New Story:  "Zhvanets to Prague" - a trip into history
by Barbara Taylor Freedman

In May of 2004 I decided to go on a guided tour of Eastern Europe that began in Warsaw, continued on to Krakow, Budapest, Vienna and Prague. I visited the Jewish quarters in all of these exciting and amazing cities and also spent a day at Auschwitz and Birkenau.

In the initial stages of planning I realized just how close I was to the Ukraine and arranged a private tour to visit ‘my’ shtetl of Zhvanets. I want to share with you, my dear family and friends, my journey to my past.

Click here to read Zhvanets to Prague

Journey to Chudnov
By Mel Chudnof

My father always told me that he was born in “Russia”—and technically that is true. It was the Czar’s Russia and yet it was also Ukraine, the largest part of the “The Pale of the Pale of Settlements”, which at different times was Polish, or Austrian or Hungarian. Eighty percent of American Jews have their roots in this part of the world.

Growing up, I heard a lot of stories about the heroic and horrific childhood my father spent in “Russia”, and for me, an avid traveler, I always had wanted to “return” to that mystical place, when the time was right. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1991, travel to the small shtetels has become easier. Ukraine has become more modern and more traveler friendly. The year 2005 became the time that we could finally make the journey.

Click here to read Journey to Chudnov

 

 

A story of Edel RABINOWITZ ZABARSKA of Ostropol
told by Deborah Glassman, copyright 2005

Edel lived to be a very old woman (1804-1895) and she held her oldest grandson's oldest grandson on her lap and then was that little boy's favorite Bubby for four more years. She was a powerful figure in her family's lives when she was an old woman, but I was always moved by the strength of the woman the year she turned forty.

Read the rest of this story at "Bubbe Edel Starts a Business"

Tale of Two Sisters, or… Finding and Losing Stara Ushitsa

Erol Oktay eoktay@comcast.net

I just returned from a trip to Ukraine, to locate the village where my family lived before coming to the US.  I enjoyed reading the trip report by Bobby Furst and her sister while planning my trip, and thought that my experience might be of value to others.  I have a narrative which follows.

The story starts with a “perfect storm” of opportunity, one that we decided to seize.    One factor was that my husband and I had decided to take a cruise down the lower Danube, that ended up in Romania.  I knew that my father, Harry Shaberman, had been born in a town that bordered on Romania, at least it did at the time (1906).  Sadly, he had passed away a year ago, so it was a fitting time to be thinking about his life and to honor his memory.  This is how it all started.

Read this story at "Tale of Two Sisters"

 

We need to hear your stories!

We want to post your stories of your trips to the Ukraine. We want to publish the memoir you convinced your mother to write for your son's history project. We want the narrative you have written around your grandfather's letters. We even want to know if you have an audio tape of family interviews! We do not yet have the ability to publish that last, but the day will come when we can create such a page, so let us know what you have that we can share. We require that you are the owner of material which you offer to us and that you email us a copy of the signed donor agreement that you have sent to JewishGen by fax or mail. UKRAINE SIG DONOR FORM This form can be used for all materials sent to the these pages to be posted by the Ukraine SIG.

We need quality published materials to recommend to our readers

Books, scholarly articles, hard-to-find materials, etc. If you read an article that you think we should all read, tell the editor. If the editor agrees, he/she will try to get a permission to reprint or at least to link to the article. If you find old material, pre 1928, that you think we should post, get a clear, easy to read photocopy of the article with a page or notation of the publishing information included. We will reprint out-of-copyright material (subject to the judgment of the editor). In-copyright must be accompanied by a release from the copyright owner and will be confirmed by the editor.

The stories on this page have clearly moved our readers and have the potential to still motivate many others. But we need to add others. We could use some articles on:

  •     The trip you planned vs. the trip you got
  •     The reason you took the trip
  •     Sistering - your congregation's or community's linked synagogue or linked city in the Ukraine as       relates to the Jewish community there
  •     The most interesting story of life in the Ukraine you ever got out of an ancestor

Submissions of Material

Contact us if you'd like to share your stories or those of your relatives.

This page last updated January 2007 by Hilary Henkin

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