Panteleimon Kulish (1819–97), influential writer, historian, and ethnographer, the first person to have translated the entire Bible into modern Ukrainian and the first to write historical novels in Ukrainian. [Editor’s note: The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter...
Did you know that the late United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (15 March 1933 – 18 September 2020), the second woman appointed to the Court and a renowned pioneer of women’s rights,...
In the mid-twentieth century, two distinguished women were instrumental in the creation of the first computers and the first programming languages—and both of them were born in Ukraine. The birth anniversary of the American "mother...
Sad news has arrived from Kyiv, where on 26 May 2020, the distinguished Ukrainian poet and translator Moisei Fishbein died at the age of 73. With his extraordinary personality and poetic creativity, he embodied the...
Aliza Begin (Ella Arnold) was born a hundred years ago, on 25 March 1920, in the city of Drohobych (today: Lviv oblast), into a wealthy family that owned several oil wells in Boryslav. Aliza’s father,...
The State of Israel was created and built by Jewish settlers who came mainly from Eastern Europe. Among them were quite a few natives of Ukraine, especially from central (Dnipro) Ukraine, which was part of...
In recent years, the National Bank of Ukraine has issued dozens of commemorative coins on various topics. Several coins are dedicated to prominent Jewish writers and scientists who lived and worked in Ukraine, as well...
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (Shimshelevich) (1884-1963). President of Israel from 1952 to 1963. Born in Poltava. Moshe Sharett(Shertok) (1894-1965). Prime Minister of Israel from 1953 to 1955. Born in Kherson. Levi Eshkol (Shkolnik) (1895-1969). Prime Minister of Israel from...
Personalities in the Performing Arts who are of Ukrainian-Jewish Background Theodore Bikel (b. 1924). Versatile actor of film, stage, and television, as well as a multilingual folk singer and musician. Bikel is a master of languages...
DID YOU KNOW THAT both ethnic Ukrainians and Jews originating from Ukrainian lands have created significant diaspora communities in the same lands of resettlement, in particular in Canada and the United States?
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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.
