PUBLIC DISCUSSION: “THE CALL: MAKING MEANING OF UKRAINIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY”
On April 10, 2026, a public discussion “The Call: Making Sense of Ukrainian Jewry” took place in Kyiv. The conversation, organized by Hromadske Radio in partnership with UNESCO Ukraine, reveals the multi-layered history of relations between Ukrainians and Jews in Ukraine.
Invited experts and guests discussed the mutual influence of cultures, common traumas, experiences of coexistence, as well as how different historical eras shaped Ukrainian Jewry.
A participant in the discussion, a well-known Ukrainian historian, leading researcher in the ethnopolitical science department of our institute, head of the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies Anatolii Podolskyi, said that in the 1990s, Russian scholars promoted the thesis about the alleged non-existence of Ukrainian Jews as a separate identity: “‘Ukrainian Jews’ is a natural phrase, they fought for it, and I was also a participant in this struggle. It was part of the struggle for Ukrainian identity.” As noted by a participant in the discussion, Diana Klochko, an art critic, essayist, and public lecturer, Ukrainian Jews were not only part of the cultural process, but also significantly influenced the formation of artistic trends and institutions in Ukraine. As one example, she mentioned the artist Abram Manevych, one of the founders of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts, emphasizing the uniqueness of this fact for Ukrainian history.
Anatolii Podolskyi, Diana Klochko
The discussion was moderated by Hromadske Radio host Elizaveta Tsaregradska.
The event took place as part of the Hromadske Radio project “Wiederstand. Resistance” — a podcast about Ukrainian Jews who changed the world.
Listen here: https://cutt.ly/HtFo6Svs
This initiative is part of UNESCO’s broader efforts to preserve and digitize documentary heritage in Ukraine. The podcast was created as part of a partnership project with UNESCO with financial support from the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of Public Radio and does not necessarily reflect the position of UNESCO and the European Union.
Anatolii Podolskyi, Diana Klochko