Ukraine is currently at the forefront of people’s minds, including that of our arts editor Judi Herman, who takes a look at the country's Jewish communities and reflects on meeting some of them
Like so many in this country and across the world, I have been anxiously following the news about Ukraine, which is now updated hourly rather than daily. I have been trying to keep up with Jewish communities in Lviv and Kyiv, with whom our own Ark Synagogue in Northwood and Pinner has close links.
Looking through back issues of JR, Ukraine has been covered extensively over the last 20 years. Firstly, so much of Jewish culture can trace its roots back to the country, from the heritage of late French musical icon Serge Gainsbourg, whose parents fled Ukraine after the 2017 Russian Revolution (Autumn 2021 issue); to French novelist Irène Némirovsky (profiled in January 2005) who was born in Kyiv in 1903 and died in Auschwitz in 1942; to the inextricable role klezmer music has played in revitalising Jewish culture (Spring 2002).
Jewish farmers working on the Royter Oktobr kolkhoz in Bobrovy Kut, 1930s, World ORT Archive collection
In October 2015 Ukraine was the subject of JR’s Passport section, a little over a year after the Russian annexation of Crimea. Editor Rebecca Taylor visited Ukraine to talk to the Jewish refugees who had fled the fighting in the east of the country – in Donetsk, a name that has become familiar again during the recent crisis. You can read their frank conversation here. Elsewhere, translator Boris Dralyuk uncovered the distinctive Jewish culture of Odessa; Robert Chandler discussed the life and work of writer Vasily Grossman; and JR spent 48 hours with the Jewish community in Kyiv.
In July 2019, Amelia Glaser examined the background of the Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the Jewish comedian, whose primary qualification for serving as president was his portrayal of a fictional prime minister in a sitcom. Last week she shared that article on Twitter, commenting: "At the time I was unclear what kind of president he’d be, so I focused on his comedy. He is proving a remarkable leader."
Mural on Andriyivsky Street, Kyiv, 2021
What of his fellow Jews, living mainly in the cities of Lviv and Kyiv and also Kharkiv, which is currently under heavy bombardment? The city’s two main synagogue communities are both offering refuge as needed. Yesterday there were reports that members of Kharkiv’s community unable to leave the city were unharmed and have access to food and water, but this is obviously a rapidly changing situation. On 1 March the Russians bombed a radio tower in Kyiv, killing five people and reportedly damaging the nearby Babyn Yar memorial to the 33,000 Jews who were massacred by the Nazis in pits they were forced to dig themselves. Listen to Josephine Burton of Dash Arts talking about the Songs for Babyn Yar performance on JR OutLoud.
On a visit to Ukraine back in 2005, my husband Steve and I were unutterably moved to visit Babyn Yar and stand beside the site of the massacre with fellow members of our congregation, taking part in a service of remembrance led by our Rabbi Andrew Goldstein. We later attended the Shabbat service led by Rabbi Alexander Duchovny in the beautiful synagogue of Kyiv’s Hatikvah (Hebrew for hope) Reform Congregation. In these difficult days, I watched a video of Rabbi Alexander sent from the Kyiv basement in which he is sheltering, as he continues to look after members of his community and others from the Russian onslaught. He flew to London before the invasion, but returned to Kyiv and is not intending to leave. His bravery speaks for itself.
Judi Herman and her husband Steve at the Holocaust memorial in Babyn Yar, 2005
In Lviv, which is famed for its annual Klezfest and where The Ark Synagogue has close links with the city’s Progressive Teiva Congregation, the level of anxiety is high. I pray that Lviv – and all of Ukraine – can survive and thrive once more.
By Judi Herman
Header illustration by Thomas Fournier
Join our special event, A Nation in Flux: Ukraine's Jewish Culture Past and Present, on Wednesday 9 March in support of World Jewish Relief’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal. See events for further details and to book.
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