Ukrainian Jewish Heritage—Alfred Shreyer, Last Jew of Drohobych

Imagine everything that is dear to you in life has been lost. Imagine your world destroyed. And imagine if you can find the strength to move ahead. In 2011 the Austrian director Paul Rosdy released his film The Last Jew from Drohobych. The documentary chronicles the astonishing path of one man’s journey through the treacherous history of Eastern Europe. Alfred Schreyer was born in 1922 in Drohobych, a thriving town then in Poland, and now in Western Ukraine. His mother Leontina was a pharmacist. His father Benno had a doctorate from the University of Zurich and was a chief chemist at an oil refinery. Both were very musical and Alfred learned to play the cello. Later, in high school, Alfred was a student of the world-renowned writer and painter Bruno Schulz. Just like Alfred, Bruno Schulz spent most of his life in Drohobych. Schulz’s acclaimed books, The Street of Crocodiles and The Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, both now translated into many languages, can still be felt and seen on every street corner in Drohobych. The outbreak of the Second World War however turned Drohobych upside down. Yet life continued. Alfred graduated from high school in 1940, during […]

Continue reading

Ukrainian Jewish Heritage: The Seduction of Propaganda – Part 2

As we discussed before in a previous segment, a recent conference held in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv in early June analyzed the lethal impact of destructive propaganda on community relations. The conference was organized and hosted by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative. Entitled “The Seduction of Propaganda: Mass Violence in Ukraine in the 20th and 21st Centuries,” the conference outlined how propaganda used by totalitarian regimes provoked and legitimized violence against three peoples: the Jews in Hitler’s Holocaust, the Ukrainians during Stalin’s Holodomor, or Terror Famine, and the Crimean Tatars in their deportation. The conference not only addressed the historical context of propaganda, but also revealed malignant themes being used in the current Russian disinformation campaign against Ukraine. Dehumanization and demonization are classic propaganda techniques that have been recycled.  Dr. Ihor Schupak, the director of the Tkuma Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies in Dnipropetrovsk, revealed how today’s Russian propaganda against Ukrainians recalls the exact same strategy and format used by the Nazis. Ukrainians have been depicted as rats, and as aggressors. The implication here is that aggressive vermin need to be exterminated. Subtle as well as blatant anti-Semitic themes have also been used in Russian propaganda, with […]

Continue reading

Interview – Andrea Graziosi

Dr. Andrea Graziosi is a pre-eminent, world-renowned scholar on the Holodomor. After stumbling on diplomatic files of this horrific genocide, which at the time was completely unknown to scholars, he began to unravel the mystery and share his insights in academic circles. He was a featured speaker at the UJE conference The Seduction of Propaganda: Mass violence in Ukraine during the 20th and 21st centuries. The conference was attended by students, cadets, academics and members of the public. This interview took place at a banquet following first day of the conference.

Continue reading

Ukrainian Jewish Heritage: The Seduction of Propaganda – Part 1

Toxic terminology and the sinister manipulation of language can lead to murder.  A recent conference held in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv in early June underlined the dangers inherent in the misuse of the spoken and written word. “The Seduction of Propaganda: Mass Violence in Ukraine in the 20th and 21st Centuries” featured leading international and Ukrainian academics and public figures in wide-ranging discussions of the lethal impact of propaganda. Their chilling analysis showed how the mechanisms of propaganda used by totalitarian imperial regimes provoked and legitimized violence against three peoples: the Jews in Hitler’s Holocaust, the Ukrainians during Stalin’s Holodomor, or Terror Famine, and the Crimean Tatars in their deportation. The conference also outlined how current academic knowledge can help counteract the politicized and mythologized interpretations of the tragic events of the past. Dr. Wendy Lower, a leading American Holocaust scholar, reminded us that truth is the greatest enemy of the totalitarian state. The Nazis suppressed free speech and alternative sources of information, severely narrowing the means for individual thought. With the Nazi regime in full control of information and propaganda, one can better understand the cynical comment by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels that if you tell […]

Continue reading

Ukrainian Jewish Heritage-Brody, Ukraine

The Western Ukrainian town of Brody is on my mind today. This historic town has always been in the minds of several generations of Jewish traders, writers, rabbis, and immigrants to the New World. Boris Kuzmany of the Institute of Slavonic Studies at the University of Vienna can tell us why this one particular town has retained a vitally important place in Ashkenazi Jewish memory. His fascinating article in the journal East European Jewish Affairs, entitled Brody Always On My Mind: The Mental Mapping of a Jewish City, explores just how and why little Brody became a legend. It all started with trade. Brody was always a lively centre but the tempo really picked up in 1629, when a Polish noble bought the place. There was an influx of Jewish merchant families. Jews were under the direct protection of the noble city owners and could live without any restrictions within the town and work in any profession or engage in commerce. By the middle of the eighteenth century Brody became the region’s most important hub for trans-European trade. It was the linchpin of trade between the German lands and points east into Ukraine and Russia. An affluent mercantile elite funded […]

Continue reading

Interview – Alti Rodal

The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE), a privately organized multinational initiative launched in 2008 as a collaborative project to promote deeper mutual comprehension and solidarity between Ukrainians of Jewish, Christian and other heritages. It is based in Toronto and engages scholars, civic leaders, artists, governments and the broader public throughout Ukraine, Israel and the diasporas.

Recently UJE organized a conference in Ukraine on propaganda and genocide, which I was able to attend thanks to the organization’s generosity. UJE organizes many conferences that facilitate broader dialogue and understanding, as well as public education projects.

One such project is an exhibition entitled A Journey Through the Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter: From Antiquity to 1914, which was created by UJE and co-funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The multi-media travelling community exhibition premiered in Toronto at the Schwartz/Reisman Centre in Vaughan in May and is currently on display at the Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg, where it opened on Monday, June 15, 2015.

Alti Rodal, Co-Director of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative, kindly agreed to tell Nash Holos listeners about this innovative exhibit.


Interview – Cheryl Madden

Cheryl Madden, award-winning American specialist on the Holodomor discusses a recent Verizon ad denigrating Ukrainian dance, the security breaches she had experienced with her Verizon internet service over the past 12 years, and her harrowing experiences with the Russian federation regarding her work on the Holodomor.

In 2008 Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko presented Chery Madden with the Ukrainian national award The Order of Princess Olha for her research and for raising public awareness of the Holodomor — Stalinist genocide by forced starvation in Ukraine from 1932-33.

Cheryl Madden compiled an annotated bibliography of English language sources on the Holodomor for the Shevchenko Scientific Society. It was dedicated to the Ukrainian schoolchildren of the class that never was.


Pawlina in Ukraine May-June 2015

The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative of Toronto is hosting a seminar in Ukraine entitled: The Seduction of Propaganda and Mass Violence in Ukraine in the 20th and early 21st Centuries. The UJE has kindly sponsored me to travel to Ukraine to attend this seminar and share the highlights with Nash Holos listeners and followers on social media. Please follow Pawlina and/or Nash Holos on Twitter and Facebook for updates. You can also check here. Meanwhile, here is some information about the upcoming conference, which kicks off in Kyiv on Tuesday June 2, 2015:

Continue reading

Ukrainian Jewish Heritage: Josef Zissels

He is relentless and outspoken. And he has paid the price. He was arrested twice for his human rights activities and served six years in prison in the Soviet gulag. But he emerged from behind prison bars to the world stage. Josef Zissels is now the head of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine. He is also Vice President of the World Jewish Congress. He is once again in the political limelight after a recent visit to North America. The sixty-eight year old Zissels set up Ukraine’s first Jewish organization in 1988. He has been a strong and consistent defender of Ukraine’s independence and democratic path. In an interview with the Toronto Star, Zissels discussed the troubles in eastern Ukraine. He told the Star that it’s a war. And Jews are suffering in the same way other Ukrainians are. Many have moved from eastern Ukraine to Kyiv and other western Ukrainian cities to escape the danger. But Ukraine’s Jewish community is largely staying put. And not only staying put. But also pitching in. Zissels told the Canadian Jewish News that Ukrainian Jews volunteer to help displaced persons. They provide the army and National Guard with money, medication, […]

Continue reading

Check Our FeedVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On LinkedinVisit Us On Youtube