"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...
In December 2019, the Canadian charitable non-profit organization Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, in cooperation with Ukraine's NGO "Publishers Forum" (Lviv, Ukraine), announced a new initiative entitled Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize. The prize aims to build...
[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...
In December 2019, the Canadian charitable non-profit organization Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, in cooperation with Ukraine's NGO "Publishers Forum" (Lviv, Ukraine), announced a new initiative entitled Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize. The prize aims to build...
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...
Ukrainians and Jews have lived side-by-side on the territory of modern-day Ukraine for nearly two millennia. Separately and together, they weaved a tapestry that has left an indelible mark on Ukraine's cultural, linguistic, and historical...
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.
