How openness and honesty help in the discourse of difficult questions in Ukrainian-Jewish history: Israel's experience

(With English CCs)

Five years ago, the Canadian charitable non-profit organization Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, together with the non-governmental organization Israeli Friends of Ukraine, launched a new pilot project — seminars for Israelis to discuss acute issues in Ukrainian-Jewish history. The success of this project has grown year by year.

We are talking about the Holocaust and the Holodomor. Together we discuss the most painful issues that often hinder the dialogue between Jews and Ukrainians. Most importantly, the organizers of these seminars in Tel Aviv, Netanya and Acre managed in 2016-2020 to create an atmosphere of openness and honest conversation.

Dr. Vasyl Rasevych, a historian from Lviv, is a regular participant and speaker at these seminars. His intelligence, academic honesty and depth of thought fascinated Israeli participants. In this video blog, Vasyl Rasevych shares his impressions of the dialogue with Israelis.

Shimon Briman (Israel).