– Written and narrated by Peter Bejger. Let’s take a moment to consider “dark tourism.” The concept is elastic, and quite multi-faceted. And it has a distinguished historic pedigree. Evidently there are assertions that Thomas Cook, yes the Thomas Cook that founded the famous international travel agency, took people to see public hangings in England […]

“How are we to explain the fact that today many people all but yearn for a world destroyed by their fathers and grandfathers?” The Austrian writer Martin Pollack poses uncomfortable questions in his work. But then he hails from a less than comfortable background. Pollack’s powerful book, The Dead Man in the Bunker, carries the […]

-Written & Narrated by Peter Bejger Truth and lies. Facts and fiction. Reality and the unreal. In today’s unsettled, and often bizarre, media landscape the very definition of these basic terms takes on an urgent meaning. How they are defined—and more importantly, who has the power to define them—shapes the political climate. And the resulting […]

Written and narrated by Peter Bejger. The revelation came in California. “We went to one of the redwood parks. I was looking at redwood trees, sequoia trees, and I saw them and I remember just thinking about how much those trees have seen. If only they could talk. I started to think a thousand years […]

Examining the relationship between Ukrainians and Jews in Revolutionary Times, 1917-1920. Written and narrated by Peter Bejger. Centennials offer moments for reflection. The one hundredth anniversary of a major turning point in history provides an excellent opportunity for re-evaluation and reconsideration. In the spring of 1917 the Russian Empire came to an abrupt end. The […]

Written and narrated by Peter Bejger A quiet village set amidst rolling hills, forests, and ravines. A revered monastery. And four stories of salvation. A compelling article by Oksana Sikorska in the Ukrainian journal Zbruch outlines the remarkable role of the small western Ukraine village of Univ during the horrors of the Second World War […]

Franko and Jabotinsky: Setting the stage for cross-cultural understanding between Ukrainians and Jews -Written and narrated by Peter Bejger. Two writers, two politicians. Two outstanding public figures. And two intriguing viewpoints on the historic challenges of Ukrainian-Jewish relations. The Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko passed away in 1916. The Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky was from a […]

Today, two perspectives on loss and memory. “I close my eyes and I can hear the bells…ringing; each one rings differently. I can hear the splash of the fountains on the Marketplace, and the soughing of the fragrant trees, which the spring rain has washed clean of dust. It is coming up to ten o’clock […]

“Wherever I went I found, as in few other places I have been, just how happy ordinary people were happy to talk. Then I understood that this was because no one ever asks them what they think.” So writes Tim Judah, a reporter for The Economist, in his compelling book In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine. […]