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 4th and final episode in the series, we will focus on the currency of Ukraine. By 1994, less than three years after the break-up of the USSR, Ukraine had its own facility producing paper money of international-standard quality, security level and design. As we learned in Episode one, however, its establishment faced many challenges and obstacles. The establishment of a mint that produced coins took even longer, and followed an even more convoluted path. The first Ukrainian coins were made available in 1995. They were commemorative, or collectible, coins. A year later, general circulation coins were released. This coincided with Ukrainian monetary reform in 1996, when the karbovanets was dropped in favor of the new hryvnia. These early coins were produced at a temporary facility, a converted factory in Luhansk. They were the first coins minted on Ukrainian soil in over 300 years. Meanwhile, plans […]
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Ukrainian Jewish Heritage: Part 3—Currencies of Israel and Ukraine
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 and Ukraine. In Episode 2, we introduced four prominent Jews on Israel’s currency who were born in Ukraine. The poet Hayim Nahman Bialik, who is considered Israel’s national poet; Volodymyr Ze’ev Jabotinsky, whose legacy includes the Betar youth movement and the Likud party; Levi Eshkol, who built the foundation of Israel’s modern infrastructure day Israel as well as the army that won the six-day war; and Golda Meir, the most famous female politician in Israel. Today, four more natives of Ukraine on Israel’s currency. Moshe Sharett, Israel’s second prime minister, was born 1894 in Kherson. His family immigrated to Ottoman Palestine in 1906, then to Jaffa in 1910. The family became one of the founding families of Tel Aviv. After Israel’s proclamation of independence Moshe Sharett changed his surname to Shertok. Like the majority of the founding fathers of Israel, Moshe Shertok devoted his life […]
Continue readingKnyzhka Corner Book Review: The Stories Were Not Told
In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing Sandra Semchuk’s book on the internment of Ukrainians in Canada, The Stories Were Not Told – Canada’s First World War Internment Camps. From 1914 to 1920, thousands of individuals who had immigrated to Canada from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany and the Ottoman Empire were unjustly imprisoned as enemy aliens. Many of them were Ukrainian. In The Stories Were Not Told – Canada’s First World War Internment Camps, Sandra Semchuk combines her exquisite photography with historical documents, cultural theory, and poignant personal testimony from internees and their descendants. Semchuk helps readers understand the social and emotional effects of these tragic events. In her Preface, Semchuk tells readers, “We are learning the important work of listening and speaking truthfully across cultures. Today’s fears for security in the world stir memories and experiences of racism, paranoia, and distrust of new immigrants.” (p. xxiv) The first chapter, “Learning from the Past,” examines the historical events: Ukrainian immigration to Canada in the early 1900s, the War Measures Act of August 19, 1914, and the call for the creation of internment camps for enemy aliens. Internment camps became a government sanctioned method to imprison those falsely […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Part 2—Currencies of Israel and Ukraine
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 Ukrainian territories who were awarded one of Israel’s highest honors: their portraits depicted on banknotes and coins. As we learned in Part 1 of our series, Israel’s currency underwent several changes. From the Palestine Pound in 1948 to the Israeli pound— or the Israeli lira—in 1952, to the shekel in 1980. And finally, in 1986 the Israeli New Shekel, which remains Israel’s official monetary unit to today. Eight natives of Ukraine have figured prominently on Israel’s currencies over the years. The poet Hayim Nahman Bialik was born in 1873 in the village of Ivnytsia, in what is today the Zhytomyr oblast, or province. Bialik is considered one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew poetry. His life coincided with the restoration of this ancient language, long considered a bookish, “dead” language. He also wrote prolifically in Yiddish. Bialik spent his childhood and youth in Zhytomyr. He […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Hitler’s Basement
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 the little known story of the Nazi murder of thousands of Jews in the region of Transnistria, a region of Ukraine currently bordered by eastern Moldova. Vossler’s relatives came from this area and were known as the Volksdeutsche, a German minority living outside Germany. His search for the truth about the events of these massacres, and the role of the Volksdeutsche is the core of this book. It is a story which reveals, “Rivers of red, a kingdom of death.” Ron Vossler was a literature professor in North Dakota when he became interested in the murders of Jews in the Transnistria area. His relatives came from this area of Ukraine. As a young person, he knew very little about these events because no one ever talked about them in North Dakota. However, the Volksdeutsche culture and history were very important in the community. As a […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Currencies of Ukraine and Israel— Part 1 Historical parallels
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 countries have honoured the other with their respective currencies. Nothing confirms sovereign statehood like its own unique, identifiable and stable currency. And arguably, no two countries know this better than Ukraine and Israel. One of the biggest challenges of any new state is being taken seriously on the world stage as a sovereign political entity with a viable economy. To that end, engaging in international trade is crucial. And for that to happen, a new state needs its own currency. In 1991, shortly after the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, Ukraine suddenly found itself an independent state. After over 70 years of political and economic subordination, Ukraine was finally free of Kremlin control. But taking control of its own affairs after centuries of foreign control would be no easy task. As a new state, Ukraine found itself stuck with the Soviet ruble as its […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage – Interview: Paulina Zelitsky Part 2
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 daring defection to Canada in 1971. In Part 1 of our interview, Paulina described the dangers she faced, and the indignities she endured, as a Jewish girl growing up in the Soviet Union…and later working on a Soviet naval base in Cuba and accidentally becoming privy to the political intrigues of the little-known Second Cuban Missile Crisis. Today in Part 2 of this two-part interview, Paulina will tell us about her harrowing defection and the circumstances that convinced her that defection was the lesser danger. As well, she will explain why recent alarming developments in Cuba today—which are being ignored by western media—lead her to believe that we are now facing a third, and much more dangerous, Cuban Missile Crisis, and its potentially disastrous ramifications in Ukraine and eastern Europe. Pawlina: So then you started to seriously look at defection. You chose Canada. You knew […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage interview—Paulina Zelitsky Part 1
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 Paulina Zelitsky, and her two-volume memoir reads like a John le Carré spy thriller. Only it’s a true story. When I reached out to her this week to get a photo for the blog post with the transcript on the Nash Holos website, Paulina dropped a bombshell, almost but not quite literally speaking, about an alarming development today that makes her story less a memoir than perhaps a prophecy. Paulina Zelitsky defected in 1971 with her two young sons and later brought her family members. To say that she has been a contributing member of Canadian society since day one is an understatement of vast proportions. But that’s a story for another time. Today we’ll talk about her book and her life in Cuba, the former Soviet Union, and her harrowing defection to Canada. Paulina Zelitsky joins me now by phone from her home in […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Book Review—The Sea Is Only Knee Deep
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 the Soviet Union with her two young children in 1971. These two volumes explore many topics including: Stalin’s final years, Fidel Castro’s Cuba, and the dangers of defecting. Paulina’s story begins in Cuba in 1968. She is part of the engineering team designing a top secret submarine base for Soviet nuclear submarines. “My predicament was dangerous and the possibility of defection much more so.” (Vol.1, p. 1) Zelitsky’s story does not shy away from the complex political realities of life in the Soviet Union. Beginning with her birth in 1945 in postwar Odessa, Zelitsky’s Jewish family is subjected to constant scrutiny by the KGB. Despite the death of her mother from Stalin’s imposed famine of 1946-1947, Paulina is an optimistic child who loves difficult tasks. Jokingly, adults tell her, “To you any sea is only knee deep.” This Odessan motto, which is the title of […]
Continue readingKnyzhka Corner Book Review: Starving Ukraine – The Holodomor and Canada’s Response
In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing Serge Cipko’s ground-breaking book Starving Ukraine – The Holodomor and Canada’s Response. Starving Ukraine is a richly detailed history of Canada’s response to the Holodomor, the great famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933. By examining Canadian newspapers, contemporary letters, and government documents, Cipko paints a shocking picture of famine and death, and the Soviet government’s denials of these events. Cipko probes several important questions, “What was the nature of the coverage in the Ukrainian-language press in Canada? How did the pro-Soviet segment of the Ukrainian community respond to the stories about famine in the Soviet Union? What relief efforts existed among Ukrainians, Mennonites, and others in Canada? How did the Canadian government respond to petitions about the famine?” (p. xix) Canadians learned of the famine from a multitude of contradictory sources including newspaper articles, personal letters, political speeches, and organized events to protest this Soviet atrocity. Serge Cipko’s examination of Canada’s response to the famine begins with the Edmonton Journal’s commentary about a scarcity of wheat in Ukraine in early April 1932. This was the earliest reporting about the Holodomor in the mainstream Canadian press. However, in May the Toronto […]
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