On January 30, the exhibition “The State of Israel – Ukrainian roots” took place in Kyiv at the Sholom Aleichem Museum.

On January 30, the exhibition “The State of Israel – Ukrainian roots”, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Independence of the States of Israel, took place in Kiev at the Sholom Aleichem Museum.
This exhibition was prepared by the Zionist Federation of Ukraine in collaboration with the Kyiv Institute of Jewish Studies and the Sholom Aleichem Museum. The exhibition consists of twelve 2-meter posters, each of them reveals the direction of development of the Jewish State, such as the army, medicine, urban planning, agriculture, energy, etc. through the prism of the biographies of those who being born on the territory of today’s Ukraine, came to Palestine and by his ascetic work brought the creation of the Jewish State closer.
The project sponsor is the World Confederation of United Zionists (CUZ)
After introductory words of SFU Executive Director Elena Zaslavskaya and congratulations from Jesse Sultanik, CUZ Executive Director, a wonderful lecture was given by Yulia Smilyanskaya, director of the Kyiv Institute of Jewish Studies, organizer of various exhibitions (Kyiv Jewish Community. People and City, Babyn Yar. History and Memory ), as well as the head of educational programs for young guides.
Julia told about the structure of the posters, about their composition: “Here is the whole Declaration of Independence translated into Ukrainian. If you want to read the Declaration of Independence – you just go through and read from above. So you understand what goals were set.”

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“Many Jews differ in these two qualities. Firstly, every Jew has his own opinion. Therefore, there is a huge number of different organizations that do not communicate with each other. You understand that religious people who had been coming there for 100 years, had sponsors … And then there are 30 boys from Kharkiv, graduates, after the pogrom of 1881. “Wherever we live, we will be beaten”. And so there is Zionism . But you understand how religious people took it. They thought that this Messiah should come and unite people, and not 30 boys from Kharkiv. And the confrontation begins. Then socialists, communists, Zionists, women who create their parties come there. The result: there is a huge number of people who do not like each other. All this heterogeneous mass is collected under the name Ishuv. Of the 36 people who signed the Declaration of Independence of Israel, 9 were from Ukraine. ”

After the opening ceremony on the basis of this exhibition will begin its work a new project “Come from Shtetl”, providing for the demonstration of the exhibition, as well as events aimed at studying the history of Israel. The project will be carried out by the Association of Small Jewish Communities of Kyiv and Cherkasy Oblasts in Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, other cities.
Also in cooperation with the Maccabi All-Ukrainian Society, presentations of the exhibition will be held in Lviv, Kharkiv and Odessa.