Welcome to Ukrainian Jewish Heritage on Nash Holos Ukrainian Roots Radio. I’m Peter Bejger. Consider the following:  Night songs from a neighboring village  Come drifting at times to my balcony  They quench my sorrow, caress my melancholy  Flow like liquid honey Today we would like to honor the remarkable long-term music project that is called Night Songs from a Neighboring Village. Night Songs is a concert program that combines two musical traditions—the Ukrainian and Eastern European Jewish. These traditions have co-existed and interacted for centuries. And the traditions mirror the complex relationship between the two peoples that have nurtured them. Night Songs is the brainchild of the Americans Julian Kytasty and Michael Alpert. They are both the sons of immigrants from the shared ancestral land of Ukraine. Julian Kytasty offers the deep heritage of Ukrainian folk and religious song. He is renowned as a master of the Ukrainian lute-harp, or bandura. Michael Alpert offers vocals, violin, guitar, and accordion. He draws upon klezmer music, Yiddish folk song, and the music of the Hasidic world. All three of these Jewish musical genres flourished in Ukraine. And all three of these great art forms of the Yiddish world nourished each other. And […]

A fascinating new book just published by Stanford University Press tackles the controversial legacy of a man in the shadows of history—Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks in the 17th century. Stories of Khmelnytsky, sponsored in part by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, features provocative essays by distinguished scholars from throughout North America, Europe, and Israel. Edited and introduced by Amelia Glaser, associate professor of Russian and comparative literature at the University of California, San Diego, the book’s twelve engaging chapters explore the highly contested memory of the man. In brief, Khmelnytsky led a successful revolt against Polish rule in 1648, a bloody revolt that included the destruction of Jewish communities. The revolt was a major trauma in the collective memory of the Jewish people. A trauma recounted in centuries of highly evocative Jewish writings. The revolt established Ukrainian independence and the Cossacks as key players in the geopolitics of the day. And for this Khmelnytsky was hailed as a national hero. However, for many Ukrainians Khmelnytsky’s legacy is tarnished by his subsequent treaty with Moscow, which ultimately condemned Ukraine to centuries of Russian rule. The book carefully addresses, without attempting to resolve, the fundamental questions Khmelnytsky’s image provokes. […]

The name for the Jewish New Year is Rosh Hashana, which in Hebrew means the “head of the year.” It is one of the most important religious holidays for Jews … a day of awe and fear, but also a day of celebration. Rosh Hashana remembers the creation of the world. It’s a time for continuous introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and making plans to do better in the new year… to do Teshuvah – returning to the paths of the Almighty. Rosh Hashana is also called the Feast of the Trumpets, as the central observance of the holiday is the sounding of the the shofar, a ram’s horn. This sound is to awaken souls from their “slumbers” and alert them to the coming judgment. It is a reminder to dedicate one’s life to serving the Almighty and to follow His commandments. The cry of the shofar is also a call to repentance. As the anniversary of man’s first sin, Rosh Hashanah is the first day of the “Ten Days of Repentance” which end with Yom Kippur. At this time of year, the common greeting is “Shanah Tovah,” which means “May you enjoy a good […]

The beautiful Western Ukrainian city of Lviv has over the past few years blossomed as an artistic and cultural center, a center that is increasingly featured in the itinerary of European and global artists. The city now holds numerous festivals of national cultures. They present a full menu of events in cuisine, literature, theatre, music, as well as the visual and decorative arts. A major goal of such events is the rediscovery and appreciation of national traditions. Lviv has a long, honored, and rich history of various ethnicities. And they all have contributed to Lviv’s cultural mosaic. Jewish culture is without a doubt a fundamental element to the city’s common cultural heritage. A lively and yearly celebration of Jewish culture is now one of the highpoints of Lviv’s summer calendar. LvivKlezFest, the international festival of Jewish music, was started in 2009 to reconnect with the lost Klezmer musical culture of Jews living in Galicia. Klezmer music has enjoyed a dynamic revival and popularity in many countries hosting the Jewish Diaspora. The Lviv festival has in turn grown in scope, attracting an increasing number of international musicians who have returned to perform in one of the historic homelands of Klezmer. The […]

Architecture and memory. Restoration and commemoration. Cities and towns throughout Europe after the Holocaust have grappled with the issue of historic Jewish sites. Buildings once alive with dynamic communities can now sit in ruins. How can these haunted places be properly reintegrated into the contemporary life of cities? What do you need to consider? And to remember? The Western Ukrainian website Zakhid dot net recently featured a lively dialogue between Dr. Sergey Kravtsov of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Dr. Sofia Dyak of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv on these issues. Kravtsov, a specialist in synagogue architecture, was born, trained, and worked as an urban planner and architect in Lviv. Both he and Dr. Dyak have been involved in the discussions around Lviv’s historic Golden Rose Synagogue, an architectural landmark destroyed by the Nazis in the Second World War. Kravtsov noted that Jewish neighborhoods have been wiped off the map of Central and Eastern Europe. However, thanks to history, memory, and art, a mental map of this Jewish world remains. The possibility to transform this mental map into a meaningful and attractive urban space depends on several factors. First of all, current residents in […]

Imagine everything that is dear to you in life has been lost. Imagine your world destroyed. And imagine if you can find the strength to move ahead. In 2011 the Austrian director Paul Rosdy released his film The Last Jew from Drohobych. The documentary chronicles the astonishing path of one man’s journey through the treacherous history of Eastern Europe. Alfred Schreyer was born in 1922 in Drohobych, a thriving town then in Poland, and now in Western Ukraine. His mother Leontina was a pharmacist. His father Benno had a doctorate from the University of Zurich and was a chief chemist at an oil refinery. Both were very musical and Alfred learned to play the cello. Later, in high school, Alfred was a student of the world-renowned writer and painter Bruno Schulz. Just like Alfred, Bruno Schulz spent most of his life in Drohobych. Schulz’s acclaimed books, The Street of Crocodiles and The Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, both now translated into many languages, can still be felt and seen on every street corner in Drohobych. The outbreak of the Second World War however turned Drohobych upside down. Yet life continued. Alfred graduated from high school in 1940, during […]

As we discussed before in a previous segment, a recent conference held in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv in early June analyzed the lethal impact of destructive propaganda on community relations. The conference was organized and hosted by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative. Entitled “The Seduction of Propaganda: Mass Violence in Ukraine in the 20th and 21st Centuries,” the conference outlined how propaganda used by totalitarian regimes provoked and legitimized violence against three peoples: the Jews in Hitler’s Holocaust, the Ukrainians during Stalin’s Holodomor, or Terror Famine, and the Crimean Tatars in their deportation. The conference not only addressed the historical context of propaganda, but also revealed malignant themes being used in the current Russian disinformation campaign against Ukraine. Dehumanization and demonization are classic propaganda techniques that have been recycled.  Dr. Ihor Schupak, the director of the Tkuma Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies in Dnipropetrovsk, revealed how today’s Russian propaganda against Ukrainians recalls the exact same strategy and format used by the Nazis. Ukrainians have been depicted as rats, and as aggressors. The implication here is that aggressive vermin need to be exterminated. Subtle as well as blatant anti-Semitic themes have also been used in Russian propaganda, with […]