I am proud and excited to report that Marla has been selected to receive a Fulbright scholarship grant for the 2019-2020 academic year, to support a heritage project at the old Jewish cemetery in Rohatyn. The grant will enable research and planning for rehabilitation and commemoration at the cemetery site, networking and educational exchanges with academic and cultural institutions in…
This week, Marla and I again had the great pleasure of working with friends from all over Ukraine, both Americans and Ukrainians, to further advance the efforts of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage in clearing and conditioning the vegetation and grounds of one of Rohatyn’s key Jewish heritage sites, the old Jewish cemetery. As they say, together we made hay – and…
Yesterday, Jay and I joined a tour group organized by the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, who are participating in a study program over 3+ days of Jewish heritage sites in eastern Galicia. In addition to the tour leaders and us, there are six women in the group, hailing from South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. To our…
Today, Jay and I returned with friends to Rohatyn to recite a prayer at the “vodokanal” wartime Jewish mass grave (north of Rohatyn town center), on behalf of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage and Jewish descendants of towns and villages in the district now living around the world. 76 years ago, over a period of three or so days, the Jewish ghetto…
Last week, Marla and I were very pleased to work for several days alongside old and new friends from Rohatyn, around Ukraine, and beyond, continuing our effort to clear and condition the vegetation and grounds of Rohatyn’s four Jewish burial sites (old and new Jewish cemeteries, and north and south wartime mass graves). This first major volunteer event of 2019…
Today we returned to Rohatyn to mark the 77th anniversary of the destruction of the city’s Jewish community. At the 1942 wartime mass grave, south of the city center, we read a prayer – El Malei Rachamim (אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים, “God, full of mercy”) – for the more than three thousand Jewish victims of the first deadly “aktion” of the…
Yesterday, Rohatyn Jewish Heritage had the pleasure of participating in a public conversation with American academic historian and writer Daniel J. Walkowitz, whose book “The Remembered and Forgotten Jewish World – Jewish Heritage in Europe and the United States” was published last year. The event was organized and presented at the Lviv Center For Urban History of East Central Europe,…
This is a descriptive annual report for Rohatyn Jewish Heritage (RJH), for the calendar year 2018 – in essence a year-in-review summary of our project progress and events, with an outline of our finances as well. To compare our progress in 2018 to our forecast of a year ago, see also our report for 2017. This review is heavily hyperlinked…
We are proud that Rohatyn Jewish Heritage was invited to take part in a panel discussion at the Jewish Community Center of North London (JW3) on the topic of “The Holocaust and Lost Jewish Cultural Presence in Ukraine”, an event co-sponsored by the Ukrainian Institute London and Ukrainian Jewish Encounter. I shared the panel earlier this week with Dr. Iryna…
After two years of development, Rohatyn’s new regional history and ethnographic museum “Opillya” opened to the public yesterday, and Jay and I attended the ceremony on behalf of descendants of Rohatyn Jewish families. The opening coincided with the first snowfall of the season, but that did not dampen the strong turnout led by Rohatyn’s Mayor, Deputy Mayor, numerous city staff,…