The festival of Passover commemorates the Exodus of Jews from Egypt over three thousand years ago. The timeless and universal message of this holiday is that slaves can go free, and that the future can be better than the present. Passover, or Pessach as it is called in Yiddish, begins in the middle of the […]
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Ukrainian Jewish Heritage: Zolochiv
Zolochiv, a town located 60 kilometers east of Lviv, was at one time a thriving Polish-Jewish-Ukrainian town. Then, in just three years, its Jewish population perished in the Holocaust. The Jewish presence in Zolochiv dates back to 1565. For centuries, Zolochiv was home to numerous artisans, tradesmen and notable rabbis.They lived throughout the city and […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage – Purim
Purim is a holiday Jews observe in memory of an ancient victory recounted in the Book of Esther. This story had eerie parallels in Europe during the bloody 20th century. About twenty five hundred years ago, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The Jewish people were banished from Israel […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Husiatyn
Husiatyn is a town in the Ternopil Oblast of Western Ukraine, located on the west bank of the Zbruch River. This river formed the old boundary between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century, and the boundary between the Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union during the inter-war period of the […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Jews on Maidan
In these difficult times for Ukraine, it is important to remember the good, to be tolerant and support each other. Because we all are fighting for truth, justice, democracy and a better future for our country. On January 22, 2014, Mikhail Livinskiy a member of the leadership of the united opposition of Ukraine, made a […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage – International Holocaust Remembrance Day
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 […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage – Message to the Leaders of the Maidan
Vitaly Nachmanovych is a historian and ethnopolitologist specializing in Jewish Ukrainian history. His accomplishments are numerous. Among other things he is: a leading researcher at the Museum of History in Kyiv, with a special focus on the atrocity of Babyn Yar, the author of numerous articles and the editor of numerous publications dealing with the […]
Continue readingFalse accusations of anti-semitism in Ukraine
Volodymyr Valkov, of the Jewish Heritage Museum in Ukraine, discusses charges of anti-Semitism in response to a New Year’s skit on the Maidan in which Jewish persons were depicted in a derogatory manner. * Transcript: The pro-European protests in Ukraine that started on November 21 of last year have attracted international attention. The massive protests are seen […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Tu Bishvat
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 […]
Continue readingTimothy Snyder off the mark on post-WWII Ukraine
Ukrainian Jewish reaction to academic/author Timothy Snyder’s recent presentation in Geneva. Transcript: Добрий день! This is Renata Hanynets, at the Faina Petryakova Scientific Centre for Judaica and Jewish Arts, a branch of the Jewish Heritage Museum in Lviv, Ukraine. Recently, our executive assistant at the Jewish Heritage Museum, Volodymyr Valkov, travelled to Geneva to hear a […]
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