Famous and little-known pages of the poetic history of Odesa in the project of the Museum and “Hesed Menachem” Charitable Foundation

15.09.2024

This year on July 21, Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” with the support of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine presented the literary and historical exhibition “Lucky you, Black Sea”. It is based on 23 stories of the classics of Jewish literature of the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, whose work and life path related to Odesa. The legacy of artists played an important role in the creation of modern Jewish literature, which spoke to readers in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ukrainian and other languages. Poetry, prose, journalistic essays not only expressed the identity of the Ukrainian Jews at that time, but also formed stable images of the life and spiritual world of the Jews of Ukraine and Odesa in particular, which still transcend time and space.

On this same Friday, September 13, the audience of the project had the opportunity to get to know the exhibition, which was the result of cooperation between Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” and the Museum of Genocide “Territory of Memory” (Odesa), was received by the audience of the “Relevant Conversation” project of the “Hesed Menachem” Charitable Foundation.

About the idea and motives of creating the exhibition, exhibits from the funds of our museum illustrating the biographies of outstanding writers, the importance of presenting the Jewish poetic heritage in Ukrainian, as well as about poetry as a way of expressing attitude to reality, the participants of the meeting talked with the inspiration behind the creation of the exhibition, the director of the Museum of Genocide “Territory of Memory”, by public figure and poet Dr. Pavlo Kozlenko. The meeting was moderated by the deputy director for scientific work of our Museum, Dr. Yehor Vradii.

The literary exhibition was the first, but, we believe, not the last joint project of museum institutions. And those who are interested in Jewish poetic and literary heritage in general are invited to visit the Museum's library, which is regularly replenished with new Ukrainian and foreign publications.