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 […]
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
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 It was first mentioned in historical documents in 1184 as a part of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia.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
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 festival of Passover commemorates the Exodus of Jews from Egypt over three thousand years ago. The timeless and universal message of this holiday is that slaves can go free, and that the future can be better than the present. Passover, or Pessach as it is called in Yiddish, begins in the middle of the
Zolochiv, a town located 60 kilometers east of Lviv, was at one time a thriving Polish-Jewish-Ukrainian town. Then, in just three years, its Jewish population perished in the Holocaust. The Jewish presence in Zolochiv dates back to 1565. For centuries, Zolochiv was home to numerous artisans, tradesmen and notable rabbis.They lived throughout the city and
Purim is a holiday Jews observe in memory of an ancient victory recounted in the Book of Esther. This story had eerie parallels in Europe during the bloody 20th century. About twenty five hundred years ago, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The Jewish people were banished from Israel
Husiatyn is a town in the Ternopil Oblast of Western Ukraine, located on the west bank of the Zbruch River. This river formed the old boundary between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century, and the boundary between the Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union during the inter-war period of the
In these difficult times for Ukraine, it is important to remember the good, to be tolerant and support each other. Because we all are fighting for truth, justice, democracy and a better future for our country. On January 22, 2014, Mikhail Livinskiy a member of the leadership of the united opposition of Ukraine, made a
January 27th marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. Fifty years later, in November of 2005, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed this date International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, or simply International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Holocaust
