Reflections on YIVO’s 2019 Ukrainian Jewish Literary Tour

by EDDY PORTNOY

YIVO’s sold-out Saints and Sinners Literary Tour of Ukraine remained true to its calling, visiting numerous sites of major Jewish figures throughout Ukraine, among them the good, the bad, and the ugly. Led by our intrepid scholar, Sam Kassow, the tour provided a unique perspective on the lives and works of important Jewish writers in the very places they lived and worked.

Starting out in Kiev, our group of 23 travelers went to the Sholem Aleichem Museum, where we saw artifacts and a presentation about the great Yiddish writer. We also visited the Vernadsky Library, which houses one of the largest and most important collections of Judaica in the world, and contains the remnants of the Soviet Institute for Jewish Proletarian Culture, once the largest Jewish research establishment in the USSR. Some of the amazing artifacts in the collection include hundreds of pinkasim (communal record books) and the rare original recordings from the 1912 ethnographic expedition led by Sh. Ansky.

The tour also stopped at Babi Yar, the killing site outside Kiev where approximately 40,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their Ukrainian henchmen over a two-day period in July 1941. We heard Yevgeniy Yevtushenko’s moving poem and spent a period of quiet reflection.

On the way out of Kiev, we visited Peryeslav and Voronko, the shtetlekh where Sholem Aleichem was born and raised. There we read a number of his stories and considered the environment in which his literary craft was born.

From there we went to Berditchev, Medzhibozh, and Uman where we visited the tombs of Hasidic master, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, the founder of the Hasidic movement, the Bal Shem Tov, and Reb Nakhman of Bratslav. The origins of the movement were discussed and Hasidic tales were read.

Next stop was Odessa, where we walked the Potemkin steps and enjoyed the beauty and sea air of this port city, which once held the third largest Jewish community in Europe. We walked the streets to the homes of writers Isaac Babel, Chaim Nahman Bialik, Vladimir Jabotinsky, Mendele Moykher Sforim, and Sholem Aleichem (who appears to have lived in every major city), among others. We discussed their lives and works and read from their writings. Particularly powerful was Sam Kassow reading Isaac Babel’s description of Benya Krik’s wedding in an Odessa courtyard – in the very courtyard in which it took place.

From the enriching lectures to the dramatic readings, participants got a taste of the richness of Ukrainian Jewish culture – from the saints to the sinners – all where it took place, where the smells and the tastes of life are still the same.

23 people joined YIVO’s inaugural Ukrainian Jewish Literary Tour, which took place May 21-31. The tour was led by noted historian Dr. Samuel Kassow and Dr. Eddy Portnoy, Academic Advisor & Exhibitions Curator at YIVO. Irene Pletka, Vice-Chair of the YIVO Board of Directors, chaired the trip.