Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, better known as the Baal Shem Tov ("Master of the Good Name") and the acronym Besht, became one of the protagonists in the new Ukrainian film "Dovbush" (2023). It will be...
Hava Nagila. The words are Hebrew for Let Us Rejoice. They also comprise the title of one of the most recognizable and well-known songs in the world. And little did I know just how appropriate a...
[Editor’s note: Irene Nemirovsky joins Aharon Appelfeld and Amos Oz as a writer with deep ties to Ukraine, but who is still largely unknown by the country’s citizens. 24 February 2019 marks the 116th anniversary...
Despite the fact that almost half of all Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust were killed on the territory of the Soviet Union, their Jewish identity was for decades effaced by Soviet policy. It was...
The documentary film Hunger for Truth tells the story of Canadian-Jewish journalist Rhea Clyman. Although little known today, Clyman reached international acclaim in her day for her coverage of the Soviet Union, including the 1932-33...
“In Our Synagogue” is the first film by Ukrainian director Ivan Orlenko. The 30-minute, black-and-white short is based on Franz Kafka’s unfinished short story of the same name. Of the film’s total budget of just...
We are speaking with the director Akhtem Seitablaev about his new film A Prayer of Strangers. At the beginning of the conversation we are introduced to Saide, the main character of the film. Akhtem Seitablaev:...
Welcome to Ukrainian Jewish Heritage on Nash Holos Ukrainian Roots Radio. I’m Peter Bejger. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. An astonishing new film called Shimon’s Returns proves the point in a...
The Ukrainian novelist Oksana Zabuzhko once wrote, “We, the poor relatives of the European household, have but a meager chance of being heard in the post-informational world.” Zabuzhko was writing for a specifically Western readership...
The Israeli premiere of the new documentary Crimea: As It Was (2016), which took place against the background of skyscrapers in the heart of Tel Aviv, was a resounding success. The film recounts the personal...
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Ukrainians and Jews have lived as neighbours for centuries, creating and sharing enduring cultures that continue to inform their identities today. Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE) is proud to present Part 1 of an integrated narrative of these two peoples in the belief that there is much to be gained by viewing their historical experience together, in all its complexity.
As Ukraine defends its very existence against Russia, the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Timeline serves to counter the malicious and false narratives about Ukraine and its history. The Timeline demonstrates that Ukraine is home to diverse peoples and, for centuries, one of the world’s oldest and largest Jewish communities.
The 'Encounter' prize aims to build on the common experiences of Ukrainians and Jews over the centuries, expressed in literature and nonfiction. The Prize will be awarded annually to the most influential work in literature and nonfiction (in alternate years) that fosters Ukrainian-Jewish understanding, helping solidify Ukraine's place as a multi-ethnic society and giving truth to the motto, "Our stories are incomplete without each other."
The goal of the richly illustrated catalogue is to present an integrated narrative that looks at the experience of these two peoples together, in all its complexity — through periods of crisis, as well as long stretches of normal co-existence and multifaceted cultural interaction from antiquity to 1914.
