We are delighted to share the videos of the conference “Expanding Boundaries: Jewish Artistic Heritage of Ukraine,” organized by the Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies, which was held this past July. It was a hybrid conference, with some participants in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and others — including JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber — taking part via Zoom.
Congratulations to JHE friend Eugeny Kotlyar and his colleagues at the UAJS for organizing such a rich and fascinating conference under difficult circumstances! (Among other things, it had to be moved from Kharkiv, as originally planned, to Chernivtsi for safety reasons given the Russian attacks.)
The conference presentations touched on many issues related to Jewish heritage in Ukraine and nearby areas of eastern Europe, including built heritage. Ruth, for example, spoke about her research on how women are often represented by depictions of candlesticks in the decoration of Jewish gravestones.
Click here for the Conference Program as a PDF
Here are the videos — they are organized so that you can easily click to view individual presentations that interest you:
Opening remarks and Eugeny Kotlyar’s keynote: Jewish Artistic Heritage in the Multicultural Context of Ukrainian Identity: Historical Overview and Current Challenges
00:00:00 Vitaly Chernoivanenko (UAJS, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine)
00:05:11 Javier Castaño (European Association for Jewish Studies, UK/Spain)
00:14:25 Eugeny Kotlyar (UAJS, Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, Ukraine)
Panel 1
Chair: Stephan Hoppe
00:00:40 Samuel Gruber (Gruber Heritage Global, United States) “Seeing Leads to Remembering”: More than a Century of Jewish Ethnographic, Art and Architectural Expeditions in Ukraine and Their Legacy Today
00:27:26 Piotr Kuroczyński and Jan Lutteroth (Mainz University of Applied Sciences, Germany) Preservation through Digitization. Digital Jewish Cultural Heritage in Education and Research. From the German-Polish Experience to the Ukrainian Perspective
Panel 2
Chair: Nadia Ufimtseva
00:00:21 Sergey Kravtsov (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) “Palestinian Style” in Jewish Architecture of Ukraine
00:22:52 Anna Berezin (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) Synagogue Textiles in Ukraine in the Long Nineteenth Century: Identification and Iconography
00:42:47 Elena Solomon (Bar Ilan University, Israel) Shpanyer Arbet: The Metallic Ashkenazi Lace
01:07:00 Ruth Ellen Gruber (Jewish Heritage Europe) (Candle)sticks on Stone: The Representation of Women in Jewish Tombstone Art
Panel 3
Chair: Vitaly Chernoivanenko
00:00:00 Vilma Gradinskaitė (Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Lithuania) The Exhibition “Through Glasses” by Arthur Kolnik in the Vilna Ghetto
00:25:33 Monika Czekanowska-Gutman (University of Warsaw, Poland) On the Two Sacrifices of Isaac in Modern Jewish Art of Eastern Europe
00:57:01 Vita Susak (independent researcher, Switzerland) From Zhytomyr to Geneva. Storms and Calms in the Life of Elizabeth Epstein (1879–1956)
Panel 4
Chair: Eugeny Kotlyar
00:02:27 Bracha Yaniv (Bar Ilan University, Israel) The Paintings on the Dome of the Smotrych Synagogue – Deciphering an Enigma
00:33:45 Tamara Kutsaieva (National Museum “The Fortress of Kyiv”, Ukraine) Wall Paintings of the Wooden Synagogue in the Norynsk-Village
01:02:38 Zvi Orgad (Bar Ilan University, Israel) The Painted Torah Arks of Bavaria: The Gate of Heaven or the Gateway to Ruthenia?
01:29:18 Batsheva Goldman-Ida (Jerusalem Theatre, Israel) Ukrainian Jewish Wood Carving
Panel 5
Chair: Serhiy Hirik
00:00:38 Eva Frojmovic (University of Leeds, United Kingdom) Debora Vogel / Dvoyre Fogel’s “Jewish Work” between Heritage and Modernism
00:35:45 Mirjam Rajner (Bar Ilan University, Israel) Images of Victimization in Jewish East European Modern and Avant-Garde Art
01:12:40 Małgorzata Stolarska-Fronia (University of Potsdam, Germany) Yisakhar Ber Ryback: Between Kyiv and Berlin
Panel 6
Chair: Vitaly Chernoivanenko
00:01:01 Aleksandra Naróg (Jagiellonian University, Poland) Bruno Schulz and Drohobych: Art and Transcultural Memory Politics
00:28:08 Nadia Ufimtseva (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine) Jewish Printing on Ukrainian Lands: Books Design and Art
00:56:22 Serhiy Hirik (State Research Institution “Encyclopedia Press”, Ukraine) Art Criticism in “Chwila” Jewish Newspaper: Topics and Authors
Concluding Discussion and Remarks