-An interview with Pawlina Ukrainian Jewish Heritage is a series that has been ongoing here at Nash Holos for several years now, sponsored by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter of Toronto. The series … for me and also, I hope, for Nash Holos listeners … has opened a window into the fascinating, centuries-old yet little known, history of Jewish life in Ukraine. It has also presented opportunities for dialogue between people of Ukrainian and Jewish descent who are working to make this history better known. Recently I received an email from Allison Zivin of the Felshtin Society in New York. The Felshtin society is named after a Ukrainian town called Felshtin, which today is called Hvardiyske. It began as a benevolent society organized in 1905 in New York City. After a brutal pogrom in February of 1919, in which some 600 Jewish Felshtiners were massacred, the society provided refuge and relief to the survivors. A hundred years later the Felshtin society is still active and is planning commemorative events to mark the centenary of this tragic historical event. On the line to tell us more about them, the society and the history behind it is the president of the Felshtin […]

–Written and narrated by Peter Bejger. Who closes the door? And who can open it? Who escapes? And who doesn’t? A compelling book entitled The Great Departure: Mass Migration From Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World by Tara Zahra answers some of these questions. Tara Zahra is a professor of modern European history at the University of Chicago and a recent winner of a MacArthur Fellowship. Her book is an impressive work of scholarship that is filled with often-heartbreaking personal stories of the devastating human toll of migration. Between 1846 and 1940 more than fifty million Europeans moved to the Americas in one of the largest migrations of human history. Villages were emptied out throughout Europe—especially Central and Eastern Europe. The homes the emigrants left behind as well as their new homes were fundamentally changed. From almost the very beginning emigration policies were political tools to be manipulated and exploited. Governments and nationalist movements were eager to see certain groups leave—they were often called “surplus populations”—while trying to restrict the departure of other “favored groups” considered essential for state or nation building. The goal was to create nationally homogeneous populations. A goal pursued by various regimes and […]

–Written and narrated by Peter Bejger. History, trauma, and the museum space. Museums can offer many faces to the world. From dusty collections of artefacts to dramatic arenas outlining—or avoiding—compelling national or cultural narratives. A recent lecture sponsored by the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv looked at the role museums play in tackling difficult issues of history. Vadim Altskan, originally born in Ukraine, is a historian specializing in Eastern European, Balkan, and Jewish history. He is a Project Director for the International Archival Programs at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. Altskan’s lecture was entitled “The Missing Page in Museums: The History of Jewish Communities as Part of the Multiethnic Heritage of Ukraine.” The challenge of integrating the history of the Jewish communities of Ukraine into the museums and educational systems of contemporary Ukraine is not a problem unique to that country alone. Ukraine’s neighbors in Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet space have grappled with this issue with varying degrees of frustration and success. Altskan made the fundamental point that to provoke interest in other people’s lives requires you to show who they were, how they lived, and why they are […]

    –Written and narrated by Peter Bejger. Perhaps some listeners fall into the same serendipitous mood I do when reading a book, or any collection of texts. Perhaps you start from the end. Or the middle. After all, every story has a beginning, middle, and end. But it doesn’t have to be told in that manner. A very interesting new issue of the Odessa Review prompts this reflection. The October/November issue focuses on one vital theme—relations between Ukrainians and Jews. Past, present, and future. This very special issue—supported by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter—recognizes an important truth. As Vladislav Davidzon, editor-in-chief of the Odessa Review notes, no matter how complicated or difficult the subject of Ukrainian-Jewish relations has been, the story is far from over. An impressive array of contributors presents multiple views on the complexities and challenges of the Ukrainian-Jewish relationship. Wolf Moskovich, Professor Emeritus at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reviews the impact of two towering figures on Ukrainian-Jewish relations in the early decades of the 20th century. The Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko and the Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky both attempted to build bridges between the two groups. Professor Moskovich shows how they helped to sow seeds of cooperation […]

    Poetry in a time of war. Such is the headline by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, or FAZ, in its recent reporting on the dynamic annual poetry festival Meridian Czernowitz, held earlier in September in the western Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. Why war? Because the newspaper picked up the subtle influences of the war with Russia in the East on this gracious city far from the front. As international literati gathered to celebrate the word, young men in camouflage and stony faces marched under the chestnut trees. And why Czernowitz? Such was the name of this city from 1774 to 1918 when it was the capital of the Imperial Austrian crownland of Bukovina under the reign of the legendary Habsburg dynasty. In this period it became known as a “Little Vienna” due to its architectural style. And also for the fact it was the home of a growing German-speaking community and German-language university. But the city was always cosmopolitan—a center for both the Ukrainian and Romanian national movements. And in 1908 it was the site of the first Yiddish language conference. Not surprising, as nearly a third of the city by this time was Jewish. The stories […]

Download: UJH-2014-0803-Tisha B’Av Tisha B’Av is a fast day that commemorates the destruction of the two Temples in ancient times, as well as more recent tragedies befalling the Jewish people. It is sometimes referred to as “The Ninth of Av, since it falls on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av. On the secular calendar it usually coincides with late July or mid-August. Tisha B’Av vividly recalls devastating tragedies in Jewish history, so it is known as the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. The first great tragedy occurred in 586 B.C.E. when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the First Temple built by King Solomon, the most important place in ancient Judaism. The Temple was re-built on the site of the First Temple, and completed in 516 B.C.E. This second temple was destroyed during the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. The destruction of the two Temples took place on the same day — the ninth of Av — about 656 years apart. These two events were so devastating that the ancient rabbis declared the anniversary of the Temples’ destruction a day of mourning. This is the origin of Tisha B’Av. Other tragedies have occurred on this […]