During its history, the town had one central synagogue (here in the picture) and 3-4 small prayer houses. Today only this building remains. And by its side - the well.

From the well was drawn water, specially pure, used, for example to prepare Passover matzoth. To this day, families, who come to the memorial celebrations usually fill bottles with the well water and take them home. There is an aspect of holiness in this water.

Today the synagogue is not in use. It is used as a mill and a factory. The residents bring  sacks of sunflower seeds and receive flour and oil in return.

After the war, after the shock of the murder of about a thousand of their family members in the town, the Jewish residents tried to return to a traditional life, to common prayers, to the celebration of the main holidays.

This was done in the house seen in the picture, which is today abandoned and neglected, when most of the Jewish residents left the village little by little, some to Canada, some to Germany or the USA, some to Israel and even to distant Australia. Naftul Rabinovitch acted as the unofficial rabbi in the village. He had a Torah, which he was able to read, and could as well lead the prayer servicesl. The minyan was made up of Nahum Spiller, the Millman's, Daniil Fraymovich, Yaakov Rosenstein, and Yania Shaposhnik. They used a separate, vacant, house in the center of the shtetl as an informal synagogue. They celebrated the traditional holidays, baked matzah for Pesakh, and exchanged presents on Purim. 

This is an extract from the newspaper HaMelitz*, a newspaper published in Saint Petersburg in Hebrew, about the life in the Jewish communities all around the world.

The article tells that there was one synagogue for everyone in Khashchevatoye, based on the Savran hassidic dynasty. The Savran dynasty was founded by Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Giterman (1775-1838), following an epidemy, they settled in Chechelnik.

At some point, a discussion on one (!) word "kadavar", part of the prayer "Kedusha" led to a big explosion. Some people quit and later built themselves a new synagogue. They were probably influenced by the neighbor Bratzlav hassidic dynasty (Talne hassidim).

This did not go over smoothly with the other folks, who heard about the new synagogue and came to disturb and to make big balagan. As the journalist wrote: “Just because of this one word, our town has become a battlefield!”

*HaMelitz 5 April 1881, pages 235-236.

For better understanding of the debates in the Hassidic movement, read this book: Untold Tales of the Hasidim Crisis and Discontent in the History of Hasidism by David Assaf.