This is a preprint extract from Ukraine’s Outpost: Dnipropetrovsk and the Russian-Ukrainian War, edited by Taras Kuzio, Sergei I. Zhuk And Paul D’Anieri. A free version of the book is available from E-International Relations

The Ekaterinoslav Jewish community was one of the first to receive official status in the Russian Empire. In 1791, by order of Catherine II ‘On granting citizenship to Jews in the Katerynoslav governorate and the Tavriya region,’ Jews received permission to settle in these territories. In less than a century, the urban Jewish population grew from a small group of 376 people in 1805 to a community of 41,240 Jews in the 1897 census or 36.3 per cent of the urban centres. Katerynoslav was a Jewish city and a centre of Zionism and Hasidism.[1] During the Soviet era, Judaism and the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community were practically destroyed. Even in the short period of the introduction of the policy of indigenisation of the 1920s, Jewish culture was allowed to develop legally only within the narrow confines of a secular, acceptable version of communist ideology. Judaism and Hebrew were illegal. The Katerynoslav synagogues, which were the centers of Jewish communities and numbered more than fifty before the revolution, were closed in the 1920s (Loshak and Starostin 2019, 320). The process of revival endured for more than three decades, beginning began in the late 1980s and continuing in independent Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

This chapter is divided into eight sections. The first two sections analyse Jews in the Soviet Union and the late 1980s during Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost as well as their coexistence with Soviet reality in Dnipropetrovsk. The third section surveys the revival of the Jewish community after 1991 in Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro. The fourth and fifth analyse the creation of numerous Jewish educational institutions and the restitution of Jewish properties which had been confiscated by the Soviet regime in Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro. The sixth investigates the importance of honouring the Jewish victims of the Holocaust by creating the Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies ‘Tkuma’ and Museum of Jewish Memory and the Holocaust in Ukraine. The seventh and eighth sections survey the support given by the Jewish community in Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro to the Euromaidan Revolution and Ukraine’s fight against Russian military aggression and the role played in the Russian-Ukrainian war by Dnipropetrovsk Governor Ihor Kolomoyskyy in 2014-2015.

Jews in Soviet Dnipropetrovsk: Stagnation and Anti-Semitism

The last Soviet census in 1989 recorded 486,300 Jews in the Ukrainian SSR[2] of which 37,869 lived in Dnipropetrovsk (Bystriakov 2002, 91).   Only 1,767 Jews in Dnipropetrovsk considered Yiddish to be their native language (Bystriakov 2002, 91). However, these official figures did not correspond to the real demographic situation. Since the Nazi occupation and throughout the post-war Soviet period, anti-Semitic policies, and the corresponding atmosphere in society, it became customary for Jews to conceal their nationality. The ethnic origin of each Soviet citizen was indicated in his/her internal passport. Any person born to two Jewish parents was registered as a person of Jewish nationality. Thus, the Soviet government helped preserve the identity of Soviet Jewry by individually labelling each Jew.  Children born in mixed marriages were able to choose the ethnicity of one or another parent, and most of them preferred to choose Russian (Pryvalko 2014, 9).

Thus, taking into account both the ‘core population’ and marginal groups of mixed origin, it is estimated that at the end of the Soviet era in Dnipropetrovsk there were 100,000 Jews accounting for 10 per cent of the city’s inhabitants.[3] The 1989 census revealed a high level of education of the Jewish population; for each 1,000 Jews over the age of 15, 351 had higher education, 26 had incomplete higher education, 252 had secondary special education, 189 had secondary education, 108 had incomplete secondary education, and 14 had primary education.  57 per cent of Jews worked in production, including industry (34.1 per cent), construction (8.5 per cent), transport and communications (5.6 per cent), in agriculture (0.9 per cent), and trade (6.2 per cent). 41.7 per cent of Dnipropetrovsk Jews worked in the service sector, including medicine, sports, and social welfare (9.8 per cent), education, culture, and the arts (13.7 per cent), and science (9.2 per cent) (Bystriakov 2002). By the early 2000s, most Jews in Dnipropetrovsk had emigrated. The 2001 Ukrainian Census recorded only 13,700 Jews in Dnipropetrovsk oblast accounting for 0.4 per cent of the population.[4]

In the Soviet era Jewish life in Dnipropetrovsk had gradually died because communist rule was hostile to the religious life of national communities, and the authorities fanned anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. From the 1970s, only one synagogue remained in the city, and its yard and the synagogue were the place of gathering of Jews during religious festivals.  The Jewish community did not belong to any denominational branch of Judaism. They were just Jews, and among them were former Zionists, atheists, former Komsomol members who no longer believed communist propaganda, real believers, and those who just showed interest. All of them were united by one blood and love for their history and a lack of inter-action between them,’ was how Arkady Shmist [5] characterised the state of the Jewish community in the late Soviet era.[6]

Jewish Revival in the Gorbachev Era

However, some positive changes in the situation of Soviet Jews occurred during Gorbachev’s liberalisation during the second half of the 1980’s when former dissidents convicted of Zionist activity created Jewish community organisations and press clubs, where Jews could study Yiddish and Hebrew.  There were also people in the city administration (for example, Dnipropetrovsk city Mayor Valeriy Pustovoytenko and Deputy Mayor Valentina Talian and others) who were ready for a dialogue with the Jewish community. According to the Jewish elders, Pustovoytenko was the first representative of the authorities who began to attend the synagogue during religious holidays.[7]

In the late Soviet era, the Sholom Aleichem Jewish Culture Society began to operate in Dnipropetrovsk and other Ukrainian cities with a significant Jewish population. These organised courses in Yiddish which had been banned by the Soviet authorities (unlike the Hebrew language and Jewish holy books), conducted popular lectures on Jewish history and culture, held concerts were the Sholom Aleichem Jewish Culture Society and shared information on emigration to Israel. Moreover, humanitarian aid was given to the participants of these events, which popularised the Sholom Aleichem Jewish Culture Society.

Two groups of Jewish activists formed in Dnipropetrovsk with different positions, differing perspectives on the revival of the Jewish community and significant age gap. The first group were mostly elderly people who had survived the Holocaust and, even during the worst period for Jews in the USSR, never severed ties with the synagogue and Jewish religious traditions. ‘I well remember our old synagogue with a stove, a broken plumbing fixture and a basement which flooded when it rained,’ Korol recalled.[8] They saw the prospect of community development in the revival of Judaism. Among its leaders were Korol[9] and Alexander Fridkis.[10] In addition to the significant age gap between Jewish community leaders, community development was not a very popular concept among the older generation who had been traumatised by the Holocaust and Soviet anti-Semitism, and for whom there was the problem of perceiving their own religious and ethnic identity. However, the younger generation showed themselves to be more willing to identify themselves openly and actively as Jews.

Representatives of the younger group wanted to revive the life of the Jewish community based on a secular model. A group of activists adhered to this concept, which became the core idea of the Dnipropetrovsk branch of the All-Union Association of Hebrew Teachers. Activists of the group included Stanislav Hlavnovych (Chairman), Faina Bulavina, Alla Yeshchyna, Marina Lantsman, Alice Litinsca, Igor Pochtar, Emilia Pugach, Stella Rusova, brothers Jan and Felix Sidelkovski, Marat Sorkin, Alla Hlavnovych, Elena Shafir, Vladimir Cherkassky, and Irina Shwartzman[11] Classes were held in private flats and secondary schools. Jewish youth considered Yiddish as their ‘home language,’ thus, they started to learn Hebrew as the state language of Israel for the possibility of emigration.

The School of Jewish Traditions, founded in 1989, played a significant role in the revival of the Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro Jewish community. The revival of the city’s Jewish community was significantly influenced by the School of Jewish Traditions, which emerged in 1989 through the efforts of mostly young people — Dina Fisher, Viktor Gutin, Yevhenia Karpova, Mykhailo Khalifa, Semen Lurie, Nathan Meller, Arkady Shmist, Olena Tartakovska, Borys Tseitkin, Borys Yerukhimovich, Oleksandr Zamanskyy and others. The founder of the school was a parishioner of the synagogue and activist of the Jewish religious community, Victor Rabkin. After his emigration to Israel, Shmist became the head of the school.[12] Activists of the school sought to assist the Jews of Dnipropetrovsk to return to their national culture and revive the traditions of Jewish family and community life. They gathered in the synagogue where lectures were given, studied Hebrew and gave practical advice on emigration and living in Israel. 

The Jewish Centre for Culture and Charity was later established on this basis. The constituent assembly of the Jewish Centre for Culture and Charity was held in December 1989 in the premises of the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Drama Theatre. For many Jews, this event marked the beginning of the community revival.[13] Shmist, who was present, mentioned that ‘so many Jews came there that there was nowhere for a stone to fall if someone had dared to throw it’ (Bystriakov 2002, 86). Since then, the Jewish Centre for Culture and Charity has become the region’s main secular Jewish organisation. Despite its declared ‘secularism,’ the Centre popularised the Jewish culture and traditions in the Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro Jewish community.

In the early 1990s, the board of the Jewish Centre for Culture and Mercy approved a flag designed by Shmist which became the first flag in the history of Ukraine of the Jewish community. In the spring of 1990, the centre held an unprecedented event of the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Purim outside the synagogue.  Schmist, recalled, ‘There was a rumour that a Jewish pogrom was being prepared. In response, I proposed to organise a mass celebration of Purim … The regional party committee received permission. Two thousand five hundred people came to the religious holiday, including Pustovoytenko. This was the first time since the Russian Revolution that the mayor had congratulated Jews on this holiday’ (Bystriakov 2002, 86). Twelve hundred Dnipropetrovsk Jews celebrated Passover[14] with Kosher products[15] provided by the American Distribution Committee ‘Joint’ (see Magocsi and Petrovsky-Shtern 2016).

In January 1990, during the first congress of Jewish organisations of the USSR, the leadership of the Jewish Centre (Shmist, Yuri Stupniker and Alexander Zamansky) met with guests from Boston (USA) and invited them to visit Dnipropetrovsk, marking the beginning of many years of fruitful cooperation between the Jewish communities of both cities (see Bystriakov 2002). With the assistance of the Boston community an extensive medical programme was successfully implemented. The best Dnipropetrovsk doctors were given the opportunity to train in Boston hospitals while Boston doctors regularly visited Dnipropetrovsk. These medical care programmes were used not only by the city’s Jews, but also by a wide range of its residents.

Revival of the Jewish Community in Independent Ukraine

The further revival of the Jewish community is closely bounded with the arrival of representatives of the Chabad movement, which has Ukrainian roots (Magocsi and Petrovskyy-Shtern 2016, 134–136). An important role was played by the leader of Chabad, Menachem-Mendla Schneerson who was a resident of Dnipropetrovsk. Schneerson attached great importance to the revival of Hasidism in the post-Soviet space, particularly in his hometown of Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro.[16]

There is a legend in the Jewish community about the death bed testament of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe (Schneerson passed away in 1994) to revive Jewish communities in the countries of the former USSR and especially in Ukraine (Androsova, 2008, 253–269). Therefore, he led one of his best adherents, Shmuel Kaminetskyy, to Dnipropetrovsk. At first, it was difficult for foreign Jewish religious leaders to adapt to conditions in 1990s Ukraine, which was devoid of food and experienced long queues, hyper-inflation and problems with electricity and water supplies. Kosher food could not be found in Dnipropetrovsk, where tens of thousands of Jews lived.

Traditionally, the Chabad missionary becomes a permanent resident of the city they move to and settle in. The community elected Kaminetskyy as its rabbi. The arrival of the Kaminetskyy family was a powerful impetus to the revival of the ommunity. Kaminetskyy eventually became a recognised leader of Jews in Dnipropetrovsk oblast following the instructions of his teacher Menachem-Mendla Schneerson, who had given his blessings to serve in Dnipropetrovsk.

The beginning of Kaminetskyy’s activities coincided with the disintegration of the USSR, which the Jewish community welcomed, and the emergence of an independent Ukraine. The Ukrainian state, despite its institutional weaknesses, showed a desire to distance itself from Soviet traditions of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Traditional tolerant attitudes in Ukrainian society to non-Orthodox religious communities and Jews became noticeable, which assisted the revival of Jewish communities in Ukraine and allowing them to be more active than in other post-Soviet countries (Androsova 2008, 261–262).

Certain priorities were established for the activities of Lubavitcher Hasidism, unlike organisations which focussed on emigration to Israel, which included restoring traditions in the Jewish community, building networks and ties to government bodies and developing relations with a wide range of non-Jewish Ukrainian citizens based on tolerant interfaith relations (Zisels 2004, 55–57).

The arrival of representatives of Chabad in Dnipropetrovsk began a process that corresponds to the concept of ‘rabbinical revolution’[17] – the revival of Jewish religious life with the rabbi as the spiritual leader and core of the new community. The renewal of the extensive infrastructure of the community required knowledge, energy, as well as premises and funding. Concerning the premises, the aim was to lobby for restitution of property confiscated from the Jewish community by the Soviet regime.[18] International charitable Jewish organizations helped the Jewish community in the initial stages of the revival. Domestic charitable organizations began donating funds to Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro Jewish community after the 1990s decade of capital accumulation by means of business.

Dozens of Jewish organizations established representation in Ukraine to coordinate charitable funds. The American Distribution Committee ‘Joint’ and the Jewish Agency ‘Sokhnut’ played important roles in the development of the Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro Jewish community. However, their approaches differed. The American Distribution Committee ‘Joint’ aimed to establish favourable conditions for Jews in their communities, while ‘Sokhnut’ focused on emigration to Israel. The activities of the American Distribution Committee ‘Joint’ were therefore more directly associated with the revival of the Jewish community in Dnipropetrovsk. Registered in 1992 in Ukraine, the American Distribution Committee ‘Joint’ has regional offices in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Odessa and Kharkiv.[19] ‘Sokhnut’ undertook educational programmes for young Ukrainian Jews which were implemented in Israel (e.g., multilevel Hebrew schools) and by the Israeli Cultural Centre in Dnipropetrovsk, supported by the Israeli Embassy in Ukraine.

Initially, international Jewish organisations wanted to be sure their funds were used wisely and eventually they discovered the potential of assistance from wealthy Jewish members as part of a transition to financial self-sufficiency for the Jewish community. Initially, this only consisted of one-off charitable contributions, but this gradually changed.[20] As big business and oligarchs emerged during Leonid Kuchma’s presidency, businesspersons in the Jewish community in Dnipropetrovsk began increasingly to provide financing. This process began happening at the same time as a large proportion of the city’s Jewish community came to realise its importance as a unique space for the development of the individual as well as its positive impact on the family world. 

A breakthrough came in 1998 when a Board of Trustees was established which began to determine the main directions of the development of the Jewish community in Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro. The Board brought together industrialists, businesspersons and bankers who resolved to ensure permanent and stable activities of the Jewish community of Dnipropetrovsk. Hennadiy Bogolyubov became the Board’s president,[21] and one of its members was Kolomoyskyy.[22]

Philanthropy was not evident everywhere among the new class of big businesspersons, as many of them were not religious Jews and therefore had not been educated in the spirit of providing charitable donations.  Making philanthropy to the Jewish community a fashionable gesture took time. A decisive role in the transformation of attitudes process was played by Rabbi Kaminetskyy who is also called ‘the mentor of Ukrainian oligarchs,’[23] and who developed the relationship from a one-sided dependency to a mutually beneficial partnership.[24] 

Creation of Jewish Educational Institutions

The intensification of Judaism in Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro was originally tied to Chabad Lubavitch and the development of educational knowledge and training.  Education is a prerequisite and mandatory factor for the successful development and sustainable growth of the Jewish community. An important component of the revival of the Jewish community has been the creation of Jewish educational institutions ranging from pre-school to higher education. The patron of the educational system of the Dnipro Jewish community is oligarch Viktor Pinchuk who is a member of the Board of Trustees.

Children from Jewish families can attend the Ilana nursery and Beit Zindlikht kindergarten (named in honour of Fanny and Joseph Zindlichtov, grandparents of Ukrainian oligarch and philanthropist Pinchuk).[25] Jewish education facilities include the Jewish secondary school of Dnipro which is the largest in the former USSR. According to the memoirs of one of its teachers, A. Kaplunska, in order to convince the local authorities of the need to open a Jewish school, a group of activists led by Shmist held a rally near the city of Dnipropetrovsk Executive Committee.[26] Beforehand, Korol organised the first street poll of Dnipropetrovsk residents in the history of the city.[27] In 1991, due to public pressure during Gorbachev’s liberalisation, permission was obtained to open Jewish classes in secondary school № 58 where children were taught in the second shift of teaching. At the end of 1992, the Jewish school received a dilapidated building which had been a former boarding school which the Jewish community had renovated. The school is located on one of the Central streets of Dnipropetrovsk which under decommunisation legislation was renamed in 2015 Menachem Mendla Schneerson Street. The popularity of the school steadily increased, primarily due to its curriculum, which combined government programmes, Jewish educational subjects (taught six to eight hours per week) and foreign languages, including Hebrew. Parents and children were also attracted by the intensive extra-curricular programme which included the celebration of Jewish holidays, and finally, the warm family atmosphere of the school. 

Mahon and Yeshiva educational institutions were later opened for young women and young men, respectively, which accept students from different cities and regions of Ukraine. Initially, yeshivas operated in Dnipropetrovsk for adult unmarried (Yeshiva gdola) and married (Yeshiva koylel) men. In 1993, after it became clear that there was a demand for more intensive Jewish education from the Jewish youth of the city and region, it was decided to open a junior yeshiva (ktana) at Jewish school № 144. The age range of pupils ranges from 15 to 32 years of age.[28]

Yeshiva graduates receive internationally recognised diplomas required for the functioning of Jewish communities to be a teacher of Hebrew and Judaism, an educator, a shoikhet, a soyfer, a mashgiah (specialist in kashrut), and a moel.[29] Study schedules in yeshiva schools are extremely busy. The main disciplines studied are Hebrew, Torah,[30] Talmud, writing and repairing old copies of the Torah, preparation of Tefillin, mezuzahs and other items necessary for Jewish religious life. Upon completion of their studies, yeshiva graduates perform professional duties in Jewish communities around the world and the most successful become rabbis. Graduates from the yeshiva are the pride of the city of Dnipro and members of the National Sofruta Centre. No similar union of professionals exist elsewhere in Ukraine or anywhere else in the former USSR.

A special place in the Jewish education system in Dnipro is occupied by the Beit Khana International Humanitarian and Pedagogical Institute (MHPI) college for girls. MHPI was founded in September 1995. The aim was to prepare teachers for the Jewish community and kindergartens, as well as private teachers and educators for Jewish families. In addition, rabbis often chose MHPI graduates as their brides. 

MHPI students are provided with scholarships and guaranteed employment after their graduation. Among its advantages are the teaching of linguistic, religious, and regional studies. MHPI is also popular among Jewish girls because it enables orphans and children from low-income families to attend. One of the pupils wrote that her grandmother ordered her not to lose her Jewish roots before she died, and she therefore tried to fulfil her wish.[31] 

Restitution of Religious Properties

Religious properties confiscated by the Soviet authorities were returned to the Jewish community, the most important of which was the choral synagogue. In 1992, shortly after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Israel, President Leonid Kravchuk issued the decree ‘On measures to return religious property to religious organisations’ which decreed that confiscated religious buildings and property must be returned to religious communities,[32]   leading to the gradual return of synagogues. In Dnipropetrovsk, four synagogues survived from the USSR and three of them were returned to the Jewish religious community: choral synagogue (built in 1868), small Synagogue on Kotsyubynskyy Street and a synagogue on Mironov (renamed European Street).[33]

Between 1987-1996, the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community fought for the return of the choral synagogue and when it was returned it was in a terrible condition with no proper floor and holes in the walls and ceilings. The synagogue was reconstructed in four years with financing initially only coming from abroad, but eventually Ukrainian businesspersons (Hennadiy Bogoliubov, O. Kaganovsky, D. Mishalow, A. Hanis) donated some funds as well.[34] There was no tender for architects to produce different designs as this was awarded to Aleksander Dolnik, a well-known Jewish architect from Dnipropetrovsk.[35]

Dolnik’s vision was of a sacral interior consisting of the ark with six steps representing the number of days of the creation of the world; above the ark are five arches which represent the five books of Moshe (Moses); twelve pillars under the arches represent the twelve tribes of Israel and twenty-six rays emanating from the ark flow from God.[36] The restored synagogue includes an amphitheatre. The names of the benefactors are perpetuated on the walls of the lobby of the reconstructed choral synagogue. Tens of thousands of people attended the opening of the reconstructed choral Golden Rose Synagogue with Zelikh Breza, head of the Jewish community in Dnipropetrovsk.[37] Beza had been visited by President Kuchma the evening before the opening.[38] The choral Golden Rose Synagogue became the religious and cultural centre of the Jewish community in Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro. 

With the financial support of ‘Joint’ and big Ukrainian businesspersons a large Menorah complex was built by 2012 as a multifunctional centre of the Jewish community. Hennadiy Akselrod, President of Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community Bogoliubov and President of the United Jewish Communities of Ukraine Kolomoysyy played a decisive role in its creation. The opening of the Menorah in October 2012 was attended by 10,000 people. The Menorah consists of seven towers that symbolise the traditional Jewish candlestick. The highest part of the Menorah is a central 22-storey tower which is 77 meters high which includes business offices, the Israeli Consulate, the Jewish Medical Centre, educational, cultural, and social foundations, conference and celebration halls, a hotel, kosher food restaurants, art studios, sports gyms and shops. 

The construction of the Menorah had a much more sincere significance of cultural Westernisation, which represented a break with the pattern of self-awareness among the residents of Dnipropetrovsk of their city as a closed industrial zone that was highly important but monotonously uninteresting.[39] Therefore, the Menorah not only decorated the centre with an unusual architectural contour, but also added to the city’s mental appeal of a complex polyethnic mosaic. Eventually, the theme of the Jewish revival became synonymous with the city’s acquisition of new modernisation meanings and the creation of new cultural values and demands.

Museum and Research into the Holocaust

The Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies ‘Tkuma’ and Museum of Jewish Memory and the Holocaust in Ukraine are to be found inside the Menorah alongside the choral Golden Rose Synagogue.[40] Work on the creation of the museum began in 1999 with the collection and systematization of documents and materials of Jewish history, research and development of its exposition. In 2010, the concept of the museum was finally adopted after it was developed by artist Viktor Gukailo, Director of the Centre for the Study of Judaism in Eastern Europe at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Leonid Finberg, and Director of the Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies ‘Tkuma’ Ihor Shchupak. 

The head of the project was a member of the Advisory Board of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community Mark Shlyak, and its chief architect was Alexander Sorin. The project was implemented by the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community of Dnipropetrovsk Shmuel Kaminetskyy, leaders of the Jewish community Bogoliubov and Kolomoyskyy, ‘Joint’ and other Jewish organisations. The museum consists of four halls. 

The first hall ‘The World Destroyed by the Holocaust’ reconstructs the main events of Jewish life in Ukraine during the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, the spiritual world of Judaism, family and community traditions, the life of shtetls and history of Hasidism and Zionism. Attention is drawn to the traditionally close ties between Russian chauvinism and anti-Semitism, so-called ‘pragmatic anti-Semitism,’ largely inherited from the USSR (Zaslavsky 1982, 17). There are exhibitions dedicated to the Holodomor and Stalin’s repressions, including Jewish victims of these tragedies. Eventually, the role of denationalized communists of Jewish origin is recognized, who, along with communists of Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish origin, were the organizers of terror. This is important to explain the commonly held anti-Semitic, negative feelings of Soviet citizens towards the communist system (Kuromiya 2002, 199).

In the second hall devoted to the Holocaust the exhibition is implemented in a semantic triad format which includes the mass murder of Jews, their resistance by organising uprisings in the ghetto and concentration camps, participation of Jews in the Soviet partisan movement and underground and in the ranks of the Soviet Army, and reaction of the local population which ranged from collaboration with the occupiers and assistance in conducting anti-Jewish actions to rescuing Jews. The very difficult question of the participation of Ukrainian nationalists in anti-Jewish pogroms at the beginning of the Nazi-Soviet war is exhibited as manifestations of anti-Semitism and xenophobic Ukrainian nationalist ideology that existed during the 1930s and early 1940s. At the same time, exhibitions demonstrate dynamic changes in nationalist ideology during the 1940s when Ukrainian nationalists rescued Jewish lives and Jews participated in the OUN and the Ukrainian Insurgent army (UPA). These exhibitions reflect a desire to harmonize Jewish and Ukrainian historical narratives while preventing confrontations and heightened emotions (Kasianov 2018, 134; Shlogel 2016, 223–225).

A separate section of the exhibition is dedicated to the ‘Righteous Among the Nations,’ the official title given on behalf of Israel by the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre to people of different nationalities who selflessly and risking their lives rescued Jews during the Holocaust. Ukraine (2,634) ranks fourth in the world after Poland (6,992), Netherlands (5,778) and France (4,099) in the number of recognised righteous (Shchupak 2016, 224). Belarus (660) and Russia (209) are ranking ninth and thirteenth places respectively. The exhibition contains materials about distinctive people such as Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytskyy, Greek-Catholic Church priest Omelian Kovch, and the Hlaholev family who were Ukrainian Orthodox. The Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro Jewish community has long advocated the official awarding of the status of Righteous Among the Nations to Metropolitan Sheptytskyy by the Yad Vashem Commission.

The third hall ‘Jews after the Holocaust’ is dedicated to the situation of Jews in the post-war Soviet Union, to anti-Semitic policies undertaken by Soviet leaders Joseph Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev and to Jewish dissidents’ fight in cooperation with Ukrainian dissidents in demanding their national and democratic rights. 

Also included in this hall is the participation of Dnipropetrovsk Jews in the Euromaidan Revolution and in the Russian-Ukrainian war in Eastern Ukraine. This area of the museum hosts meetings of soldiers, volunteers and city residents with exhibits that are continuously updated by donations from the war zone. In May 2015, the Museum was visited by volunteer Michael Sahakyan who at his car garage repaired and sent to the war zone more than 30 vehicles. He donated to the exposition the doors of a van that transferred wounded soldiers from Donetsk airport which had been pierced by dozens of shells. Member of the Jewish community and head of the country’s Defence Fund Pavlo Khazan donated to the Museum a family heirloom, the belt of his grandfather Boris Khazan used during World War II which had been a symbol of the unity of generations of his family (Shchupak 2016, 224). Khazan explained the motivation for his participation in Ukraine’s defence:

My family lives here, my ancestors lived here… My great-grandfather and grandfathers fought in World War II.  I merely follow their path; I am a reserve officer and I have a duty to protect my family, people, and country. I recalled my military expertise when hostilities began and believed I could be useful.[41]

Honouring the Holocaust

Honouring Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Dnipropetrovsk oblast was and remains an important factor of national identity and development of the Jewish community. Of the 1.5 million Jews murdered by the Nazis in Ukraine during World War II, up to 21,000 were killed in Dnipropetrovsk.

The Soviet regime deliberately ignored the Holocaust and Jewish dissidents, while others who honoured Jews murdered by the Nazis had considerable civic courage. Since 1985, after Gorbachev came to power, Jews began to hold informal meetings near the monument in Dnipropetrovsk’s Gagarin Park which was close to the site of the mass shooting of Jews in 1941 (Borodin, Ivanenko and Niedosiekina 2008, 32). A small monument established in the 1970s had the Russian inscription ‘civilians – victims of fascism’ without the nationality of the victims specified because of Soviet ethnic nihilism. In addition, the monument was not in the exact place where the mass murder of Jews had taken place (Shchupak 2017, 256). Despite the vagueness and uniformity of the memorial, it nevertheless became become a place of memory and reflection. According to O. Fridkis, in the Soviet era some people advised the Jewish community not to gather by the memorial in order not to expose themselves to the wrath of the authorities, but gradually the number of people who gathered near the monument increased.[42]

On 2 May 1989, the first officially sanctioned rally in memory of the Day of Catastrophe and Heroism took place in the Botanical Garden of Dnipropetrovsk State University, and in the fall of that year a delegation of the newly formed People’s Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) joined the commemoration. Eventually, the Jewish community actively discussed the need to install another monument devoted to the Holocaust in Dnipropetrovsk. The Jewish community collected $10,000 in April 2001 and installed a larger memorial in Gagarin Park in the form of a matzevot[43] with an inscription in Hebrew and Ukrainian. Designed by A. Shmist, the monument has twelve faces and twelve candles which symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel, a broken Magen David (The Star of David) in barbed wire as the symbol of the Holocaust of Eastern European Jewish civilisation.[44]

The Jewish Community, Euromaidan Revolution and Russian-Ukrainian War

The Euromaidan Revolution was a litmus test both of Ukraine’s support for European values as well as whether these would be supported in Eastern Ukrainian regions such as Dnipropetrovsk. There was no unanimity in Dnipropetrovsk’s Jewish community towards the Euromaidan Revolution. Most of the older generation agreed with the position of the Chairman of the Council of Jewish Veterans of World War II, retired Colonel Solomon Flax who said, ‘Why are you ready to destroy the country? Why do you risk the health of future children left out in the cold? Why did they support bloodshed? Are there enemies who want to kill you? In 1941 there were and then I fought against the enemy’s army, not against my compatriots. And now there are no enemies in our country… all of this is manipulation in return for money, power, a sense of self-importance, and over geopolitical games.’[45] However, Flax later mentioned Russian ‘aggressors who invaded and occupied Ukraine want to destroy it.’[46]

The middle and younger generation were less equivocal in their support for the Euromaidan Revolution as they exhibited no nostalgia for the USSR. They had adjusted to the new realities of post-Soviet life, had travelled abroad, and were not attracted by authoritarianism, a repressive system of government, powerlessness, economic and cultural stagnation, and Russian World imperial ambitions.

As the spiritual leader of Dnipropetrovsk Jews, Kaminetskyy had significant influence in the Jewish community. Already at the beginning of the Russian occupation of Crimea, Rabbi Kaminetskyy talked about Ukraine with its centuries-old Jewish history: ‘Here are to be found the origins of Hasidism, here are the graves of our righteous, here the Jewish community has been revived after the fall of communism, and here there is hope for the future.’[47]  Dnipropetrovsk’s Jewish community tried in any possible way to spread information about its support for the Euromaidan Revolution and the core ideas behind the Revolution of Dignity, its unity with the Ukrainian people, and readiness to defend their joint Motherland as citizens of different nationalities.[48] In 2014, the Menorah became a symbol of the unity of all ethnic groups in Ukraine and their readiness to defend the country’s sovereignty and European integration.

The Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community helped Jewish refugees from Russian-occupied Crimea and IDPs from the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine forced to flee their homes in the face of Russian-backed hybrid warfare.[49] Dnipropetrovsk’s Jewish community assisted in restoring documents, providing medical care, providing shelter for IDPs in the Beit Baruch[50] boarding houses of the Yeshiva and Beit Khana schools, finding permanent housing and finding places for children in kindergartens and school. ‘Everyone who came from there was pleasantly surprised, and sometimes even shocked by the consistently peaceful and good-natured situation in the city. They were only instinctively frightened when the explosions of fireworks and the roar of thunder were heard somewhere up close,’ said director of the Jewish community Zelig Brez, one of the main organisers of volunteer activities.[51] According to Borys Treyherman, it would be extremely difficult to cope with the big influx of IDPs on their own, and therefore community leaders attempted to involve international resources in embassies and international organisations, with the most helpful being the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.[52]

The community also coordinated the activities of synagogue parishioners to donate food and humanitarian aid which was sent to Ukrainian soldiers, National Guard, and military hospitals. ’What is important was that we did not set any tasks or give orders but nevertheless people offered assistance,’ Oleh Rostovtsev said. [53] Rostovtsev emphasised the uniqueness of Ukraine as a tolerant country and Dnipropetrovsk, where people of different nationalities but common values live peacefully. The lobby of synagogue’s had tsdokas (boxes for donations).  Donations of food and water were transported to the 93^rd Mechanised Brigade base in Cherkaske in Dnipropetrovsk oblast; personal hygiene products and food and medicines were taken to the hospital on Komsomolskaya Street and the Dnipropetrovsk oblast Mechnikov hospital.[54] As a front-line city the Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro Jewish community had received substantial foreign assistance from abroad to deal with trauma as well as individual medical kits for soldiers. Dnipropetrovsk oblast Mechnikov hospital was visited by American specialists in field surgery who conducted operations to save wounded soldiers and helped to improve the rehabilitation process.[55] Each morning a prayer was said during morning service at synagogues for the recovery of wounded Ukrainian soldiers.[56]

In the first months of the Russian-Ukrainian war, a practice began of Jewish students visiting wounded soldiers. Sarah, the daughter of Rabbi Kaminetskyy, while an eleventh-grade student, wrote a newspaper article after visiting a hospital with wounded soldiers. She said she had been afraid to go to the hospital because of the fear of looking into the eyes of seriously injured soldiers. She overcame these fears because she knew how important it was to help those who had given their lives and become wounded in the defence of their country.[57]   Another Jewish school pupil Sonia Zaydner after visiting a hospital wrote in a newspaper that she was most impressed by the fact wounded soldiers dreamt of returning to the war zone to be re-united with their friends.[58]

Kolomoyskyy’s Strategic Role

In discussing the rise of Ukrainian patriotism between 2014-2015 and the part in this played by the Jewish community, one cannot ignore the role played by Kolomoyskyy. At that time, Kolomoyskyy vividly represented the Jewish component of the struggle for Ukrainian sovereignty and a guarantor of stability at a time of a weakened central government. Researchers emphasise the crucial role of local business and political elites, which, given the weakness of the central government, helped prevent the war spreading to Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv (see Portnov 2015; Kononczuk 2015; Buckholz 2019).[59] However, in Dnipropetrovsk the business elite acted in a concentrated and personalized form. At that time, Kolomoyskyy was the guarantor of the city’s stability during a period of weak central government and was the leader of the region that maintained Ukrainian sovereignty. Eventually, he was a bright leader of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community and Ukraine. The warm support of Kolomoyskyy’s Ukrainian-oriented citizens was perceived as a guarantee of the final overcoming of historical anti-Semitism. It is noteworthy that in the Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, anti-Semitic tendencies became increasingly apparent in the official ideology of the so-called DNR and LNR (Likhachov and Bezruk 2015, 41–42). The DNR and LNR had revived Soviet era anti-Zionism which had always been a camouflaged form of anti-Semitism (Kuzio 2019, 197–213).

On 22 February 2014, Kolomoyskyy issued a statement where he said that Russian-backed separatism would not spread to Dnipropetrovsk oblast. On 2 March 2014, Acting Head of State Oleksandr Turchynov appointed Kolomoyskyy governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast. At his own financial expense, Kolomoyskyy bought petrol for the Ukrainian army. In April 2014, Kolomoyskyy funded volunteer battalions, paying each soldier a personal allowance in addition to his salary.[60] In April 2014, on the initiative and financing of Kolomoyskyy, the formation of battalions of volunteers began.

On 17 April 2014, Deputy Governor Boris Filatov announced that Kolomoyskyy would pay $10,000 for each Russian saboteur handed over. Five days later, the National Defence Headquarters of Dnipropetrovsk oblast reported that Kolomoyskyy had paid $10,000 for eight captured Russian saboteurs. On 3 June 2014, the National Defence Headquarters announced a reward of half a million dollars for the capture of Oleh Tsaryov, a former Party of Regions deputy from Dnipropetrovsk oblast who was working with the pro-Russian separatists.[61] Kolomoyskyy had telephoned Tsaryov and warned him that because of the murder in Mariupol of Shlemkevich, ‘a member of the Jewish community,’ a large ransom was imposed on Tsaryov’s head.[62] On 8 June 2014, he offered to confiscate the property of separatist supporters, which was undertaken in the case of Tsaryov’s assets. On 1 June 2014, Kolomoyskyy was placed on the wanted list of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.   

Kolomoyskyy supported government proposals to build a fortified wall of barbed wire along the border with Russia which would run through Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv oblasts. On August 28, Deputy Governor Hennadiy Korban made a statement that Kolomoyskyy could expand his governorship to neighbouring Zaporizhzhya oblast and adjacent areas of Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk oblast. The Kremlin’s financial channels throughout Eastern-Southern Ukraine were shut down, which assisted in preventing pro-Russian separatists from expanding beyond the Donbas (see Kulick, 2019). In 2014–2015, Kolomoyskyy’s team successfully transformed Dnipropetrovsk into a Forepost (Outpost) of Ukraine’s defence against Russian military aggression.[63] In this endeavour the Jewish community played an important supporting role, as did the civic patriotism of Jewish citizens of Ukraine. 

Certainly, the pragmatic aspect in the motivation of Kolomoyskyy and his team cannot be denied. Kolomoyskyy-businessman acted in agreement with Kolomoyskyy-politician. Among the Ukrainian oligarchs, Kolomoyskyy distinguished himself by the fact that long before the events of the Euromaidan Revolution, he far-sightedly reoriented his own business to the west (Olearchyk 2007; Paxton 2007). Thanks to his pro-Ukrainian position, he successfully defended his assets in Dnipropetrovsk and the region and sought to take advantage of his growing influence. Apparently, it was the determination to defend their own business interests that worried the central government, which was also headed by former President Petro Poroshenko, who, like no other, was well versed in ways to convert growing business assets into political influence (Carroll 2015).

Kolomoyskyy was removed from the post of governor on March 24, 2015, while being on the top of his popularity, which was already clearly beyond the regional phenomenon and was becoming an important factor in Ukrainian politics. A large crowd of Dnipro residents gathered at the farewell rally with the governor to thank Kolomoyskyy ‘s team for saving their city from the Russian military scenario. They compared his patriotic position with that of Donetsk oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, whose uncertainty during the so-called ‘Russian Spring’ contributed to the occupation of part of Donbass. Dnipro residents held blue-yellow and red and black OUN flags with the Star of David attached to them. However, the removal of Kolomoyskyy did not significantly change the civic pathos of the city. Dnipro continued to assert itself as a city of much greater ambition than the centre of regional significance: it became a Forepost for the defence of all of Ukraine from Russian military aggression, an invincible patriotic polis in the Ukrainian East. And the Jewish community of Dnipropetrovsk and the bright Ukrainian patriotism shown by Jewish citizens played not the least role in this new realisation.

The symbol of a Jewish warrior for Ukrainian independence was Asher Cherkaskyy,[64] who had been a senior sergeant of the Dnipro-1 special-purpose police battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He fought three kilometres from Donetsk airport against the pro-Russian separatist Vostok (East) battalion.[65] Cherkaskyy ensured the withdrawal of Ukrainian wounded soldiers from Ilovaisk, where hundreds of Ukrainian servicemen were killed after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his ‘guarantee’ to the corridor for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops. He was wounded in September 2014, but even in critical condition he did not leave the army for another two weeks. Only in October he was transferred to a military hospital.

Cherkaskyy experienced no problems with his ethnic or religious affiliations; on the contrary, he emphasised that other fighters in his unit respected his way of life: ‘No one was bothered by my long beard… Everyone in the battalion knew that my Jewish friends Andrew Savchuk and Dmitry Pylypenko were killed in the Ilovaisk massacre. Contrary to stereotypes about nationalist Pravyy Sektor (Right Sector) battalion, he never experienced anti-Semitism. In order not to violate kashrut (Jewish rules for eating food), Cherkaskyy ate cereals and canned fish. ’While I was there, out of respect for me, they did not eat salo (bacon lard) or cook pork. This was not my request but their decision.’[66] Cherkaskyy recalled about the tolerant attitude of his fellow comrades in arms towards Jewish values.  

In April 2016, on the initiative of Dmytro Yarosh, the former head of Pravyy Sektor (Right Sector), a Jewish company was created commanded by Maxim Khorev, a veteran of volunteer battalions Dnipro-1 and Pravyy Sektor. The company included representatives of Jewish citizens of Ukraine who had military experience in other volunteer and military units which had fought against Russian military aggression in Eastern Ukraine. Between 2016-2017, the Jewish company was based in sector ‘M’ and fought for the villages of Shyrokyne and Marinka, with many members being awarded medals for valour in combat. In September 2016, an improvised synagogue was opened at the base of operations of the Jewish company.[67] Cherkaskyy wrote that ‘there are no atheists in the trenches.’ At the initiative of veterans and Jewish military instructors, G. Mashinzon, M. Mykulych, T. Zlatkin andCherkaskyy, on the eve of Passover, Jewish volunteers visit military units on the front line and break matzo with soldiers.[68]

The contribution of Jewish intellectuals from Dnipro to the development of technological equipment for the Ukrainian army is unprecedented. Volunteer specialists Pavlo Hazan and Hennadiy Mashynzon developed a unique system of digital communication which allowed the Ukrainian military to control checkpoints in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya oblasts adjacent to Russian-occupied territories in Donetsk oblasts and in Dnipropetrovsk and Mariupol airports, which were important military bases and staging posts for combat operations. This represented a major step towards the modernisation of the Ukrainian army; before this initiative there was limited communication between units and mobile phones were being used which, in addition to being tapped by Russian intelligence, were also used by the enemy to detect and attack targets. With the invention by Jewish designers, military operators received the opportunity to maintain continuous flows of communication through video and radio signals with units located in sectors ‘B’ and ‘M’ and Dnipropetrovsk and Mariupol airports. 

The phenomenon of so-called Zhydo-Banderivtsi (Jewish Banderites) was Kolomoyskyy’s mocking and humorous response to Russia’s information warfare of a ‘Nazi-backed putsch’ in Ukraine and fascists running the country. In fact, Kolomoskyy’s team in 2014–2015 included two Jews (himself and Korban) and a Russian (Filatov). Zhydo Banderivtsi, a slogan which became common on t-shirts, reflected the active assistance of Russian-speaking Jews in Dnipropetrovsk oblast in defending Ukrainian statehood. Further, the slogan undermined Russian propaganda and disinformation about anti-Semitism in Ukraine. Russia’s information warfare claimed that Jewish volunteers were ‘particularly brutal and bloodthirsty, they do not take prisoners and shoot everything that moves. They do not neglect the ritual eating of raw liver of separatists to inflame themselves before going into battle.’[69]  Such statements show to what degree Russian information warfare is out of touch with realities in Ukraine.

Conclusion

Dnipropetrovsk Jews, who are a highly influential community in the oblast centre of Dnipro, hold no nostalgia for the USSR for several reasons. The Soviet system promoted anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and hid the Holocaust inside the myths of the Great Patriotic War, with Jewish victims of Nazi war crimes included in the ‘twenty million Soviet dead.’ The lack of Soviet nostalgia undoubtedly explains why Dnipropetrovsk evolved so effortlessly from a closed and important Soviet city associated with nuclear weapons, the military industrial complex, and Soviet leaders, into a centre upholding Ukrainian statehood.

The revival of the Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro Jewish community is unparalleled in the former USSR. From the late 1980s to 2013, Ukrainian patriotism deepened among Ukrainian Jews. Finally, the Jewish community was only able to revive and rebuild and honour the memory of the Holocaust in an independent Ukrainian state where anti-Semitism, particularly in Dnipropetrovsk oblastwas practically non-existent. All of what had been achieved could have been lost in 2014 if Russian-backed hybrid warfare and Putin’s Novorossiya (New Russia) project had spread to Dnipropetrovsk oblast. In 2014–2015, during the midst of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro Jewish community, which is predominantly Russian-speaking, exhibited a high level of patriotism which helped to strengthen the emergence of a Ukrainian civic nation. 

In the last three decades the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community has become united and part of the oblast centre’s urban community. Jews no longer must hide their nationality or religious preferences as they did in the USSR and have the tools, institutions, and resources to continue to preserve and develop their Jewish identity.

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Notes

[1] Istoriya yevreyskogo Dniepropietrovska – novyie istoricheskiye otkrytiya i intieriesnyie fakty. https://djc-com-ua.translate.goog/news/view/new/?id=14835&_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

[2] Iosef Zisels, Dinamika chislennosti yevreyskogo nasielieniya v Ukrainie.  http://www.vaadua.org/analitika/dinamika-chislennosti-evreyskogo-naseleniya-ukrainy

[3] A. Bystriakov, ‘Khronika zhyzni yevreyev Yekatierinoslava – Dniepropietrovska,’ Yevrieyskaya starina, 2 (85), 2015. https://berkovich–zametki-com.translate.goog/2015/Starina/Nomer2/Bystrjakov1.php?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

[4] Nikolay Shulga, Nataliya Panina, Yevgieniy Golovaha and I.  Zisels, ‘Emigratsiya yevrieyev v kontiekstie obshchey migratsionnoy situatsii v Ukrainie,’Sotsiologiya: tieoriya, metody, marketing, 2, 2001, 82.  

[5] On Arkady Shmist see ‘Pamiati Arkadiya Shmista.’ https://www-djc-com-ua.translate.goog/news/view/new/?id=655&_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

[6] A. Bystriakov ‘Khronika zhyzni yevreyev Yekatierinoslava – Dniepropietrovska.’

[7] Yevgeniy Evshteyn, ‘Oni byli soviestyu nashey obshchiny: intervyu s A. Friedkis,’ Shabat Shalom, 6, 2014, 9. 

[8] Mikwa is a ritual pool for purification. Women visit the mikvah once a month and men before the morning prayer. It is believed that ritual ablution is necessary for utensils. It is customary to build a mikvah before the synagogue.

[9] On Hryhoriy Korol see E. Yevshteyn, ‘Oni soli soviestyu nashey obshchiny.’ 

[10] On Aleksander Fridkis see Boris Feldman, ‘Sovmiestimy li mieditsina i rieligiya? Intervyu s Alieksandrom Fridkisom,’ Shabat Shalom, 3, 1993, 5. 

[11] Ester Tahtierina, ‘S yubilieyem doktor Fridkis! Shabat Shalom, 1, 2014, 5.     

[12] Vladimir Vinogradov, ‘Shkola yevrieyskih traditsiy,’ Shabat Shalom, 2, 1991, 3.   

[13] E. Yevshteyn, ‘Oni byli soviestyu nashey obshchiny.’

[14]The Passover Seder is a ritual family meal held at the beginning of the Passover for which a famous rabbi was invited from Israel. See E. Yevshteyn, ‘Oni byli soviestyu nashey obshchiny.’  

[15] Kosher products are those that comply with Jewish rules of cooking.  

[16] The Chabad movement formally ceased to exist on Soviet territory after the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Josef-Yitzhak Schneerson was expelled from the USSR. Along with him, his future son-in-law Menachem-Mendel Schneerson left the USSR. After the death of Josef-Yitzhak in 1950, Menachem-Mendel Schneerson became the leader of Chabad, the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. The promotion of atheism among Soviet Jews and anti-Jewish repression depressed Chabad but did not destroy it completely. Contacts between the centre of Chabad in the United States and Ukrainian Jews were not systematic as they were carried out sporadically through envoys of the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe who travelled to the USSR disguised as tourists. See Siemion Charnyi, ‘Iudaizm na prostorah SND. Yevraziyskiy yevrieyskiy yezhegodnik,’ 5766, 2005–2006, 71–93.    

[17] ‘Mirnaya rievoliutsiya Khabada.’ https : // lechaim . ru / ARCHIVE / 165 / VZR / 01.htm

[18] See ‘Restytutsiya mizhnarodnoho mayna: mizhnarodnyy ta vitchyznianyy dosvid.’ Kyiv: Collection of Documents, 2007, 14–147.

[19] Lieonid Kagan, ‘Nash ‘Joynt i stroit, I zhyt pomogayet,’ Shabat Shalom, 12, 2001, 4.  

[20] Boris Feldman, ‘Chto den griadushchiy nam gotovit: interviu s predsedatieliem pravlieniya Dniepropietrovskogo blagotvoritelnogo phonda ‘Hesed Menahem’ Viktorom Danovishem,’ Shabat Shalom, 8, 2002, 5.   

[21] See  Bogoliubov’s biography at: https://1-ua–rating-com.translate.goog/gennady-bogolyubov/?_x_tr_enc=1&_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

[22] See Kolomoyskyy’s biography at: https://thepage.ua/ua/dossier/kolomojskij-igor

[23] Yekatierina Shapoval, ‘Rosiyskiyey evriei zombirovany tielievid ieniy em.’

[24] Daryna Pryvalko, ‘Yevreyske zhyttia v Ukrayini,’ 44–46.

[25] ‘Doshkolnoye obrazovaniye i vospitaniye.’ http://djc.com.ua/obchina/project/?id=7785&lang=ru ; Doma yevrieyev na Dnieprie and https://lechaim-ru.translate.goog/ARHIV/165/VZR/d4.htm?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

[26] Alexandra Kaplunska, ‘Shmist i nasha yevrieyskaya shkola.’ http://99897.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_31.html and I. Manievich, ‘Piervyi diriektor: intervyu s S . Kaplunskim,’ Shabat Shalom, 6 and 7, 2014.

[27] E. Yevshteyn, ‘Oni byli soviestyu nashey obshchiny.’

[28] Yevgieniy Yevtushenko, ‘Dniepropietrovskiy Natsionalnyi Soyphierskiy tsentr Popadaniye v diesiatku,’ Shabat Shalom, 2, 2014, 5.

[29] Moel was a specialist who performed the Jewish circumcision ritual.

[30] The Torah is the Law of Moses, the Pentateuch of Moses, the first part of what Christians call the Old Testament of the Bible.  

[31] I. Karpienko, ‘Beyt-Hana – kuznitsa zhenskih kadrov.’ https://lechaim.ru/ARHIV/165/VZR/d6.htm)

[32] The restitution of Jewish property was undertaken by the VAAD of Ukraine (Association of Jewish Organisations and Communities of Ukraine) and OIROU. In 1995, a programme began to catalogue Jewish property in Ukraine and out of 2,500 premises, approximately fifty were returned over the next fifteen years. See D. Pryvalko, ‘Yevreyske zhyttia v Ukrayini.’ 

[33] See I. Karpienko, ‘Dniepropietrovsk obietovannyi.’

[34] Eduard Akselrod, ‘Interviu s glavnym rabinom Dniepropietrovska Shmuelie Kaminietskim,’ Shabat Shalom, 9, 2000, 1.   

[35] Liev Lieynov and Aleksandr Dolnik, ‘Ya na puti k odnoznachnomu otvietu,’ Shabat Shalom, 10, 2000, 2. 

[36] Grigoriy Revzin, ‘Dniepropietrovskiye chudiesa.’ https://lechaim.ru/ARHIV/195/revzin.htm

[37] Y.Yevtushenko, ‘Ironiya sudby ili kolieso istorii Zeliga Breza,’ 5.

[38] E. Akselrod, ‘Nie byvaiet yevreyev religioznyh I nierieligioznyh. Yest yevriei,’ Shabat Shalom, 1. 

[39] T. Portnova, ‘Tema ‘zakrytoho mista’ v istoriyi radianskoho Dnipropetrovska 1950–80 rokiv. http://www.historians.in.ua/index.php/en/doslidzhennya/2351-tetyana-portnova-tema-zakritogo-mista-v-istoriji-radyanskogo-dnipropetrovska-1950-80-kh-rokiv

[40] Pavel Giner, ‘Ot staroi sinagogi k Mienorie,’ Shabat Shalom, 10, 2013, 6. 

[41] Y. Yevtushenko, ‘Pavel Khazan: Phamiliya obiazyvayet!’ Shabat Shalom, 10, 2014, 5.   

[42]‘A. Fridkis rasskazyvayet o tom, kak yevriei Dniepra sokhraniali pamiat o Holokoste.’http://djc.com.ua/news/view/new/?id=22168 

[43] Matseva is a traditional Jewish tombstone.  

[44] A. Medvedovska, ‘Pamyat pro Holokost u symvolichnomu prostori Dnipra.’

[45] Siemion Flaks, ‘Ya obrashchayus ko vsiem,’ Shabat Shalom, 2, 2014, 3. 

[46] ‘Obrashcheniye priedsiedatielia Sovieta yevreyev veteranov Dniepropietrovska Solomona Flaksa k vietieranam Vielikoy Otiechestviennoy voiny i vietieranskim organisatsiyam, Shabat Shalom, 5, 2014, 9, and Nataliya Bulgarina, ‘Samyi glavnyi prazdnik,’ Shabat Shalom, 6, 2014, 3.      

[47] ‘Biesiedy s ravinom,’ Shabat Shalom, 3, 2014, 2. 

[48] Vitaliy Portnikov, ‘Vsi my ukrayintsy,’ Shabat Shalom, 2, 2015, 11; O. Rostovtsev, ‘Demokratiya – eto liudi. Intervyu s zamiestitieliem gossiekrietaria SS HA Vendi Sherman,’ Shabat Shalom, 4, 2014, 2.      

[49] N. Bulgarina, ‘Protianut ruku pomoshchi,’ Shabat Shalom, 9, 2014, 3, and O. Liebiedinskaya, ‘V voynie niet ni pravyh, ni vinovatyh,’ Shabat Shalom, 8, 2014, 7.  

[50] ‘Beyt Baruh – dvoriets dlia pozhylyh.’ https://lechaim.ru/ARHIV/165/VZR/d5.htm 

[51] See ‘Iudiei Dniepropietrovska aktivno pomogayut biezhentsam i ukrainskoy armii,’ 31 July 2014.  https://www.religion.in.ua/news/ukrainian_news/26503-iudei-dnipropetrovska-aktivno-pomogayut-bezhencam-i-ukrainskoj- armii.html

[52] Olga Miedviedieva, ‘Vriemia niestandartnyh riesheniy ili povezlo roditsia jevreyem: intervyu s sovietnikom glavy Dniepropietrovskoi gosadministratsii Boris Traigermanom,’ Shabat Shalom, 10, 2014, 7. 

[53] Rostovtsev is the head of the ‘Menora’ Information Centre, member of the Civic Council of the Dnipro city council and an adviser to Mayor Filatov.

[54] ‘Kak yevreyskiye struktury pomogayut biezhentsam i poddierzhivayut Vooruzhennyie sily Ukrainy i Natsionalnuyu gvardiyu.’

[55] Еlena Torban, ‘911- Skoraya pomoshch iz Bostona,’  Shabat Shalom, 12, 2014, 6, ‘Yevrieyskiye obshchiny Boston i Dniepropietrovska cotrudnichayut , pomogaya spasat ranienyh.’  http : // www . jewseurasia . org / page 16 / news 51990. html 

[56] E.Yevshteyn, ‘The arrival of the synagogue – to wounded soldiers,’ Shabat Shalom, 8, 2014, 2.   

[57] Sara Kaminietskaya, ‘Viernities domoy zhivymy i zdorovymi,’ Shabat Shalom, 10, 2014, 2.   

[58] Sonya Zaider, ‘Den, koly ya zustrilasia z viynoyu,’ Shabat Sholom, 10, 2014, 2.   

[59] A. Portnov, ‘Chomu Kharkiv i Dnipropetrovsk ne staly Donetskom i Luhanskom?’ Ukrayinska Pravda, 4 February 2016. https://www.istpravda.com.ua/ articles/2016/02/4/148912/

[60] ‘Oligarkh Kolomoiskiy sozdayot sobstviennuyu armiyu dlia voiny s Donbasom.’ https://www-ntv-ru.translate.goog/novosti/975396/?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

[61] ‘Kolomoyskyi oholosyv vynahorodu za Tsariova u pivmiliona dolariv.’ https://www-5-ua.translate.goog/polityka/kolomoiskyi-oholosyv-vynahorodu-za-tsarova-u-pivmiliona-dolariv-32869.html?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

[62] ‘Kolomoiskiy Tsarevu: Za tvoyu golovu dayut million dolarov.’ https://bitva-wiki.translate.goog/ru/news/text/360-kolomoiskii-caryovu-za-tvoyu-golovu-dayut-million-dollarov?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

[63] A. Portnov, ‘Chomu Kharkiv i Dniepropietrovsk ne stali Donetskom i Luganskom.’

[64]On Cherkasskyy see Y. Yevtushenko, ‘Intervyu s Asherom Cherkaskim: ‘Iz religioznykh yevrieyev Ukrainy na Donbase voyuyu ya odin,’ Shabat Shalom, 1, 2015, 6.           

[65] Y.Yevtushenko, ‘Interviu s Asherom Cherkaskim.’

[66] Liba Liberman, ‘Asher Cherkaskyi: menia ubierieg Vsievyshniy,’ Khadashot, 1, 2015. http : // hadashot . Kiev . ua / content / asher – cherkasskiy – menya – ubereg – vsevyshniy   

[67] Yelena Belozierskaya, ‘Yevreyskaya rota Ukrainskoy dobrovolcheskoy armii Dmitriya Yarosha.’ https://mayak-org-ua.translate.goog/news/in-a-jewish-company-in-the-area-of-the-ato-opened-the-synagogue-looking-for-the-rabbi-video/?_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

[68] ‘Pesach in ATO. Matca dlya karateley.’ https://hurtmann.livejournal.com/1407916.html

[69] Mikhail Gold, ‘A vy ikh antisiemitizmom nie probovali?’ Khadashot, 8, 2014. https://hadashot-kiev-ua.translate.goog/content/vy-ih-antisemitizmom-ne-probovali?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=uk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

Further Reading on E-International Relations

• New Book – Ukraine’s Outpost: Dnipropetrovsk and the Russian-Ukrainian War
• Decommunisation in Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro in 2014–2019
• Opinion – Russia’s Bombing of Ukraine’s Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial
• ‘Eastern Ukraine’ is No More: War and Identity in Post-Euromaidan Dnipropetrovsk
• The Outpost of Ukraine: The Role of Dnipro in the War in the Donbas
• Memory Politics in Dnipropetrovsk, 1991–2015