Every year on May 18, the world community celebrates International Museum Day. The holiday was established by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 1977 to draw attention to these institutions as centers of cultural exchange, education and mutual understanding between peoples. Traditionally, on this day, museums around the world open their doors for free visits, conduct special excursions, and organize thematic exhibitions. For Ukraine, the holiday is of particular importance, since in times of war, our museum workers protect and save the country's historical and cultural heritage from destruction by the enemy.

The Museum of “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” did not stay away and held a series of events on May 17, dedicated to the International Museum Day. In addition to free admission, during the holiday, the Museum's guests were offered a program of exclusive excursions. A long-time friend of the Museum, the secretary of the rabbinical court, Rabbi Avraham Yosif Yitzhak Karshenbaum, took visitors to the National Sofrut Center, where they saw with their own eyes how sacred Jewish texts are written and checked.

Inspired by the filigree work of the soifers, the Museum guests moved on to the next excursion, namely the temporary exhibition “Unknown Exhibits from the Museum Funds”. We can say that the visitors were lucky, because the artifacts of the exhibition are available for viewing for only 1 day. To continue the non-stop excursion, the presentation of the temporary exhibition “Someone Was a Neighbor. Choice, Human Behavior, and the Holocaust” of the Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC) took place.

During the festive events, there were alarms, but this did not affect the determination of the Museum guests to join all the locations and wait for the drawing of valuable prizes. So, after the greetings of the Director of Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” Dr. Iryna Radchenko, each visitor had the opportunity to try their luck and receive pleasant and useful gifts.

We sincerely thank everyone who shared this day with us! We hope that for each of the guests it was a special day, filled with pleasant communication, new knowledge and unforgettable impressions.