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During November 1-3, the Jewish educational conference Limud Ukraine was held in Uzhgorod, which gathered more than 150 participants from Ukraine and other countries of the world. It is noteworthy that the largest number of participants from outside Ukraine was from Israel – a country that, like our Motherland, is fighting for its own survival in confrontation with the forces of dictatorships and lack of freedom.

Considering the tragic nature of our present, the events of the past, as a kind of field for finding answers to the challenges of the present, do not lose their sad relevance. A significant part of Limud Ukraine events this year were devoted to the history of the Holocaust, as well as various historical aspects of such dangerous phenomena as xenophobia in all its manifestations and anti-Semitism.

“Tkuma” Institute is a traditional partner of Limud. This year, it was presented by the deputy director of “Tkuma” Institute for scientific work, Dr. Yehor Vradii, as well as our long-term partner, a well-known researcher of the Holocaust in Ukraine, the deputy director of the State Archives of Vinnytsia region for scientific and methodological work, Dr. Faina Vynokurova.

F. Vynokurova who was one of the lecturers who opened the festival with her class. The lecture-conversation on the topic “The opposition of the individual to the policy of Nazi genocide and the problem of human choice” was devoted to the problem of resistance to the Nazi genocide of the Jews, namely the human dimensions of the struggle against the background of the unprecedented Catastrophe. The stories of Jews and Jewish women – members of the Resistance Movement, Ukrainians – Rescuers and Righteous among the Nations, have an extremely powerful emotional impact and remind us, contemporaries, that the darkest time is just before the dawn.

On the same day, Dr. Yehor Vradii spoke about the human dimension of the phenomenon of rescuing Jews during the Holocaust, namely, the unique story of the Righteous Among the Nations Jan Chodorovsky (1918-2007) – a native of Lviv region, who managed to save the lives of almost three dozen people and survive himself in the conditions of Nazi and Soviet imprisonment.

The Holocaust and, in general, genocides of the 20th century. became possible under the conditions of absolute neglect of seemingly inseparable human values – personal freedom, the right to choose, the right to preserve one's ethnic and religious identity. However, the restriction of rights almost never happened all at once. For a long time, the imperial regimes fostered an atmosphere of mistrust, hostility and intolerance among the enslaved peoples, and contributed to the spread of xenophobia in its various manifestations. This was discussed in the class of Dr. Yehor Vradii, which took place the next day. In particular, the lecturer showed how the power of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th century. instrumentalized the creative heritage of the outstanding Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) in order to attract the Ukrainians of enslaved Ukraine to their side and instill in them an intolerant attitude towards other ethnic and religious groups - primarily Jews and Poles. The modern war against Ukraine has already shown that very often the inheritors of the traditions of Russian imperialism continue to act according to the same patterns of more than a century ago. The similarity of the phenomena did not leave the audience indifferent, which resulted in a sufficiently long joint discussion of all the participants of the class.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to all the participants of Limud Ukraine, its activists and, above all, Mrs. Halyna Rybnikova, thanks to whose energy, activity and caring attitude this unique project continues to operate and attract the attention of many people not only in Ukraine, but also abroad. And therefore gives hope for the future!

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