Toxic terminology and the sinister manipulation of language can lead to murder. A recent conference held in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv in early June underlined the dangers inherent in the misuse of the spoken and written word. “The Seduction of Propaganda: Mass Violence in Ukraine in the 20th and 21st Centuries” featured […]
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Ukrainian Jewish Heritage-Brody, Ukraine
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 […]
Continue readingInterview – Alti Rodal
The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE), a privately organized multinational initiative launched in 2008 as a collaborative project to promote deeper mutual comprehension and solidarity between Ukrainians of Jewish, Christian and other heritages. It is based in Toronto and engages scholars, civic leaders, artists, governments and the broader public throughout Ukraine, Israel and the diasporas.
Recently UJE organized a conference in Ukraine on propaganda and genocide, which I was able to attend thanks to the organization’s generosity. UJE organizes many conferences that facilitate broader dialogue and understanding, as well as public education projects.
One such project is an exhibition entitled A Journey Through the Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter: From Antiquity to 1914, which was created by UJE and co-funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The multi-media travelling community exhibition premiered in Toronto at the Schwartz/Reisman Centre in Vaughan in May and is currently on display at the Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg, where it opened on Monday, June 15, 2015.
Alti Rodal, Co-Director of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative, kindly agreed to tell Nash Holos listeners about this innovative exhibit.
Interview – Cheryl Madden
Cheryl Madden, award-winning American specialist on the Holodomor discusses a recent Verizon ad denigrating Ukrainian dance, the security breaches she had experienced with her Verizon internet service over the past 12 years, and her harrowing experiences with the Russian federation regarding her work on the Holodomor.
In 2008 Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko presented Chery Madden with the Ukrainian national award The Order of Princess Olha for her research and for raising public awareness of the Holodomor — Stalinist genocide by forced starvation in Ukraine from 1932-33.
Cheryl Madden compiled an annotated bibliography of English language sources on the Holodomor for the Shevchenko Scientific Society. It was dedicated to the Ukrainian schoolchildren of the class that never was.
Pawlina in Ukraine May-June 2015
The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative of Toronto is hosting a seminar in Ukraine entitled: The Seduction of Propaganda and Mass Violence in Ukraine in the 20th and early 21st Centuries. The UJE has kindly sponsored me to travel to Ukraine to attend this seminar and share the highlights with Nash Holos listeners and followers on […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Josef Zissels
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 […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Dubno
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 […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage-Yiddish_Ukrainian_Dictionary
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 […]
Continue readingBook Review: Orwell and the Refugees—The Untold Story of Animal Farm
Andrea Chalupa’s Orwell and the Refugees traces the amazing connection between George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm and Ukrainian refugees in the displaced persons camps of postwar Germany and Austria. Animal Farm carries the message of hope that someone in the West knew the truth about the Soviet Union, that someone understood the unimaginable horrors […]
Continue readingUkrainian Jewish Heritage: Passover (2015)
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 […]
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