A literary intersection: S.Y. Agnon and Vasyl Makhno

The Hebrew-language writer Shmuel Yosef Agnon is a towering figure in world literature. His often-complex works explore the intersection of modernity and traditional Jewish life, bringing to life the Jewish shtetl in which he grew up, watched change, and disappear. For his work, Agnon was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966, which he shared with the poet Nelly Sachs.

Much of Agnon’s writing is shaped by ideological conflicts and geographical change.

The first nineteen years of Agnon’s life were spent in the western Ukrainian town of Buchach. In acknowledging his work, the Nobel Prize committee noted: “Agnon’s unique quality as a writer is apparent chiefly in the great cycle of novels set in his native town of Buczacz [Buchach], once a flourishing center of Jewish piety and rabbinical learning, now in ruins. Reality and legend stand side by side in his narrative art.”

Although Buchach played a pivotal role in his literature, Agnon has remained an enigma in the land of his birth. In recent years, however, there have been attempts to return the writer to Ukraine. In 2025-2026, several institutions launched initiatives to honor Agnon, establishing cultural ties between Ukraine and Israel.

As part of these efforts, Ukrainian writer Vasyl Makhno recently presented his newest novel, The Angel and the Donkey: With Poems About Fire and Water, in Buchach, Kyiv, Odesa, and Ternopil. The novel explores the real life of Agnon and the imaginary writer Victor Preisner, and the intersection of space and time between Buchach and Jerusalem, where Agnon lived for many years and died.

The novel was an outgrowth of a 2019 literary residency in Buchach headed by Mariana Maksymiak of the Agnon Literary Center. UJE supported three residencies between 2019 and 2021.

Below is a video of a discussion between Maksymiak and Makhno. The conversation took place in the courtyard of the building where Agnon lived in his youth. Events in the courtyard, known as Art-Dvir, are supported by the nonprofit organization Buchach-Art.

Vasyl Makhno and Mariana Maksymiak, Buchach, Ukraine, Art-Dvir, 24 May 2026 (in Ukrainian)

Text, photos and video: Natalia A. Feduschak