From Israel National News– By David Lev For the first time since before World War II, the small Jewish community in the Ukrainian town of Netishin held prayer services – and celebrated the Bar-Mitzvah of the grandson of the community’s last rabbi, 70 years after it had been scheduled to take place. The religious revival […]
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Moldovan Jewish Community Denied Right to Install Hanukkah Menorah in Capital
The JC– On the wall of an inconspicuous building in a side street in Chisinau, the capital of the former Soviet Republic of Moldova, a plaque reads: “Glaziers synagogue — middle of the 19th century.” This is the only remaining working synagogue in a city which boasted 77 synagogues before 1940. Chief Rabbi Zalman Abelsky, […]
Limmud FSU Conference Fosters Jewish Culture
Jerusalem Post– By Daniel K. Eisenbud The Limmud FSU Conference in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod may very well be the intellectual Jewish Woodstock of the former Soviet Union. Attracting over 600 Jews from all walks of life across the country, as well as from surrounding nations, it is a four-day meeting of the […]
UCSJ’s Work in Ukraine: Preserving Jewish Culture
Foreword to the presentation of UCSJ’s work to preserve Jewish Heritage in Ukraine. The vibrant Jewish culture and the spiritual life of the Ukrainian Jewish community in Lviv, Ukraine, much like elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, had been ruthlessly suppressed by the Nazi and Communist totalitarian dictatorships for many years. At present, there are only […]
An Oral History of the Rally to Save Soviet Jewry
Tablet Magazine How We Freed Soviet Jewry Twenty-five years ago today, a rally of 250,000 people changed the fate of Jews worldwide. An oral history. By Allison Hoffman Originally published December 6, 2012. (American Jewish Historical Society) Twenty-five years ago today, an estimated quarter of a million Americans, most of them Jews, flooded the Mall […]
“The Twenty-Seventh Man”– The Crime of Writing While Jewish
By Diana Muir Appelbaum On the night of August 12, 1952, a group of Yiddish writers was executed on Joseph Stalin’s orders for the crime of writing while Jewish. The executions, remembered as the Night of the Murdered Poets, were the tragic culmination of the grand romance between Jewish intellectuals and Marxism. Author Nathan Englander now […]
The Diverse Culture of Chernivtsi, Ukraine and its ‘Cinegogue’
In Maria Danilova’s article “Journey Through Time in Ukraine’s Little Paris,” she describes the rich history that is still alive in the city of Chernivtsi, Ukraine today. Before WWII, this city had several dozen synagogues, and about one third of its population was Jewish. Today, Jewish residents make up only about 2 percent of the […]
Elie Wiesel and Natan Sharansky Discuss 1987 March on Washington for Soviet Jewry
At the this year’s General Assembly (GA) of the Jewish Federations of North America, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and Natan Sharansky, former Soviet Refusenik, discussed the historical significance of the Sunday, December 6, 1987 march on Washington for Soviet Jewry. This 1987 march was the largest American Jewish demonstration in history, with over […]
Jewish Cultural Center Opens in Ukraine
On Tuesday, October 16th, a Jewish cultural center was dedicated in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. It has been named the “Menorah Center,” as the large complex consists of seven buildings in the shape of a menorah. The Center includes a Holocaust museum, community center, hotel, kosher restaurant, an Institute for Jewish Culture in Ukraine and art galleries. The […]
Soviet Jewry Panel in Memory of Lil Hoffman
Lil Hoffman was a long time member of the Board of the UCSJ. Her daughter, Sheila Bialik, convened a panel a few years ago as a tribute to her mother’s tremendous work helping Soviet Jews emigrate from the USSR. Below is an excerpt from the video she created from the panel, which was recently broadcasted […]