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 […]

The Western Ukrainian town of Brody is on my mind today. This historic town has always been in the minds of several generations of Jewish traders, writers, rabbis, and immigrants to the New World. Boris Kuzmany of the Institute of Slavonic Studies at the University of Vienna can tell us why this one particular town has retained a vitally important place in Ashkenazi Jewish memory. His fascinating article in the journal East European Jewish Affairs, entitled Brody Always On My Mind: The Mental Mapping of a Jewish City, explores just how and why little Brody became a legend. It all started with trade. Brody was always a lively centre but the tempo really picked up in 1629, when a Polish noble bought the place. There was an influx of Jewish merchant families. Jews were under the direct protection of the noble city owners and could live without any restrictions within the town and work in any profession or engage in commerce. By the middle of the eighteenth century Brody became the region’s most important hub for trans-European trade. It was the linchpin of trade between the German lands and points east into Ukraine and Russia. An affluent mercantile elite funded […]

He is relentless and outspoken. And he has paid the price. He was arrested twice for his human rights activities and served six years in prison in the Soviet gulag. But he emerged from behind prison bars to the world stage. Josef Zissels is now the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. He is also Vice President of the World Jewish Congress. He is once again in the political limelight after a recent visit to North America. The sixty-eight year old Zissels set up Ukraine’s first Jewish organization in 1988. He has been a strong and consistent defender of Ukraine’s independence and democratic path. In an interview with the Toronto Star, Zissels discussed the troubles in eastern Ukraine. He told the Star that it’s a war. And Jews are suffering in the same way other Ukrainians are. Many have moved from eastern Ukraine to Kyiv and other western Ukrainian cities to escape the danger. But Ukraine’s Jewish community is largely staying put. And not only staying put. But also pitching in. Zissels told the Canadian Jewish News that Ukrainian Jews volunteer to help displaced persons. They provide the army and National Guard with money, medication, […]

The city of Dubno is located in the Rivne Oblast, or province, in western Ukraine. It sits on the banks of the Ikva River. The current population is around 38,000. Dubno was first mentioned in a chronicle dated 1099, although it is thought to be even older. In the “Story of the Passing Years” the monk Nestor wrote of ancient Slavic tribes called Volhynians living in Dubno. In the early 14th century it was annexed by Poland and became a royal stronghold guarding that country’s eastern border. Dubno was the site of a renowned castle, built by the Ostrozhsky family. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the castle was made into a modern fortress, one of the strongest in the area. The castle stood until it was destroyed in 1915 during World War I. Granted city rights in 1498, the town attracted many foreign settlers, most notably Jewish and Armenian. The Jewish community of Dubno is first mentioned in documents of 1532 in connection with the ownership of cattle. The oldest tombstone inscription in the Jewish cemetery dates from 1581. During the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648-49, Dubno Castle was the scene of heavy fighting. Some of it was described by […]

A grandfather taught his grandson the Jewish alphabet and read him poems in Yiddish. Shortly before his death, he tied all the Jewish books into a pile, and threw them onto the very top shelf of a cabinet. He believed that nobody would ever need them. But the grandson took down this pile and started to read the books. This is a story of a language lost and regained. And this is also a story of one man’s determination to honor his heritage with an extraordinary contribution to help revive a language of dreamers. “My interest for Yiddish was born in my family,” says Dr. Dmytro Tyshchenko. “My ancestors spoke this language; it was as natural as breathing.” Tyshchenko is the son of a Jewish mother and a Ukrainian father from Donbas. He is the creator of a massive new Yiddish-Ukrainian dictionary, produced with the assistance of the Ukrainian Jewish encounter. The 945-page tome is being acclaimed in Jerusalem, Kyiv and elsewhere. The Holocaust nearly destroyed Yiddish in Eastern Europe. Further damage was inflicted by Stalin’s executions of Yiddish-language writers, and Soviet government policies. The language lost its vitality and languished on the margins of society. But the language refused […]

Passover is a festival of freedom. It commemorates the exodus of Jews from Egypt over 3000 years ago. The timeless and universal message of this holiday is that slaves can go free, and the future can be better than the present. Passover, or Pesach, as it is called in Hebrew, begins in the middle of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month on the Jewish liturgical calendar. It lasts for seven days in Israel, eight in the diaspora. On the Gregorian calendar, Passover generally corresponds with late March or early April. This year, 2015, Passover begins Friday evening April 3rd, and ends Saturday evening, April 11th. Passover is known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In preparing for Pesach, Jews clean their homes and vehicles, removing every trace of leaven (or chametz, in Hebrew). This act symbolizes the haste with which the Jews left Egypt. They did not even have time to let the bread rise. It is also a symbolic purification ritual— removing the puffiness of arrogance and pride, which separates us from one another, and our Creator. The eating of matzo, or unleavened bread, is very important to Jews during this time. The scrupulous ritual avoidance of […]

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 […]

Babyn Yar is a ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv that has become a symbol of the Holocaust. There more than 100 thousand perished during the Nazi occupation, including 40,000 Jews. Babyn Yar was first mentioned in historical accounts in 1401, in connection with its sale by a “baba” (which means an old woman), to the Dominican Monastery. Over the course of several centuries, the site was used for various purposes including military camps and at least two cemeteries, among them an Orthodox Christian cemetery and a Jewish cemetery. The latter was officially closed in 1937. On September 19, 1941 the Nazis occupied Kyiv. Ten days later, on Yom Kippur, they began the mass murder of Jews at Babiy Yar. The city’s Jews obeyed a Nazi order to assemble there, expecting to be deported, as Nazi propaganda intended. According to German records, in just two days nearly thirty four thousand Jews were killed. The killing continued for months. The majestic ravine quickly became a mass burial site of Jews, Gypsies, Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians, and others …civilian hostages, prisoners of war, patriots and partisans, including Ukrainian Nationalists. The Nazis spared no one … not children, the elderly, nor pregnant women. Patients […]

The Tkuma Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies in Dnipropetrovsk contains a number of materials concerning “Righteous among the Nations”. This honorary title is given to the people of different nations who rescued Jews during WWII, from 1939 to 1945. The procedure is monitored by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, a special committee established at the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority. Among the materials at Tkuma is the tremendous heroic story of Lidia Kotliarevska, who rescued Jews during the Nazi occupation of Dnipropetrovsk. Lidia Kotliarevska had been involved in an underground organization and had worked as a nurse in German hospital. She carried out her underground activity jointly with Boris Sondak, a Ukrainian Jew who she hid in her flat. Sondak was responsible for blowing up a bridge on the Dnipro River to halt the progress of the Nazis. In 1942 he and his comrades were arrested and executed. During the Dnipropetrovsk occupation she also sheltered a Jewish family, Tatiana Rabovskaya and her sons Viktor and Nikolay. The older son cared for his younger brother and Lidia’s young daughter Aleksandra. In November 2002 Yad Vashem notified Lidia Kotliarevska that she had received the honorary title of Righteous among the Nations for […]