(Jewish Group) Exhibition explores 100 years of Jewish life in Ukraine
Cultural life in the shtetl, persecution under two totalitarian regimes and revival in a free Ukraine before Putin's invasion: A new exhibition revives a century of Ukrainian Jewish life.A black-and-white photo (see image above) shows an idyllic-looking scene of a Jewish family standing in front of their house in the small town of Boryslav in western Ukraine in the early 20th century.
Part of an exhibition on Ukrainian Jewish life from the 1920s to the present, this scene is endlessly transformed: From the unspeakable suffering of the Holocaust through antisemitic Soviet politics to the rebirth of Jewish life in independent Ukraine.
This often tragic history is brought to life through the exhibition, "Voices: A Mosaic of Ukrainian-Jewish Life," now on show at the Jewish Museum Augsburg Swabia.
The curators aim to give voice to Ukrainian Jews who have variously spoken Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish over the last century.
It begins with insights into the intercultural relations and community life in the pre-war shtetl -- the Yiddish word for small towns in Eastern Europe with a large Jewish population -- before reflecting on the near-destruction of this community under two totalitarian regimes.
more...