«If you believe that you can damage, then believe that you can fix.» Those are the words of Rebbe Nachman, founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement. In his short life, Rebbe Nachman achieved much acclaim as a teacher and spiritual leader, and is considered a seminal figure in the history of Hasidism. He was born in 1772 in the village Medzhybizh, Ukraine. His great-grandfather was Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. As a young boy Nachmzan was extremely pious, spending much of his time time praying and meditating in the nearby forest, and diligently studying Kabbalah. In accordance with the custom of his time, he was married at the age of 13, soon after his Bar Mitzvah. His wife was Sashia, daughter of a Rabbi from a nearby village. They had eight children, of whom four daughters survived, with known descendants to today. Rebbe Nachman gained an ardent following, including one of the senior leaders of the Hassidic movement. He openly addressed issues such as addiction and compulsive behaviours, and was a strong proponent of experiencing joy in the earthly realm through spirituality. Another of Rebbe Nachman’s well-known sayings is, “It is a great mitzvah to be happy.” […]

Іsrael Baal Shem Tov is the founder of the Hasidic movement in Judaism. His name means «a good man who knows the secret name of God». Rabbi Baal Shem Tov developed a sophisticated mystical system based not on an intellectual comprehension of God, as did the Kabbalists, but on passionate religious aspiration, easily accessible to poor people. The aim was dvekut – union with God. Little is known about him and his life. What biographical information does exist  is interwoven with legends of miracles so it is often hard to determine fact from legend. Israel Baal Shem Tov was born to a poor family in the small village of Okopy, in the Ternopol region of western Ukraine. The exact year is unknown and often disputed. He was orphaned at the age of five. The Jewish community adopted him, and provided him with his basic needs. In 1710 Israel graduated and became assistant to the Melamed, which means instructor, in cheder, which is a Jewish elementary school. In 1716 he married, but soon became a widower and began to wander through Jewish shtetls in Eastern Galicia. In Yazlovtse (near Buchach) he managed to obtain a position as melamed. In 1727, the […]

Drohobych is a town in the Lviv region of Ukraine, and the homeland of Bruno Szultz – a writer, literary critic, fine artist, and teacher of art. Szultz was born to Jewish parents and is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. He attended school in Drohobych from 1902 to 1910, then went on to study architecture at Lviv Polytechnic. In 1917 he briefly studied architecture in Vienna. Szultz was discouraged by influential colleagues from publishing his first short stories. However, that changed when several letters he wrote to a friend were brought to the attention of the famous Polish novelist Zofia Nałkowska. The letters detailed Szultz’a solitary life and the lives of his family and fellow citizens. Nałkowska encouraged Szultz to have the letters published as short fiction. They were published in 1934 as The Cinnamon Shops. In English-speaking countries, it is most often referred to as The Street of Crocodiles. He went on to write a number of critical essays for various newspapers, and short stories for magazines. Due to World War Two, much of his work has been lost. In 1939, after the Nazi–Soviet invasion of Poland in World War II, […]

Belz is a small city in the Lviv province of Western Ukraine near the border with Poland. The Ashkenazi Jewish community in Belz was established in the 14th century. The Ashkenazi are a Jewish ethnic division which coalesced in the Holy Roman Empire around the turn of the first millennium. They established communities in central and eastern Europe, and grew to become one of the largest Jewish sects. In 1931 they accounted for 92 percent of the world’s Jews. The Holocaust devastated the Ashkenazi and their Yiddish culture. Persecution continued under the Soviet Communists. The regime banned Hasidism, and its followers were executed or exiled to labor camps. Belz came under Polish rule in the 14th century, when the town was granted rights under the Magdeburg law. Some three centuries later, in 1665, the Jews of Belz received equal rights and duties. In the early 19th century, the town became home to a Hasidic dynasty in the early 19th century. The dynasty was founded by Rabbi Shalom Rokeach, also known as the Sar Shalom. He served as the first Belzer Rebbe from 1817 to 1855. In addition to leading his Hasidim, he defended the beleaguered Jews of his district to […]

Marla Raucher Osborn is a former California attorney whose family originates from Rohatyn, in western Ukraine. Now based in Warsaw, she works as a researcher, writer, and lecturer. Marla has been researching her family’s history for several years. Her first visit to Rohatyn was in 2008. She walked the town and shot photos, but she had nothing to work with –no records, no period photos, no maps, and no translator. It was the middle of winter when she visited. The days were cold and dark, and everything was wet and muddy. On that trip she did not find either of the two Jewish mass grave sites she was looking for, and only one of the two former Jewish cemeteries. She was very disappointed. By 2010 she had joined a Rohatyn descendants group. This group was formed in the summer of 2009 by Dr. Alex Feller of the Rohatyn Shtetl Resesarch Group. The RSRG has over 150 members worldwide in America, Israel, Europe, South America, and Australia. The members share photos, stories, and information. They pool resources for placing orders of records and historic maps. Some lecture at genealogy conferences and write articles to raise awareness of the group. Between 2010 […]

Rohatyn is a city located on the Hnyla Lypa River in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Rohatyn Raion. It was first mentioned in historical documents in 1184 as a part of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. Its name seems to be derived from Ruthenia, the name of the region of the location. However, on the town’s crest is the horn of a deer. This may explain the first part of the city’s name … the Ukrainian word for horn is “Rih.” Many deer live in the nearby forest; they were a part of daily life in the area. Today Rohatyn remembers its Jewish history and past times. This is due in large part to local historian and retired teacher Mykhaylo Vorobets. On a recent visit to Rohatyn, I was happy to meet this amazing man. Mykhaylo Vorobets was born in 1934 in a village near Rohatyn. He devoted his life to teaching children at a local school. Although he retired last year, students still come to his house. During his lifetime he collected and compiled information about Rohatyn. He interviewed older people, visited archives and libraries for research, and has written many articles. People […]

Halych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The town gave its name to the historic province and the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhyn, of which it was the capital until the early 14th century. Today Halych is a small city which preserves its former name. It also is the administrative center of the Halych Raion (district) of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Halych is also home to a museum dedicated to the Karaite Jews, a Jewish sect that had been living in Eastern Europe since the Middle Ages Karaite Judaism  is characterized by adherence to the divine commandments handed down to Moses that were recorded in the written Torah, without additional Oral Law. Karaite Jews do not accept the written collections of the oral tradition in the Mishnah or Talmud. As well, Karaite Judaism follows patrilineal descent, unlike Rabbinical Judaism which follows matrilienal descent. At one time the number of Jews affiliating with Karaism comprised as much as 40 percent of world Jewry, and debates between Rabbanite and Karaite leaders were not uncommon. It is not known exactly when the Karaite community appeared in Halych. According to one legend, 100 Crimean Karaites were allowed to live in Halych under […]

Omelian Kovch was born 20 August 1884 in the picturesque southern Galician village of Kosmach, in the Carpathian Mountains. The family was full of priests. His father was a parish priest and his mother was the daughter of a parish priest. After completing his studies in Lviv, he embarked on the road to priesthood. He spent six years in Rome as a seminarian in the Greek Catholic College of Saints Sergius and Bacchus and as a student at the Universita Urbaniana of the Congregation for the Propagation of Faith. In 1922, after the Polish-Ukrainian war ended, Fr. Omelian was appointed to the parish of Peremyshliany, a town which, like most in Galicia, was composed primarily of three nationalities: Jews, Poles and Ukrainians. Throughout the inter-war years Fr. Omelian developed a vibrant ministry that included a rich liturgical life, organized cultural activity, and multi-faceted social outreach. With the arrival of the Nazis, the persecution of Jews began immediately. One day the Germans threw firebombs into a synagogue in Peremyshliany, closed the doors, and surrounded the building with soldiers. Representatives of the Jewish community ran to the Kovch house to seek help and find sanctuary with the Greek Catholic priest. Fr. Omelian […]