We would like to signal an extraordinary four-part series of videos put together by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter based on the collections of the Jewish author, playwright and researcher S. An-sky, who led a series of ethnographic expeditions in 1912-1914 to document Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement.
The video presentations feature four themes: “Common Streets”, “Wooden Synagogues”, “Masonry Synagogues”, and “Cemeteries and Tombstones”.
The Center writes:
Ansky’s ethnological collections of written, oral, and visual materials, as well as physical objects, were locked away in Soviet vaults for years before being brought to light by researchers in St. Petersburg and elsewhere since the 1990s. These collections are now to be found at the State Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg and the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. Several books have been written, and exhibitions and conferences held on An-sky’s ethnographic collections, in particular by the Petersburg Judaica Center, which has produced a six-part “Catalogue” illustrated publication on the An-sky expedition, with an accompanying video.
The Center adapted the material into the video presentation and posted it on YouTube with permission from Valerii Dymshits, Director of the Petersburg Judaica Center.
Video 1: Common streets
Video 2: Wooden Synagogues
Video 3: Masonry Synagogues
Video 4: Cemeteries and Tombstones
2 comments on “Historic images of Jewish heritage in Eastern Europe from An-sky expeditions”
Wow, amazing images. The wooden synagogue with the high ceiling is not the one featured in the core exhibit of the new Polin Museum in Warsaw, is it?
Fascinating project, all the more so to me because the synagogue of my paternal family’s shtetl, Luboml, is included in the “masonry synagogues” video. The photos are also included in the Yizkor Buch. The synagogue was destroyed after the war under the Soviet occupation.