The Center for Urban History in Lviv has posted an interactive online walking tour of Jewish Lviv that uses maps, photographs and archival material, video, and text to tell the story of places and people, and also to prompt discussion on how to preserve and educate about the city’s Jewish history and cultural heritage.
Called Past, Present and Memory: rediscovering Jewish Lviv, it is one of three tours that were developed by students during the workshop “Lemberg/Lwów/לעמבערג/Львів: literary and artistic paths of a multicultural city” held as part of the summer school “Jewish History, common history and heritage, culture, cities, environment” organized by the Center from July 11 to August 5, 2016.
We would like to discuss the ways Jewish history of Lviv is commemorated today. We are not responsible for the past, but for the memory of the past. Today this responsibility is necessary for the contemporary Ukrainian society.
Presented as a virtual walk, the tour begins at the sculptural monument to the World War II Jewish Ghetto and describes the destruction of Jewish Lviv during the Holocaust.
It goes on to use specific sites, buildings, memorials, streets, and neighborhoods as settings for historical and biographical discussions of pre-WW2 individuals associated with Lviv, such as the historian and educator Majer Bałaban, who died in the WW2 Warsaw Ghetto, the writers Sholom Aleichem and Deborah (Dvoyra) Vogel, and a Holocaust survivor identified as Barbara G.
It states:
Pre-war Lviv was the center of the Jewish cultural, religious and political life. Writers, poets, scientists and satirists lived and worked in this city. Thanks to the legacy of these authors we can use our imagination to go back in time to the complex multi-cultural reality of pre-war Lviv. In our virtual walk, we will explore the places related to Jewish life, the places of interaction and cultural exchange as well as the tragic history of Lviv ghetto. Our city walk is also an invitation to reflect together on the possibilities and challenges of preserving Jewish heritage for future generations of Lvivians.
1 comment on “Ukraine: Interactive virtual walking tour of Jewish Lviv”
I would like to make contact with Elina Katz (Ukraine) to look at possible Lviv family link.
Thank you.