The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter was founded in 2008 with the goal of building stronger relations between Ukrainians and Jews, two peoples who, for centuries, lived side by side on the territory of what is modern-day...
Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 shocked the world. For months, Western governments had warned of the impending criminal war — "absurd," the world responded. In the 21st century, larger powers invading smaller...
On 3 October, the fifth edition of Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize will announce its winner — a book of fiction that contributes to Ukrainian-Jewish dialogue. In the meantime, we will review the short-listed submissions,...
"We have inherited a lot of complex plots in the relations between our peoples, Ukrainians and Jews. Now we have to not only 'finish' the unfinished but also untangle historical knots. It often resembles sewing...
Volodymyr Yeshkiliev, a Ukrainian writer and a jury member of the Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize 2025, discusses modern literature, its relevance and discourses, and its focus on a narrower audience in the current screen...
Maria Genkin, a jury member of the Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize 2025, discusses literature as a cultural diplomacy tool, everyone's need for self-identification, and eradicating stereotypes through cultural discourse. Maria Genkin is a cultural...
The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (KNU), together with the Israeli Cultural Center "Nativ" at the Embassy of Israel in Ukraine, opened the Year of Shmuel Yosef Agnon — a great writer, a native...
[Editor’s note: The annual Meridian Czernowitz International Poetry Festival will take place in Chernivtsi, the birthplace of Paul Celan, from 5-7 September 2025.] Petro Rykhlo, a literary critic, translator, and Professor of the Department of...
[Editor’s note: Below is an interview with Yuriy Skira, winner of Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize in 2024. The long list for the 2025 prize was announced last week. This year’s winner will be named...
Stanisław Lem once slipped away, having built his own world where he was the hospitable and slightly ironic host rather than someone who had to adapt to the world of others, expecting and kowtowing. Lem...
Bruno Schulz is a writer and artist of Jewish origin, born in Drohobych. While his most famous works were written in Polish, he left his cultural mark in the memory of multiple peoples represented in...
Zuzanna Ginczanka published only one collection of poems in her lifetime (On Centaurs, 1936), but her work became a sensation in Polish literary circles. A Jew by origin, she was born in Kyiv, lived in...
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.
