Іsrael Baal Shem Tov is the founder of the Hasidic movement in Judaism. His name means «a good man who knows the secret name of God». Rabbi Baal Shem Tov developed a sophisticated mystical system based not on an intellectual comprehension of God, as did the Kabbalists, but on passionate religious aspiration, easily accessible to […]

Drohobych is a town in the Lviv region of Ukraine, and the homeland of Bruno Szultz – a writer, literary critic, fine artist, and teacher of art. Szultz was born to Jewish parents and is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. He attended school in Drohobych from 1902 […]

Belz is a small city in the Lviv province of Western Ukraine near the border with Poland. The Ashkenazi Jewish community in Belz was established in the 14th century. The Ashkenazi are a Jewish ethnic division which coalesced in the Holy Roman Empire around the turn of the first millennium. They established communities in central […]

Marla Raucher Osborn is a former California attorney whose family originates from Rohatyn, in western Ukraine. Now based in Warsaw, she works as a researcher, writer, and lecturer. Marla has been researching her family’s history for several years. Her first visit to Rohatyn was in 2008. She walked the town and shot photos, but she […]

Rohatyn is a city located on the Hnyla Lypa River in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Rohatyn Raion. It was first mentioned in historical documents in 1184 as a part of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. Its name seems to be derived from Ruthenia, the name of the […]

Halych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The town gave its name to the historic province and the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhyn, of which it was the capital until the early 14th century. Today Halych is a small city which preserves its former name. It also is the administrative center of […]

Omelian Kovch was born 20 August 1884 in the picturesque southern Galician village of Kosmach, in the Carpathian Mountains. The family was full of priests. His father was a parish priest and his mother was the daughter of a parish priest. After completing his studies in Lviv, he embarked on the road to priesthood. He […]