{"id":13535,"date":"2019-04-17T23:35:05","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T23:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=13535"},"modified":"2019-04-17T23:35:05","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T23:35:05","slug":"a-discussion-in-new-york-viewing-the-ukrainian-jewish-relationship-within-historical-contexts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/a-discussion-in-new-york-viewing-the-ukrainian-jewish-relationship-within-historical-contexts\/","title":{"rendered":"A discussion in New York: Viewing the Ukrainian-Jewish relationship within historical contexts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Discussion of \u201cJews and Ukrainians: A Millennium of Co-Existence\u201d with Prof. Paul Robert Magocsi, Board Member, Ukrainian Jewish Encounter; Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto (right) and Adrian Karatnycky, Co-Director and Board Member of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (left) at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York on 28 March 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2013 The historic development of the Ukrainian-Jewish discourse, the need for a greater understanding of history and its contexts, as well as the current political situation in Ukraine were discussed during a wide-ranging conversation that took place at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York recently.<\/p>\n

The event, sponsored by the Institute and the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, focused on a lecture<\/a> by Dr. Paul Robert Magocsi on the book Jews and Ukrainians: A Millennium of Co-Existence<\/em><\/a>, which he co-authored with Dr. Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern. Adrian Karatnycky, a co-director and board member of the UJE, was the event moderator.<\/p>\n

Prof. Magocsi is also an UJE board member, as well as Professor of history and political science at the University of Toronto, where since 1980 he holds the Chair of Ukrainian Studies.<\/p>\n

The lively two-hour lecture and discussion touched on a number of important issues related to how ethnic Ukrainians and Jews from Ukrainian lands view each other.\u00a0 These issues have provided a complex yet fascinating framework for understanding the development of that relationship over the centuries.<\/p>\n

Prof. Magocsi identified one of the key components as \u201cterritory\u201d because it affected both Ukrainian and Jewish self-identification.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthnic Ukrainians consider their historic homeland to have always been Ukraine, a territory which only in the course of the twentieth century became a clearly defined and eventually independent state,\u201d he said. \u201cOn the other hand, the Jews in question are part of a world-wide diaspora, one branch of which, called Ashkenazim, had until recently inhabited large parts of central and eastern Europe, including areas which\u2014from their perspective\u2014have only recently \u201cbecome\u201d Ukraine\u2026 Various regional and country names do, nonetheless, reflect real differences within what we are defining here as Ukrainian Jewry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof. Magocsi outlined the different empires and states that have ruled the Ukrainian lands and the respective conditions under which Ukrainians and Jews lived.\u00a0 This affected how Jews, who were the focus of the lecture, were able to develop in different categories within society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires ceased to exist in the last years of the First World War (1917-1918) the Jews of present-day Ukraine found themselves in four new states: the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia,\u201d he said. \u201cThose in the former Russian Empire were now in the Bolshevik-ruled Soviet Ukrainian Republic of the Soviet Union. Soviet policies had both a positive and negative impact on their lives. Religious Jews and their institutions were persecuted, and petty merchants and retail shop owners were put out of business. On the other hand, Soviet law lifted all legal restrictions from the tsarist era against Jews as a group, with the result that hundreds of thousands were able to make successful careers in Soviet institutions, whether in government, university, scholarly research, or industrial management sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted several conclusions could be drawn from the intersection of territory and history on Jews themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first conclusion has to do with the very formulation, Ukrainian<\/em> Jewry<\/em>. If we are to use that concept as an analytical tool, then we must accept the fact of Ukraine\u2019s regional diversity and its significant impact on the country\u2019s Jewish inhabitants\u2026 A somewhat related conclusion\u2014and recommendation\u2014is what I would suggest is the need to move away from the simplistic notion that the historic past of eastern European Jewry is little more than the story of unmitigated tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Prof. Magocsi\u2019s presentation, Karatnycky noted it was important to keep in mind several important factors when looking at the Ukrainian-Jewish relationship. Ukraine historically has been the cradle of Hassidism. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which incorporated much of Ukraine, was the only place where Hebrew-language books were published (in the contemporary western Ukrainian town of Zhokva). Ukraine was the home to great literary Yiddish-language literary figures, like Sholem Aleichem. And it was a land ravaged by the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

During the Second World War, over 1.5 million Jews were shot to death during what has become known as the Holocaust by Bullets.<\/p>\n

At the same time, it was important to remember that five million non-Jews in Ukraine during the war years perished as prisoners of war, fought the Nazi occupation on the Soviet side, and were part of the resistance. Karatnycky also pointed out that historically there were good relations between a number of important Ukrainian and Jewish figures. He noted that the Zionist leader Vladimir (Ze\u2019ev) Jabotinsky was supportive of the Ukrainian desire for self-determination.<\/p>\n

When looking at the relations between the two peoples, Karatnycky said it was important to consider the historical context in which events occurred, and to recognize commonalities. For instance, when discussing the relationship between Jews and Bolshevism, it is often overlooked is that there were Jews who themselves were oppressed on religious, linguistic, and other grounds.<\/p>\n

A spirited discussion took place after the lecture, a discussion that included the prevalence of stereotypes and the much-debated issue of the extent of Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis during World War II.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid ethnic Ukrainians and did peoples of other backgrounds in Ukraine contribute to the arrests, and minimally assist the invading German forces in Ukraine that had singled out Jews and other undesirables for liquidation? Did some of the population assist? Of course they did. We knew that a long time ago,\u201d Prof. Magocsi said.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s transparency and willingness to open its archives has provided an environment for particularly younger historians to investigate the country\u2019s past anew.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question of why it happened, how it happened and [what] percentage is now being investigated, because before you couldn\u2019t look at it,\u201d Prof. Magocsi said.<\/p>\n

To that end, both the professor and Karatnycky cautioned that historical context and balance was important.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to look at the liquidation of Jews, we have to look at others, like [Metropolitan Andrei] Sheptytsky, who went out of their way to save [Jews] at great risk to their life,\u201d said Prof. Magocsi.<\/p>\n

Karatnycky pointed out many people are not aware that Stepan Bandera, the controversial Ukrainian nationalist leader who has been often criticized by the Jewish community, was arrested by the Nazis and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for refusing to rescind his 1941 decree proclaiming Ukrainian statehood after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Thousands of his followers were executed by that same regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese questions are being discussed with greater sophistication today in Ukraine,\u201d said Prof. Magocsi.<\/p>\n

For more from the discussion, see the video from the presentation below.<\/p>\n

Discussion of \u201cJews and Ukrainians: A Millennium of Co-Existence\u201d with Prof. Paul Robert Magocsi and Adrian Karatnycky, Ukrainian Institute of America, New York, March 28, 2019.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n