The pilgrims crowding the city's streets are mostly men in black hats or kippas coming to pray at the tomb of Rabbi Nahman - a revered leader of their traditionalist movement.
On the pilgrimage days for a week around the Jewish New Year, this sleepy, dusty town of 90,000 inhabitants some 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Kiev is transformed into a multilingual hub of the Hasidic movement.
The celebrations are a way for Hasidic Jews to get back to the roots of their movement in the heart of Eastern Europe more than 60 years after the Holocaust.
The stream of pilgrims makes its way down Pushkin street to a large metal structure covering the tomb of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav and two synagogues filled with believers who pray here for hours on end.
Rabbi Nahman, also known as a tzadik or spiritual master, died in Uman in 1810, having urged his followers to gather by his tomb to celebrate Rosh Hashana, or Jewish New Year.
This year up to 18,000 Hasidic Jews, most of them from Israel and the United States, are expected to heed his call and attend the celebrations.
The Hasidic tradition, founded in the eighteenth century in Belarus and Ukraine, places special emphasis on joyous communion with God. The singing and dancing give Uman a festive air.
With Hasidic music pouring out of CD-players and laptop computers, pilgrims dance in circles and sing all around - in the streets, in a bus, even in a kitchen while preparing dinner.
Some choose to wear ordinary clothes, but most prefer old-fashioned black suits and kippas that are worn even by small boys.
Kiosks and stalls offer kosher food, religious books, and candles. Hebrew can be heard everywhere and is even used on fire safety signs around this part of the city.
Simon Bentamin, a 32-year-old Israeli, is on his sixth pilgrimage to Uman. "Here I renew the faith, I feel solidarity and I clearly see the path I must follow," said Bentamin, his eyes cast down since his religious beliefs forbid him from looking at any woman except his wife.
For Ohad-Yaakov Tenenbaum, a ginger-haired psychologist from Beitar in the West Bank, the celebrations in Uman can be summed up in three words - "friendship, happiness, tzadik."
Pilgrimages to Uman were interrupted in the 1930s when Stalin's regime was in full force and the tradition was virtually wiped out by the Nazis. They only resumed in 1988.
The Hasidic arrivals are also a blessing for the local population of Uman, where the average salary is around $160 a month.
City officials said that 80 percent of people living near the celebrations vacate their apartments to rent them out to pilgrims. The area is patrolled by security guards during the pilgrimage days.
The prices for rooms are exorbitant for Ukraine - up to $150 a night for an old bed in a ramshackle room shared with several people, and there is often no hot water.
This year, pilgrimage organizers have set up five large white tents on rocky ground near the rabbi's tomb to accommodate up to 3,000 pilgrims at a lower price.
The anti-Semitic hostility that is ever present in Ukraine is also palpable.
Some locals accuse the pilgrims of "leaving trash everywhere" and clashes between Jews and non-Jews are a frequent occurrence.
"Here, no one loves them, but they earn us cash," said Ilya, a 13-year-old boy carrying luggage for pilgrims in an old wheelbarrow.
City hall official Svitlana Lipinova said: "We don't have to like each other but we respect their convictions."
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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