EAJS Conference Grant Programme 2021/22
Report
Returning Galician Jews from Oblivion: 100th Anniversary of Jakub Honigsman
Lviv, March 29–30, 2023
A two-day international conference organised and hosted by the Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies (UAJS), in cooperation with the Center for Urban History of East-Central Europe, sponsored by the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) Conference Grant Programme in European Jewish Studies.
Applicants: Dr. Serhiy Hirik, Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies, Ukraine; Prof. Wacław Wierzbieniec, University of Rzeszów, Poland.
Organisers: Dr. Serhiy Hirik, Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies, Ukraine; Dr. Vitaly Chernoivanenko, Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies, Ukraine.
Author of Report: Serhiy Hirik.
Event Rationale
This conference was of significant importance both for the scholarly community and wider society. It was important for organisers to remind people of the role played by those scholars who tried to work on topics related to the history of Ukrainian Jews in Soviet Ukraine.
During the second half of the 20th century, such historians as Jakub Honigsman worked on the research problems that were restricted by the Soviet power. Prof. Honigsman tried to find, and did find, ways to publish his works outside the USSR (especially in Poland, where the Jewish Historical Institute still existed) and wrote some of his works “not for publication.” Thanks to such scholars, the history of Galician Jews was not forgotten.
Such scholars as Jakub Honigsman played the key role in preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine. For a long time, this topic was forbidden to researchers. Honigsman lost his own family in Lublin during the Holocaust. He saw the traces of Galician Jews in the cities where he lived after the Second World War (Kyiv, Lviv, and Ternopil) and felt that the history of the Jewish community must not disappear. He has done everything he could to keep its memory alive.
In the 1990s, the history of Galician Jews became the “legal” topic. But it was not popular. The Ukrainian historiography of the 1990s and early 2000s was significantly ethnic-centered. The history of Galician Jewry was of interest first of all to the Galician Jews and their ancestors. Jakub Honigsman was one of the few Ukrainian-Jewish researchers who studied such topics previously and continued to do so after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, he published several books on the history of Galician Jews and on the Holocaust in Eastern Galicia, Bukovina, and Transcarpathia. His works brought these topics into public discourse. Even more, he made the history and culture of Galician Jewry an essential part of the history of Eastern Galicia. Thanks to him and other historians who worked on these topics in the 1990s and early 2000s, a non-Jewish audience noticed the importance of the Jewish aspects of their region.
In the late 2000s, a new generation of Ukrainian historians started to work on the history of Galician Jews. The Ukrainian historiography changed. It became much more inclusive. Since then, Jewish topics have become of interest to a broader audience of scholars interested in the history of this region. Jakub Honigsman played a significant role in these changes.
The list of topics that are being developed has also changed. In the 1990s, researchers worked mostly on the economic and political aspects of the history of Galician Jewry. In the 2000s, the scholars payed attention to numerous issues of their cultural and religious life, gender problems, etc.
The purpose of the conference was to organise a scholarly conversation among Ukrainian and foreign scholars on the history of Galician Jewry as an integral part of the history of Galicia, and the Galician Jews’ cultural, political and social life. The organisers also aimed to promote debate on the role played by Jakub Honigsman in preserving the Galician Jews’ memory and the importance of his works for the development of the historiography of the history of Galicia. These goals were achieved. A fruitful discussion was organised between researchers from five countries (Ukraine, the UK, Israel, Poland, and Switzerland) who research various topics on the history of Galician Jewry.
Sections and papers presented during the event and significant and productive threads
The conference was hosted at the Center for Urban History of East-Central Europe in Lviv. The conference convened a group of researchers from Ukraine, the UK, Israel, Poland, and Switzerland (both in-person and online).
The security issues were among the highest priorities for the organisers and their partners. Therefore, this wartime event was held in the Center’s basement (exhibition hall before the Russian full-scale invasion), which served as a shelter for the participants in case of missile and drone attacks.
The conference was opened with the opening words by Dr. Vitaly Chernoivanenko, president of the Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies, Maryana Mazurak, deputy director of the Center for Urban History, and Viktoriia Venediktova, Jakub Honigsman’s daughter. Vitaly Chernoivanenko also read greetings from the EAJS president Prof. Elisabeth Hollender.
After the opening words, Dr. Taissa Sydorchuk (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy) delivered the first keynote lecture, “Jakub Honigsman: Contributions to a Portrait of a Historian of Galician Jewry.”
The first panel (moderated by Vitaly Chernoivanenko, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, UAJS President; all the participants of this panel participated in the conference online) was opened with a paper, Jakub Honigsman and the Fate of Jewish Cultural Assets in Western Ukraine, presented by Dr Eva Frojmovic (University of Leeds, UK). She developed the topic of the destruction of Jewish cultural assets in Lviv and Lviv region that was only briefly commented by Honigsman. Next Refael Kroizer (Tel Aviv University) gave a presentation Lviv and the District: Between the Jews of the City and the Jews of the Village, the Struggle over Jewish Slaughtering. The following discussion focused on the possible influences from the Western Europe on the policy of Lviv community concerning slaughtering in the Lviv district, price difference for kosher supervising and slaughterers’ work, and the connection between slaughterers’ price and taxation status of Jewish communities in Lviv and Lviv district. The last paper in this panel, What is Known About More than 200 Years of Hasidic History of Otynia?, focused on the history of one of the Galician Hasidic communities. It was given by Dr. Tamara Kutsaeva of the Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv. The following discussion focused on the sources used by the presenter and sources which can be used by her later.
The second panel (moderated by Taissa Sydorchuk, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy; this panel was held in person). It was opened with a presentation by Prof. Eugeny Kotlyar (Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Fine Arts, Ukraine) Synagogue Wall Painting of Eastern Galicia: An Attempt to Reconstruct Local Tradition. He described and showed several examples of Galician synagogue wall painting (partly documented by himself), ways of its reconstruction and differences between wall painting in wooden and stone synagogues. The following discussion focused on interpretations of symbols used by painters, influences of other traditions on Galician wall painting. The second talk was given by Prof. Yuriy Biryulov (Lviv National Academy of Arts, Ukraine). Its topic was Zygmunt Sperber (1886–1942) as a Lviv Architect, Designer, and Graphic Artist. It was devoted to works by famous Lviv Jewish architect Zygmunt Sperber who died in Lviv Ghetto. The discussion related to Sperber’s published works on architecture and art theory. The last paper in this panel was given by Nataliya Levkovych (Lviv National Academy of Arts, Ukraine). Its topic was Sasiv Center of Jewish Lacemaking in the Second Half of the 19th and the First Decades of the 20th Century: The Forgotten World. The following discussion focused on the technologies used by lace-makers in Sasiv and possible foreign influences on them.
The second day of the conference was opened with a second keynote lecture, How to Quote an Enemy?: “Philosophers” in Galician Jewish Literature. It was given by Dr. Kateryna Malakhova of H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Open University of Israel. She focused on the features of the use of secular philosophical works by Galician Hasidic thinkers of the 18th and 19th centuries. The following discussion was related to the problem of use of modern natural scientific works by Hasidic scholars and the use of modern philosophy in Hasidic literature in the 20th century.
The third panel was moderated by Dr. Serhiy Hirik. Two of the participants gave their talks online and one in person. The first presentation, Safe Space? The Role of Instruction in Jewish Religion in Galician Public Schools, was given by Dr. Alicja Maślak-Maciejewska of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. It was focused on the textbooks used by the teachers of Judaism in Galicia in the late 19th and early 20th century and the place of the lessons of Judaism in the school curriculum in general. The following discussion related to the role of the lectures of Judaism for the Jewish community in general and Jewish children in particular. The second presentation was given by Dr. Małgorzata Śliż-Marciniec (Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music and Jagellonian University in Kraków). Its topic was Who Taught Jewish Religion in Galicia? Teachers of Jewish Religion on the Eve of the First World War. She was focused on the personal biographies of Judaism lecturers in Galician schools on the eve of the First World War. The last presentation by Dr. Mariia Vovchko, The Education and Origin of the Rabbis in Lviv’s Jewish Community (Second Half of the 19th Century to 1939). She described the localities where the Lviv rabbies were born and the educational institutions from which they graduated. The following discussion was focused on the cases of misuse of the rabbi title by those who did not have right to use it.
The fourth panel was moderated by Vitaly Chernoivanenko. The topic of the first presentation was Jakub Honigsman as a Researcher of the Holocaust in Galicia. It was given by Serhiy Hirik. Researcher focused on the works on the Holocaust by Jakub Honigsman. He described the features of Honigsman’s books on the Holocaust, topics that were investigated by Honigsman, sources used by him, and topics that were less deeply explored by this author. The following discussion related to the methods used by Jakub Honigsman. The second presentation was given by Marta Havryshko of the Basel University. Its topic was Anti-Jewish Violence in Galicia in the Summer of 1941: Gendered Aspects. The following discussion focused on the ways through which Nazi antisemitic propaganda was spread among the Galician non-Jewish population before 1941 and the field researches in the localities where pogroms occurred in summer 1941.
The conference was concluded by the seminar Prospects for the Study of Galician Jewry. The participants, Vitaly Chernoivanenko, Serhiy Hirik, Taissa Sydorchuk, Eugeny Kotlyar, and Mariia Vovchko expressed their opinions on the further development of the history of Galician Jewry. It was closed by the words of Honigsman’s daughter Viktoriia Venediktova.
Changes to the Original Programme
There was one major change to the original programme. Prof. Wacław Wierzbieniec (Rzeszów, Poland), one of the conference applicants and keynote speakers, was unable to attend the event or to participate online due to illness.
Event programme (Sections and Papers)
https://uajs.org.ua/sites/default/files/Program-UAJS_Returning_Galician_2023.pdf
Planned Outcomes
The conference contributed to the development of working relationships between Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian researchers on the history of Galician Jews. Its participants discussed possible topics for further research projects (especially on the history of Jewish art in Galicia and on the history of the Holocaust in Galicia).
A detailed description of the event will be published in the “Chronicle” section of the Judaica Ukrainica journal as well as on the website historians.in.ua. Several participants announced that they will submit their papers for the special section of the next volume of Judaica Ukrainica.
All the presentations were filmed and will be published on the UAJS YouTube Channel.
Publicity
UAJS website:
https://uajs.org.ua/en/news/registration-uajs-conferences-march-27-30-2023-now-open
https://uajs.org.ua/uk/news/reestraciya-gostey-na-naukovi-konferencii-uayu-lviv-27-30-bereznya-2023
Center for Urban History of East Central Europe website:
https://www.lvivcenter.org/en/conferences/jakub-honigsman-2/
https://www.lvivcenter.org/conferences/jakub-honigsman/
The Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies website:
https://www.holocaust.kiev.ua/other/details/pov_shevr_evr_2022?objId=1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.6345741662115798&type=3
YouTube: All the presentations were filmed and will be published on the UAJS YouTube channel.
Feedback from two participants
Kateryna Malakhova: I was very pleased to participate in this conference. The Jewish history and literature of Galicia still has a lot of aspects unknown to us. The contribution of Ukrainian scientists to its research is gradually growing. It is very important that this work does not stop even during the war; to be able to continue the research in cooperation with an international academic community is a great support for us. Many participants presented interesting and promising results, which I was pleased to hear.
Taissa Sydorchuk: First of all, I would like to appreciate the very idea to organise a conference dedicated to Jakub Honigsman precisely in Lviv. The researcher lived most of his life in this city. In addition, I wish to acknowledge the efforts of the organisers to hold the conference in the conditions of the Russo-Ukrainian war with repeating air alerts. The long-term cooperation of the UAJS with the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv provided not only the safe venue, but also high-quality technical support for the conference.