last foreign citizen to sneak across the Polish border into the Soviet Union[nb 1] around 1929.

After spending three months in a Soviet prison, Horowitz was released with the intervention of the Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook, and returned in 1933.

Hasidim from throughout the Soviet Union would contact him for details about each year's event, and he wrote letters to others, encouraging them to continue this practice of being with Rebbe Nachman for Rosh Hashana despite the long journey and the threat of government surveillance.

A young New York Hasid named Gedaliah Fleer was the first foreign citizen to enter Uman without permission in 1963, with Dorfman's help.

[11] From the 1960s until the end of the Cold War 1989, several hundred American and Israeli Hasidim made their way to Uman, both legally and illegally, to pray at the grave of Rebbe Nachman.

In 1975, however, Rabbi Herschel Wasilski, the official American representative of Breslover Hasidut, received permission to conduct a minyan at the Rebbe's gravesite on the eve of Rosh Hashana with 11 other men and spent the holiday in the city.

In 1988, glasnost and continuing international pressure finally forced the Soviet government to permit 250 foreign citizens to stay in Uman over Rosh Hashana.

[2] Coordinators of the Rosh Hashana kibbutz fly in fully catered, kosher holiday meals for all participants, temporary lodgings, an infirmary and emergency medical technicians from Israel.

Thousands of Hasidim, dressed entirely in white, sing and dance through the streets of Uman as they make their way down to the river to perform this holiday ritual.

[17] Personnel of Ben Gurion airport, other Israeli tourists and El Al pilots have complained about pilgrims abusing drugs and hard liquor and harassing fellow passengers to Ukraine.

[18][1] Common complaints from Uman residents relate to the loud noise, singing, rowdiness, widespread drinking, drug use, and fighting the pilgrims cause.

[15] A few days later, ten pilgrims were deported back to Israel and banned from Ukraine for five years for disrupting public order and causing bodily harm to citizens.

[15] At the end of September 2010, an Israeli was stabbed and killed in an altercation that broke out following the vandalism of a car owned by Jews.

[27] In 2015, pilgrims staying in a residential tower began tossing rocks and bottles from above onto a car, and when at one point a local policeman's hat was knocked off, police with German Shepherds were called to scatter the crowd.

[19] In 2010, an Israeli police officer sent to monitor security commented "people get drunk and act crazy in the streets, go out to pubs and hit on women and harass them.

The Ukrainian embassy in Israel issued a statement saying: “When the echoes of the Russian enemy explosions on Ukraine don’t stop, we must take care of ourselves.