{"id":37923,"date":"2026-07-01T13:52:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=37923"},"modified":"2026-07-01T13:52:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:52:47","slug":"the-ukrainian-jewish-encounter-cultural-dimensions-part-6-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/the-ukrainian-jewish-encounter-cultural-dimensions-part-6-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\"The Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter: Cultural Dimensions\": Part 6.2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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 Ukraine. Since then, in keeping with its motto, \"Our stories are incomplete without each other,\" UJE has sponsored conferences, round-table discussions and research, as well as translations and publication of works the organization anticipates will promote a deeper understanding between the two peoples and an appreciation of their respective cultures.<\/p>\n

We offer for the first time the book\u00a0The Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter: Cultural Dimensions\u00a0<\/em>in an eBook format.<\/p>\n

The book is a collection of essays that examine the interaction between the Ukrainian and Jewish cultures from the seventeenth century onwards. Written by leading experts from Ukraine, Israel, and other countries, the book presents a broad perspective on parallels and cross-cultural influences in various domains \u2014 including the visual arts, folklore, music, literature, and language. Several essays also focus on mutual representation \u2014 for example, perceptions of the \"Other\" as expressed in literary works or art history.<\/p>\n

The richly illustrated volume contains a wealth of new information on these little-explored topics. The book appears as volume 25 in the series\u00a0Jews and Slavs,<\/em>\u00a0published by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since 1993. In several previous volumes, considerable attention is given to the defining role of the Old Testament in Ukrainian literature and art and to the depiction of Jewish life in Ukraine in the works of Nikolai Gogol, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, Vladimir Korolenko, and other writers.<\/p>\n

This collection of essays was co-edited by Wolf Moskovich, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Alti Rodal, Co-Director of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, who also wrote the introduction to the volume. It was published in 2016 by Hebrew University of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

6.2<\/span><\/h1>\n

Click\u00a0here for a pdf\u00a0<\/a>of the entire book.<\/p>\n

Jewish-Christian dialogue and Jewish-Ukrainian relations: The burdens of history and prospects for the future<\/h2>\n

Myroslav Marynovych (Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv)<\/span>
\n<\/em><\/strong>It was not possible to speak about Jewish-Christian dialogue in Ukraine in the twentieth century. The atheism enforced on society hit most painfully those stateless nations \u2014 namely Ukrainians and Jews \u2014 who had survived, first of all, due to their faith. That is why our first attempt to hold such a meeting in 1999 at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv revealed that both communities were not actually ready for a Jewish-Christian dialogue in itself. The Jewish-Christian dialogue had been constantly reduced to a Jewish-Ukrainian dialogue. However, there is merit in promulgating in Ukraine the achievements of the worldwide Jewish-Christian dialogue as it may fruitfully contribute to inter-ethnic understanding as well.<\/p>\n

Between the secular and the biblical visions of the future<\/span>
\n<\/strong>A comparison of the secular and the Biblical perspectives of the Jewish future supports the premise stated above. In the secular perspective, the decisive factor is the success (or the lack of success) of the worldwide program of combating antisemitism. Antisemitism, in the secular perspective, is perceived to be a harmful worldview that can be eliminated by well-thought-out educational measures. The idea is very pragmatic: knowledge <\/em>about the crimes committed in the past against Jews is the remedy that would cure a potential or real carrier of the virus of antisemitism. In this view, it is thought that it would be sufficient to visit Yad Vashem or any other museum of the Holocaust to understand into what <\/em>the simple \"right not to love Jews\" can be transformed.<\/p>\n

However, Elie Weisel was right when he said: \"One would need to be blind not to notice: hatred toward Jews is fashionable again.\"[1]<\/a> The return of Judeophobia is like the return of the eternal Haley's Comet which spreads its ill-omened tail in the sky with a certain inevitability, and humanity (especially the Jews!) presume that one should expect new tribulations. We see today in many countries a certain resistance to programs developed to prevent antisemitism. From the secular perspective, this is perceived as a signal that the revival of antisemitism will recur where it was not overcome totally. That is why it is necessary to combat antisemitism more forcefully, in order to annihilate the virus completely.<\/p>\n

Personally I have little faith in this approach. I turn my attention, therefore toward the Biblical perspective which, according to my understanding, is much more promising.<\/p>\n

It is well known that the Biblical vision consists of two radically different pictures, depending on which stage of the \"scattering-gathering\" cycle we are observing. At the stage of scattering, God punished his people with all thinkable and unthinkable punishments (Ezek 5:14\u201315). A Jew who drank his fate as a Biblical decree with his mother's milk viewed persecutions and disdain as God's will. His attention was focused on God as the ultimate ruler of the fate of His people and on himself as a cause of God's wrath, rather than on the executors or instruments of the wrath. The following words of Joseph to his brothers were especially illustrative: \"So it was not really you but God who had me come here\u2026\" (Gen. 45:8).<\/p>\n

Of course, one should not idealize the situation, for it is hard to expect a persecuted people to fully understand their enemies. The Psalmist repeatedly asked the God of Israel to have no mercy on them (Ps. 59:6). But in the triangle God-Israel-enemies<\/em>, the relations precisely between the first two components were precisely the most important in the consciousness of a Jew: \"God, you know my folly; my faults are not hidden from you\u2026For your sake I bear insult\u2026\" (Ps. 69: 6, 8)<\/p>\n

This was so as long as the people lived in the paradigm of their Biblical faith. When it was replaced by the age of secularism, the argument of the \"will of God\" was increasingly replaced by the \"will of man.\" The triangle God-Israel-enemies <\/em>began to turn into a linear opposition of Israel-enemies. <\/em>Therefore, the attention of the offended Jew was focusing increasingly on the figure of his\/her offender. A secular Joseph would tell his brothers today: \"Don't hide yourselves behind God's back! It is you who had me come here!\" (cf. Gen. 45:8).<\/p>\n

Thus, the offender assumed more and more demonic features, and the reference to the \"will of God\" became irritating. In the case of the Israelites, Isaiah's expression of \"as sheep to shambles \" was viewed as the inability to defend oneself and as a consequence of the Galut <\/em>degeneration. [2]<\/a> Attempts to refer to the Bible's prophecies by a Christian provoked strong protest on the part of Jews as an effort to legitimize the criminal actions of Christian offenders.<\/p>\n

However, there is a little-noticed but significant point in the Biblical narration: it includes reports not only about the persecution of the Jews, but also about their glorification: \"Just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you that you may be a blessing<\/em>\u2026\" (Zech. 8:13).<\/p>\n

The \"sieve\" of human consciousness traditionally overlooks such passages as a kind of exaggeration. However, it appears that the key which is still to be found lies precisely here: the nations should not merely renounce antisemitism \u2014 they should receive the Jews as a blessing. <\/em>In other words, the Bible goes even farther in its \"program of combating antisemitism!\" And the difficulties faced by the present secular <\/em>version of that program serve almost as an illustration of its incompleteness.<\/p>\n

Of course, the question remains open regarding the specific moment of its history that the biblical nation turned from a curse into a blessing for all nations. It appears that the revival of the Biblical perspective remains a fundamental and inevitable necessity. Today however, under the scrutinizing and suspicious eye of an irreligious population, it is not enough to repeat after Rabbi Pinkhas of Kotsk: \"Help to allow God into this world, and everything will be in accord.\" [3]<\/a> It is important to make sure that \"letting God in\" or \"a return to the Bible,\" as Naphtali Prat fears, would not lead \"to reactionary attempts to tie the out-of-date dogmas of past centuries to the living, changing reality.\" [4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Both Biblical successors, Jews and Christians, must consider the bitter experience of the past. Both have to prove that the \"god\" whom they let in will not call out the unfortunate demons of the past: the pride of being the only right one, the loftiness of electedness, the violence of forced conversion, and the aggression of religious prejudices. Both religious groups must realize that any revival of those demons will hamper the return of the Biblical perspective and will make secular reservations about it quite heated.<\/p>\n

Problematic aspects of the mission to convert Jews to Christianity<\/span>
\n<\/strong>The importance of Jewish-Christian dialogue for the harmonization of inter-ethnic relations may be illustrated also by discussions about the conversion of Jews to Christianity.<\/p>\n

In their effort to convert the Jews over two millennia, the children of the Christian Church failed to succeed. They also in addition stained their evangelical vestments with crimes against humanity. Eventually, the time had to come for sobriety and a search for new approaches, sometimes even very radical ones. Let us follow the development of Christian thought since the Second Vatican Council.<\/p>\n

In the vather revolutionary conciliar document, Nostra Aetate<\/em>, the condemnation of the persecutions of Jews and the task to desist from attempts to convert Jews to Christianity are clearly combined with confirmation of the missionary responsibility of the Church (p. 4). Nine years later, the Roman Curia published explanatory notes to the provisions of that conciliar document which state specifically:<\/p>\n

In virtue of her divine mission, and her very nature, the Church must preach Jesus Christ to the world (Ad Gentes<\/em>, 2). Lest the witness of Catholics to Jesus Christ should give offence to Jews, they must take care to live and spread their Christian faith while maintaining the strictest respect for religious liberty in line with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council (Declaration Dignitatis Humanae<\/em>). [5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Three more years passed and the Statement of the Venice Commission already declared as improper the establishment of mission organizations aimed at the conversion of the Jews. [6]<\/a> Cardinal Walter Kasper came to a similar conclusion in his speech in November 2001 in Jerusalem:<\/p>\n

The term \"Mission\" \u2014 understood as a call to conversion from idolatry to the living and true God (1 Thess. 1:9) \u2014 does not apply and cannot be applied to Jews. They confess the living true God, who gave and gives them support, hope, confidence and strength in many difficult situations of their history. There cannot be the same kind of behaviour towards Jews as there exists towards Gentiles. This is not a merely abstract theological affirmation, but an affirmation that has concrete and tangible consequences; namely, that there is no organized Catholic missionary activity towards Jews as there is for all other non\u2013Christian religions<\/em>. [7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Reflections on Covenant and Mission<\/em>, the document of the Consultative Meeting of the National Council of Synagogues and the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, contains the most revolutionary formulations to date: \"Campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church.<\/em>\" [8]<\/a> These conclusions of the interreligious committee in the United States provoked considerable resistance from Christians. Arguments expressed may be grouped as follows:<\/p>\n