Israel-based journalist Shimon Briman visited L’viv and wrote a lengthy article on the complexities and competing (and complementary) interests involved in Jewish heritage issues and preservation/commemoration strategy in that city for the Kiev newspaper The Day.
Read the article, published May 21, HERE
2 comments on “Complexities of Jewish heritage preservation & strategy in L’viv”
Feedback to the original text in Ukrainian:
http://www.day.kiev.ua/uk/article/svitovi-diskusiyi/lviv-ievreyskiy-vuzol
9 June 2013
To Ms. Larysa Ivshyna
Editor-in-chief of the Day Newspaper
Larysa Ivshyna: “Journalists, undoubtedly, is responsible for creating a distorted coordinate system” – reference to the following:
The article entitled “Lviv: the Jewish Knot” dated 21 May 2013 printed in the newspaper by the journalist Simon Briman, was nothing less than scandalous.
The article is aimed at the intellectual level of the newspapers’ audience, not versed in the details of the matter, which are ready to accept the false information with a certain spin literally. I understood the Simon’s scandalous purpose, when I started talking with him at his request for the interview, and then cut it short. Simon Briman’s article is full of twisted information, which the newspaper was not in the position to publish without first having talked to the accused one. The article has done great damage to the effort for the preservation of cultural heritage in Ukraine, crossed out the exceptional importance of the role played by the Central Government of Ukraine in the preservation of the historical and cultural heritage, the exceptional importance of the role of the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine in implementing legitimate and recognized by UNESCO activities for the preservation of authentic historical and cultural heritage, the grant by the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Heritage to study the Jewish Quarter and particularly the Turei Zahav (Golden Rose) Synagogue, and also damaged the activities of the Representation to Ukraine of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, other Ukrainian organizations in the field of cultural heritage preservation, and to me personally – and therefore I demand to publish my response.
The Jews are proud of the historical and cultural heritage of Ukraine, where there was a flourishing Jewish culture with all of its characteristic features of life.
The prominent historian Yaroslav Dashkevych once wrote: “In Ukraine, along with short periods of hard times, there were longer periods of Jews and Ukrainians living side-by-side, the unique Jewish culture sprung up here, which needs to be preserved, the interconnectedness of cultures requires a thorough research and dissemination.” Together we lived through the darkness and cruelty of the Soviet and Nazi tortures, the destruction of the priceless human life and our common spiritual wealth. In Galicia there was a lot of good in the relations between Ukrainians, Poles and Jews. There was also a lot of evil, which was artificially sown in by third-party political forces.
The idea of the cultural heritage for the Jewish people is irrevocably tied with their customs, traditional spiritual life. That is what you find particularly in Lviv:
1. The Old Jewish Cemetery on Shpytalna St. Many prominent Rabbis of the Turei Zahav rest in this cemetery – David Halevy Segal, Chacham Tzvi and other giants, authors of everlasting philosophical and religious treatises. The sanctity of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Lviv is comparable to the holy place in the land of Israel. The officials of the Lviv City Executive Committee have given away the land of the burials to a market place in violation of the written and divine laws.
2. The central part of city is home to the Jewish Quarter, which is a part of the central part of Lviv in the UNESCO area of the “ensemble of the historical city Centre.” According to the rules and regulations of UNESCO, all construction is prohibited with the exception of the regeneration and restoration of the buildings. However, the officials of the Lviv City Hall, despite not having the right to decide on the lands of the state property, which is what the UNESCO territory is, gave it away to the construction of a hotel complex on Fedorova St., having destroyed with unbelievable cruelty and arrogance the historical artifacts and unique archaeological findings of the wooden period of Lviv, which were transported away. Arbitrary construction of the hotel was started without any approval, except that of Mr. Sadovyy. The construction has already destroyed the medieval drainage system, which led to the flooding of the basements and cracks in the neighboring buildings. The project was not consulted neither with the regional (oblast) Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, nor the Ministry of Culture, nor UNESCO. The hotel construction has blocked the entrance to the medieval building complex of the Turei Zahav (Golden Rose) Synagogue in the area of Mikvah and Shchita. The aggressive construction would have completely deformed or destroyed the surviving sacred buildings and their harmonious environment. The emptiness since war times could have been filled with appropriately regenerated restored buildings, museified artifacts, etc., had the city authorities not been arbitrarily wrecking this environment.
The scandalous and dramatic situation on the odd side of the Fedorova St., on land lots 23-25, where the construction of the multi-story hotel has started, only in part for now, has been held back thanks to the efforts by the Government of Ukraine and the U.S. Embassy to Ukraine. The grant of the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Heritage enabled to carry out archaeological studies in the area of Beis Midrash. In 2008, the international community held a conference in Lviv, dedicated to the appropriate preservation of Jewish cultural heritage in Lviv. This is opposed to primarily by the owners of numerous restaurants, who fancy this part of the city as their property. Without having contributed anything to the history of this part of the historical city center of Lviv, they became its owners and consider that they can dictate their rules. The International Agreement and the Law of Ukraine do not count for them.
The tragic history of the Holocaust of Jews in Lviv, where about 500,000 victims of the German Nazism died, is connected to other places of death: the Yanivsky camp, concentration camp Stalag-328 within the Citadel, concentration camps in Sokilnyky, Chwartakow, and sites of the mass murder of Jews in Lysynychi, Bilogorshcha, Lonskogo prison, Brygidky and others. Out of those numerous sites of tragic Common Memory, only the Yanivsky camp has been included in the so-called International Design Competition, yet without pinpointing the places of execution, mass graves and other features of the factory of death in Lviv, created by the German Nazis for the entire Europe. The concentration camp Stalag-328 within the Citadel in the Tower of Death, where the Jews were herded in naked in the winter, held without food, and died in numbers up to 20,000. Today, in this Tower of Death, atop the blood of the Jewish prisoners and prisoners of many other nationalities, one finds a hotel-restaurant. In 2012, the Government of Ukraine recognized the concentration camp Stalag-328 within the Citadel as the historical and cultural monument of Ukraine of the national significance. However, the city authorities constantly and persistently promoted the construction of a 22-story complex with recreational facilities similar to Las Vegas on the very territory of the concentration camp – the territory of the Factory of Death.
Shimon Briman is a scandal Israeli journalist which was paid by the black interests far away from the Jewish interests.
A brief resonse you could find here:
The Center of Urban History has its own ideas to serve the ideas to cover the German Nazi crimes by talking only on the Ukrainian participation without saying a word that all actions were orchestrated by Nazi and the most vicious mass killings the Nazi even did not trust enough to the local collaborators but rather did the extermination of Jews by themselves. The Center for Urban History never discussing the way how the Hitler’s ideology tacked the way to enroll the all Germany into his destructive political interests to build rich Germany using the property of the occupied countries.
All people including the Ukrainians, Polish and other occupied nations suffered badly of Nazi invasion and them rights to talk about that. The German Nazi started with Jews and finished with many other nations. This shows that hatred cannot be focused in one direction but getting spread to destroy the civilization. Killing Jews was the beginning to destroy the World in all.
It is very pity that Anna Susak missed many very important issues when should take into consideration.
The Center for the Urban History unfortunately does not have a red clear line to heel the post Nazi and post-soviet Lviv as part of Ukraine with the healthy clear implication of all reasons brought the World to the global destruction being infected by the Communist and Nazi ideologies.
The leftovers of the Jewish cultural heritage are being used by the local business restaurants and illegal construction and did not get any real support by the Center for Urban History for the preservation as part of the unique Jewish past. The International Competition for the preservation the Jewish historical sites orchestrated by the Center for the Urban History failed to serve the preservation of the leftovers of the Jewish historical cultural heritage in L’viv, which later could cause conflicts and claims from both sides.
a detailed answer was partially already printed in the edition of June 18, 2013 with many mistakes as journalists do. the full answe is being translated and send to your consideration