06 - Jewish Life

There were 85 Jewish organizations in the Ukraine at the beginning of 1993.

The main umbrella organization of (AJPOV) Ukrainian Jewry was the Association of Jewish Public Organizations in the Ukraine, headed by Yosif Zisels, the co-chairman of the Vaad of the C.I.S. The Jewish Council of the Ukraine (JCU, headed by Ilia Levitas with Yaakov Bleich as deputy chairman) was registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Ukraine in January 1993 as the second umbrella organization of Ukrainian Jewry. In the words of the Jewish activist Arkadii Monastyrsky, the JCU unites all the Jews of the Ukraine, whereas the AJPOU is merely a council of chairpersons of Jewish organizations. Despite the obvious rivalry between both federations, there has been no lack of cooperation between them. In 1993 both rival umbrella organizations agreed on cooperation in such matters as Holocaust commemoration and the program “Righteous Gentiles” (in June), and also on common endeavors for the establishment of the Methodological Center for Jewish Education under the aegis of the Ukrainian Ministry of Education (in September 1993).

The Solomon’s University in Kiev, one of the four Jewish universities operating in the former Soviet Union, was formerly established in 1993. The International Memorial Foundation Ianovsky Camp was established in Lvov in the beginning of 1993. The newly established foundation issued a declaration in which it explained its goals: to liquidate a penitentiary colony at the site of the former Nazi camp in the outskirts of Lvov; to set up a memorial complex, which would include a Holocaust museum and the international center of documentation on the Jews of Galicia.

In March 1994, the training center for teachers in Jewish day and Sunday schools in the Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova opened in Kiev. It was supported by the JCU, AJPOU, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, and the Foundation for Culture and Education in the Diaspora.

There were 19 Jewish periodical publications in the Ukraine in 1993, among them — 10 issued only in Kiev, 2 in Kharkov, 2 in Dnepropetrovsk, 2 in Chernovtsy, others in Donetsk, Simferopol and Bershad. The papers were issued in Russian, Ukrainian, and, to a lesser extent — in Yiddish. The oldest and the most important Jewish newspapers were the monthly Vozrozhdenie-91 [Revival-91], the continuation of Vozrozhenie Khadashot-Novosti [The News], and Evreiskie vesti [Jewish Reports], all published in Kiev.

A number of academic conferences on Jewish issues were held in the Ukraine. In October 1993 alone there were three such events: two international scientific conferences, “The Holocaust of Galician Jewry — Problems of History, Politics and Morality,” held in Lvov, and “The Beilis Trial: Current Perspectives,” held in Kiev; and the conference “Overcoming Chauvinism and Extremism — the Prerequisite for Inter-ethnic Harmony and Civil Peace in the Ukraine,” held in Kiev. At the end of 1994, the conference “Jewish Culture, History and Tradition” was held in Odessa.

Source:
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* Historia: Ucrania