{"id":8888,"date":"2017-12-08T20:53:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T20:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=8888"},"modified":"2017-12-08T20:53:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T20:53:00","slug":"wolf-moskovich-memory-books-forever-magical-chernivtsi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wolf-moskovich-memory-books-forever-magical-chernivtsi\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolf Moskovich on memory, books and forever-magical Chernivtsi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wolf Moskovich at The Lviv International Book Fair and Literature Festival, 14 September 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The candles cast images of flickering light against the weathered walls of Lviv\u2019s Italian Garden. Wolf Moskovich, professor emeritus of Jerusalem\u2019s Hebrew University, who was sitting at this open-air gala next to me, suddenly said, \u201cLviv had a somewhat different atmosphere seventy years ago. There used to be more Polish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d I replied in surprise. \u201cWhen you walk the streets today, there\u2019s plenty of Polish to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moskovich shook his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to come here as child from Chernivtsi and you could hear Polish everywhere. Not anymore.\u201c<\/p>\n

We were enjoying a temperate fall evening. Moskovich has just wrapped up two presentations of the book The Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter: Cultural Dimensions,<\/em> co-edited with Alti Rodal, co-director of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter. One presentation had taken place days before in Chernivtsi, the city of both his and Rodal\u2019s birth, at the Meridian Czernowitz International Poetry Festival. The other concluded only hours before, here at the city\u2019s international book fair.<\/p>\n

It was evident the trip had been moving for Moskovich, taking him back in place and time.<\/p>\n

The days in Chernivtsi were spent speaking at the festival, meeting with friends and working on a short film about the city that will appear in this space early next year. In Lviv, he energetically visited places of import with his friend and former student, Victor Radutsky, the eminent Hebrew-language translator.<\/p>\n

Radutsky, who stepped away momentarily, re-joined us. He was also visibly moved. Only hours earlier he received special recognition at the fair for his contribution to Israeli-Ukrainian cultural relations. Next year, Ukrainian-language readers will be fortunate to read Radutsky\u2019s new translations of works by the internationally-recognized Israeli writer Amos Oz, whose family roots are in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

As more people joined the fete, Moskovich and Radutsky said it was time to bid farewell.<\/p>\n

As we stepped out onto Lviv\u2019s central square, I was amazed at Moskovich\u2019s energy and endurance. He is no longer a young man. His life has spanned the Soviet occupation of Ukraine, the building of a career in Moscow, and then even more prominence in Israel, where he is seen as the father of Ukrainian studies. He can switch from English to Ukrainian to Hebrew to Yiddish to Rumanian and yes, even more languages, in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n

Moskovich has, simply, traveled everywhere. In what would be mere weeks, another trip awaited him, this time to the West Coast of the United States where he would speak at the 2017 Limmud FSU Inspire conference in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Those travels, along with his academic work, have given Moskovich, who is a UJE board member, enviable knowledge. Some of his historical insights, shared in Chernivtsi, Lviv, and San Francisco, are presented below.<\/p>\n

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Meridian Czernowitz International Poetry Festival, Chernivtsi, 7 September \u00a02017<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
(in Ukrainian)<\/em><\/div>\n
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