Born near the little town of Chortkiv in what is today western Ukraine, the prolific Jewish writer, journalist, and editor Karl Emil Franzos achieved international renown in the late nineteenth century with his German-language tales...
Omelian Kovch (1884–1944) was prisoner Number 2399 in Barrack 14 at the German concentration camp Majdanek on the outskirts of the Polish city of Lublin during the Second World War. The front line was approaching,...
Golda Meir (Goldie Mabovitch,1898–1978), born in Kyiv, Ukraine, forged a dramatic life path and career that enshrined her standing as an illustrious political leader in the global arena and a legendary figure in the establishment...
The biographical details of Khane-Rokhl Werbermacher are often vague, contradictory, or disputed as there is only scattered documentation. This very uncertainty has inspired legends about the mysterious life of a pious Hasidic woman who achieved...
Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979), a legendary figure in the Parisian avant-garde and the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964. Delaunay was born Sarah Stern into a Ukrainian Jewish...
Viktor Kytasty (1943-2000). American professor, musician, cultural anthropologist, and social activist. He emigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1949. A professional musician who performed on the bandura (a stringed instrument considered the national...
Sidi Tal (Sorele Birkental, 1912-1983) was born in what was then called Czernowitz, the capital of the Duchy of Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and is now Chernivtsi, Ukraine. As borders shifted and political regimes...
Vasyl Avramenko (1895-1981). Ukrainian actor, dancer, choreographer, ballet master, movie director, and film producer, considered the father of Ukrainian folk dance in North America. Avramenko is credited with spreading the art form across the world...
Rose Ausländer (1901-1988) was born in what is now Chernivtsi, Ukraine, which was formerly known as Czernowitz in the Duchy of Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was a poet of Jewish heritage whose life...
Dmitri Tiomkin (1899-1979). American film score composer who is considered one of the legends of Hollywood movie music, especially for westerns. Tiomkin won the Academy Award for the score of the movie High Noon, also...
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.
Since its launch in September 2022, the UJE Timeline has earned international recognition by winning eight international awards:
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.
