Hanukkah is a joyous holiday, celebrated every year by Jews around the world with the lighting of candles on a candelabra called a menorah, or hanukkiya* in modern Hebrew. Traditional Hanukkah treats include potato latkes, called plyatsky or deruny in Ukrainian, and sufganiyot, doughnuts with jam, called pampushky in Ukrainian. There is also a tradition to give Chanukeh gelt—coins, and […]
In this edition of Ukrainian-Jewish Heritage, we will be discussing Joseph Telushkin’s biography, Rebbe – The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, The Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History. Rebbe examines the life and teachings of one of the most prominent and respected Jewish scholars of our time. Born in 1902 in Nikolayev […]
Welcome to the final episode of our 4-part series on the currencies of Ukraine and Israel. In Episode 1, the focus was on the respective histories of the currencies of these two states. In Episodes 2 and 3, we focused on eight prominent Jews born in Ukraine who were depicted on Israel’s currency. In this […]
In the last two episodes of Ukrainian Jewish Heritage, we learned that several Jews from Ukrainian territories were awarded one of Israel’s highest honors: their portraits depicted on the state’s banknotes and coins. And that Ukraine has returned the favour. In Episode 1, the focus was on the respective histories of the currencies of Israel […]
The State of Israel was created and built by Jewish settlers who came mainly from Eastern Europe. Among them were quite a few natives of Ukraine, then ruled by the Russian & Austro-Hungarian Empires. Today’s episode of Ukrainian Jewish Heritage, Part 2 of our series on the currencies of Ukraine and Israel, features Jews from […]
In this edition of Ukrainian Jewish Heritage, we will be discussing Ron Vossler’s memoir Hitler’s Basement. Much has been written about Nazi concentration camps, but little has been written about the Nazi massacres of Jews on Ukrainian soil, and the peasants who witnessed and participated in these horrific events. In Hitler’s Basement, Ron Vossler reveals […]
Banknotes and coins are not only means of payment, they are also a symbol of sovereignty. This is a story about two currencies, two countries, and two peoples with a long and closely intertwined history. The hyrnvia, currency of Ukraine and the shekel, currency of Israel. This is the story of how both of these […]
Last week we aired the first part of an interview with Paulina Zelitsky, who published The Sea is Only Knee Deep. In this two-volume memoir she tells the fascinating story of her life growing up in the Soviet Union, working in Cuba on a Soviet naval base in the late 1960s, and her famous and […]
A couple of weeks ago on Ukrainian Jewish Heritage, we aired a book review of the memoirs of a Jewish woman from Odessa. An engineer, who worked on a nuclear submarine station in Cuba during the height of The Cold War, shortly before a daring defection from the Soviet Union to Canada. Her name is […]
In this edition of Ukrainian Jewish Heritage, Myra Junyk reviews The Sea is Only Knee Deep, a two-volume memoir of a nuclear scientist who defected from the Soviet Union to Canada at the height of the Cold War. The Sea is Only Knee Deep is the true story of Paulina Zelitsky’s defection to Canada from […]
