SPEECH OF AN EMPLOYEE OF OUR INSTITUTE AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH MUSEUMS OF EUROPE
On June 4-6, 2023, the annual international conference of the Association of Jewish Museums of Europe was held in the Jewish Museum of Berlin.
Scientists and specialists in museum affairs from Ukraine took part in the work of the conference and spoke for the participants of the scientific meeting (online): leading researcher of our Institute, Candidate of Historical Sciences Anatoliy Podolskyi (Kyiv), Director of the Museum of History and Culture of the Jews of Bukovyna, Candidate of Historical Sciences Mykhailo Kushnir (Chernivtsi), head of the Ukrainian Association of Judaics, Doctor of Art Studies Yevhen Kotlyar (Kharkiv)
Ukrainian scientists spoke at the opening and the first plenary session “Ukraine: Jewish museums and Jewish cultural heritage in conditions of war – a report on the state of affairs and changing narratives”, which was dedicated to the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage and research on Judaica in our country during the Russian war against of Ukraine.
The questions of the European audience that arose during the discussion mostly went beyond the framework of cultural and museum discourse and related primarily to the war in Ukraine, the crimes of the Russian military on the territory of our country.
During the discussion
In his speech, A. Podolskyi emphasized that as a result of Russian bombings and rocket attacks over the last fifteen months of Russian aggression, hundreds of cities and villages, thousands of civilians were affected. Among the crimes of Russian aggression are the destroyed Jewish community centers, synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, and memorials to the victims of the Holocaust. In particular, there are memorials in Drobitskyi Yar in Kharkiv and Babiny Yar in Kyiv, the 19th-century Jewish cemetery in Glukhiv in Sumy Oblast, choral synagogues in Kharkiv and Mariupol. The Russian aggressor is destroying everything that was preserved and created in sovereign Ukraine in the realm of the Jewish cultural heritage of Ukraine. He must be punished according to international law. In particular, for these crimes.