Visualizing our common heritage

The Jews are known for their striving to preserve their books in particular and their history and historical memory in general. Many Ukrainians, first of all those who claim to be the nation’s political elite, would do well to learn from the Jews.

The reverence with which they treat the printed word was on display once again at the Ukrainian Home on November 21, where Synagogues in Ukraine, the first book in a five-volume series “Jewish Spiritual Heritage of Ukraine,” was presented, as part of the cultural studies project “The Jews: Centuries-Old Wisdom.” The book describes the major cities’ synagogues as well as the Jewish life in the shtetls through the lens of spiritual and cultural values that rightfully belong to the Jewish people which is equal to any of Ukraine’s ethnic groups.

The Ambassador of the State of Israel to Ukraine Reuven Dinel said in his opening speech that he had pondered for several years the idea of writing a book telling about the culture and spirituality of the Jewish people which has lived in Ukraine for millennia and about the figures who are the pride of the nation. He was very happy to see his dream become reality.

“Most importantly,” the ambassador stressed, “we should explain that the Ukrainians and the Jews had somewhat similar fates. Beginning in the 4th century, the two peoples were on good terms, the arts were progressing, and it all was rooted in this land. Should this idea spread, we will realize our common destiny.”

Meanwhile, the head of the cultural studies project “The Jews: Centuries-Old Wisdom” Yan Epstein noted that the book series aimed to visualize less-prominent knowledge, with the second volume covering the tzaddiks, the third and the fourth ones describing the Brodsky Synagogue and the synagogues of Podil, while the fifth volume will be devoted to artifacts. “We want the history of the Jewish people to be known not only by the older generation. We will pass away, but our heritage will not,” Epstein said.

As if confirming the book’s value for the Jews, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman said in his brief speech: “We live by the Torah. The Scripture reads: ‘I came from the Torah.’” The rabbi added that Ukraine is the birthplace of Hasidism, with many tzaddikim and Cabbalists living and creating their works here while being influenced by the land they lived in.

Chief Rabbi of Kyiv Oleksandr Dukhovny, speaking excellent Ukrainian, expressed his hope that Ukraine will both protect the minorities’ rights and retain its Ukrainian culture. “We hope that the heritage that Ukraine will bring to the world will be globally important and include contributions of all the peoples which live here,” he said.

For her part, presidential adviser Hanna Herman said, speaking on behalf of the president, that the government was pursuing equal treatment for every person and every ethnic group. She believes the Jewish and the Ukrainian cultures to be indivisible, arguing that the two peoples are equal both in their unsurpassed inclination to lament their woes and in their unexcelled ability to survive under toughest conditions. Herman declared the government’s firm intent to preserve the Jewish heritage in Ukraine.

It should be noted that the book’s presentation, with short speeches alternating with performances by artists Nadia Krutova-Shestak, Yan Tabachnyk and his wife Tetiana Nedielska, suffered from less-than-tolerant comments on the part of its host, the Crimean State Television and Radio Company’s journalist Borys Levin. Levin said, inter alia, when introducing the Ambassador of Ukraine to Israel Hennadii Nadolenko that the government had finally come to its senses, and added that such an event as this presentation would not have been possible five years ago, under the Orange parties-controlled government. Dukhovny said later that both he and the poet Ivan Drach who was sitting next to him were greatly astonished at Levin’s words. The Kyiv-born rabbi explained that he spoke excellent Ukrainian due to his mother’s insistence in his school years that her son know the language of the land where he lived, despite the country going then through the Shcherbytsky era, when it had been fashionable to exempt one’s child from the Ukrainian lessons. Dukhovny continued that his mother was a wise woman and had escaped German concentration camps in the 1940s thanks to her good command of the Ukrainian language.

The host’s words above are evidence that many Ukrainian journalists who are awarded title of the Honored Journalist of Ukraine, are still not free from historical prejudices. They are totally unable to learn from others, the Jews, for example, who say that there is no future without knowledge of history.