January 27th marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. Fifty years later, in November of 2005, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed this date International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, or simply International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Holocaust was a defining moment in the history of humanity. During the Second World War, the Nazi regime and its collaborators murdered about six million Jewish men, women and children. It was a continent-wide programme intent on the total destruction of all Jewish communities. Driven by a fundamentally racist ideology, Nazi Germany also persecuted and killed millions of other people. These included Slavs, Roma, Sinti, the elderly, the disabled. Some the Nazis considered as “racially inferior.” Others were targeted for political, ideological or behavioural reasons. UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, believes that it is essential to learn about the history of the Holocaust. This knowledge will help us to better understand the causes of society’s descent into genocide. And it will also help to raise awareness of the need to nurture peace and human rights in order to prevent mass violence in […]

On January 16th, 2014 Jews in Ukraine and around the world will observe Tu Bishvat …traditionally known as the new year of the trees. According to the tradition of the Hasidim, on Tu Bishvat the Almighty decides the fate of trees and their fruits in the upcoming year’s harvest. As on all Jewish holidays and the weekly shabbat, Jews enjoy a celebratory meal called the seder. Some seders require following strict rituals. Others are more flexible, such as the Tu Bishvat seder. Some Jewish families like to eat meat on Tu Bishvat, others prefer a vegetarian lasagna or a noodle casserole called kugel. However there are some common elements in a Tu Bishvat Seder. These are drinking four different types of wine and eating four different types of fruit. In Ukraine Tu Bishvat is also a time to celebrate one the most famous Jewish sages – Rabbi Sholom Mordechai Shvadron, let the memory of him be blessed – also known as Maharsham of Berezhany. He was appointed Rabbi of the Berezhany district in 1882 and continued to serve in that position until his death in 1911. Physically he was short and skinny, but in everything else he was a giant […]

Brody is a city in western Ukraine, located in the the Lviv Oblast, or province, 90 kilometres northeast of Lviv. It is now the administrative center of the Brody Raion, or district, with a population of about 24 thousand. At one time, Brody was one of the greatest centers of commerce in Eastern Europe, outside of Lemberg … today, L’viv. Brody was in fact once considered the continental version of the prosperous Mediterranean port of Triest. Brody was also once known as the Galician Jerusalem. By the 19th century Brody had the highest concentration of Jews among Eastern European cities. Today Jews all over the world can trace their roots to Brody. Many, upon emigration to new lands, adopted last names derived from Brody … Brodsky, Brodowski, Brodovsky, Brodisch (meaning “from Brody”). Brody’s recorded history dates back to the era of Volodomyr Monomakh in the 11th century. In the centuries following, Brody remained under Polish and Austrian control. By the 17th century, Brody had become an important center of Jewish trade, known for its horse fairs and artisans … cordmakers, weavers, and metalsmiths. In 1648 Brody was captured briefly by Ukrainian Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Notably its Jewish population was […]

Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky is known as the `saviour of Jews` during World War II. Renata Hanynets explains why, in this week’s look at Ukraine’s Jewish Heritage.   Transcript. Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky is known as the `saviour of Jews` during World War II. In the words of Rabbi David Kahane: “When I call Andrey Sheptytskyi a saint, I am not exaggerating.” According to Rabbi Kahane, more than 240 Ukrainian priests and nuns risked their lives hiding 200 Jewish children. In his own residence, Metropolitan Sheptytsky sheltered 15 Jews. Among them was Rabbi Kahane, who later became the chief rabbi of the Israeli Air Force. Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky was born Count Roman Alexander Maria Sheptytsky in 1865 in Prylbychi, a Ukrainian village near Lviv, then part of the Austrian Empire. His family was from an aristocratic Ruthenian line which had become Polonized. His maternal grandfather was the Polish writer Aleksander Fredro. One of his brothers, became a Studite monk, while another became a General in the Polish army. Among his ancestors, however, were two metropolitans of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church … in whose footsteps the young count decided to follow. Despite many obstacles created by his father, in 1891 he entered […]

Drohobych is a city located at the confluence of the Tysmenytsia River and Seret, a tributary of the former, in the Lviv Oblast, in western Ukraine. The current estimated population is nearly 78 thousand. Jews had lived in or near Drohobycz  as early as the fifteenth century. However an officially recognized community was not established there until the end of the seventeenth century. From then on, the Jewish community grew rapidly. By 1765 it had reached nearly two thousand. In this period, Jews were involved prominently in the extraction, distribution, and sale of salt that was mined in the Drohobycz region. By 1869, the city’s more than 8,000 Jews made up 47 percent of city’s population, and constituted the largest single ethnic–religious group in this tri-ethnic town. The Jews were mostly lower-middle and working class, religiously Orthodox, and Yiddish-speaking. What made Drohobycz unusual was the existence there, from the mid-nineteenth century, of an important oil industry, in which Jews played a major role. The extraction of black gold in the region created a boom-town atmosphere. This made Drohobycz a more prosperous and cosmopolitan city than most Galician centers, at least until World War I. Drohobych’s Jewish community was also unique […]