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East European Jews

Handmade matzah being made at a factory in Dnipro, Ukraine, June 10, 2024. (Marcel Gascón Barberá/ JTA)
September 3, 2024, 10:13 pm
Baking matzah and defying blackouts, Dnipro’s Jews press on despite Ukraine war
Less than 125 miles from the front line in the ongoing battle after Russia’s invasion, operations in the Jewish community continue, providing needed support in harrowing times
By MARCEL GASCÓN BARBERÁ
From left: David Leopold, Sasha Wilson, Joseph Cullen, Lawrence Boothman and Clare Fraenkel in 'The Brief Life and Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria,' now at 59E59 Theaters. (Carol Rosegg/ via JTA)
May 10, 2024, 10:44 am
New dark comedy for stage asks: Was Bulgaria’s King Boris III friend or foe to the Jews?
The paradoxical leader dabbled in fascism, was loved by his people, saved 50,000 lives while enacting antisemitic laws, and is the subject of a play running in NYC through June 2
By Elizabeth Karpen
The Holocaust in Skede, Latvia, 1941. (Yad Vashem)
April 18, 2023, 7:53 pm
The forgotten horrors that hide in the Holocaust’s long, dark shadow
The genocide was more than a specific, contained, monstrous event. It was the successful culmination of six decades of fervent European efforts to rid the continent of its Jews
By Haviv Rettig Gur
Illustrative: Rabbi Mordechai Bald and his wife, Sara, stand outside a local synagogue next to empty boxes of aid they have distributed to Ukrainian Jewish refugees who arrived in Lviv, October 26, 2022. (Jacob Judah/ JTA)
November 3, 2022, 2:35 am
Refugees grow some Ukrainian cities’ dwindling Jewish communities, possibly for good
As Russia’s bombardment of the south and east shows no signs of relenting, western border towns are being revived by an influx of newcomers, some of whom are putting down roots
By Jacob Judah
A woman takes out an aid package from an electric car owned by the Jewish Federations of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, August 1, 2022. (Courtesy of the Jewish Federations of Ukraine/ via JTA)
August 13, 2022, 9:37 am
In Ukraine, Jewish charity buys 40 electric cars as fuel crisis hinders aid delivery
As costs of food, medicine and gasoline rise along with the number of recipients who require them, humanitarian groups maximize efficiency ahead of what they see as a long haul
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Rabbi Shaul Horowitz, right, meets a Jewish refugee attending service at the synagogue of Vinnytsia, Ukraine in June 2022. (Courtesy of Shaul Horowitz/ via JTA)
July 24, 2022, 5:29 am
How Russia’s war is undoing 30 years of Jewish community building in Ukraine
While the post-Soviet era has seen a gradual reawakening of communal life for the tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews, the once-bustling synagogues and centers are now eerily quiet
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Moyshe Beregovsky is seen with various documents and sheet music collected in his vast archive of Yiddish folk and klezmer songs. (Courtesy Jewish Music Forum/via JTA)
March 22, 2022, 2:47 am
Documentary showcases the Ukrainian Jew who saved Yiddish music from oblivion
‘Song Searcher,’ a new film about Moyshe Beregovsky, the Jewish folklorist and ethnomusicologist who traveled his native Ukraine in the 1930-40s, is all too relevant today
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Illustrative: People stand near a gift shop in the old Jewish Quarter of Toledo, Spain, on February 27, 2014. (photo credit: AFP/Gerard Julien)
May 27, 2021, 10:41 pm
Genesis Group donates $4 million in COVID relief to European Jewish institutions
The philanthropic organization also launches a new project dedicated to supporting the resurgence of Jewish life in Spain
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Members of the Wagabunda Scouts troop haul a fallen tree out of the the Jewish cemetery of Nowe Miasto, Poland, November 11, 2020. (Julia Bandurska/ via JTA)
November 20, 2020, 8:02 pm
Non-Jewish Polish leader works to clean up country’s forgotten Jewish cemeteries
While recent Independence Day celebrations saw xenophobic displays, Michał Laszczkowski and a group of Scouts — who have never met a Jew — use day to restore national history
By Cnaan Liphshiz
A Bulgarian woman attends a commemoration ceremony at the Sofia Synagogue, one of the largest and most ornate of its kind in the Balkans, March 10, 2013. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images/ via JTA)
September 25, 2020, 6:09 am
Coronavirus crisis tests resilience of Europe’s dwindling Jewish communities
After years of building the infrastructure to be self-reliant, many smaller Jewish centers again require outside support — but are confident they have the tools to bounce back
By Cnaan Liphshiz
The Heichal David u-Mordechai Synagoue in Milan in 2015. (Nicole Becker/picture alliance via Getty Images/ via JTA)
August 17, 2020, 10:23 pm
Jewish ‘Communities’ in Western Europe operate like expensive members-only clubs
Unlike the US, the European counterparts are more than ideological and geographic groups, and offer education and religious services for an annual fee; both models are evolving
By Cnaan Liphshiz
In this August 10, 2017, photo, whiskey is poured at the Milk and Honey whiskey distillery in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP/Sebastian Scheiner)
July 16, 2020, 2:19 am
The forgotten history of Jews in the alcohol industry
Some estimates say 30-40% of Jewish people — women and kids included — worked as makers or purveyors of hooch in Eastern Europe until the end of the 19th century
By Joel Haber
Illustrative: A Lithuanian border guard stands next to trucks stuck in traffic jams for 60 kilometers (36 miles) on the Lithuanian border to enter Poland Tuesday, March 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
March 21, 2020, 8:46 am
Cut off from the world, Europe’s smaller Jewish communities practice creativity
With borders closed around the continent due to the virus outbreak and Passover around the corner, Jews who once relied on larger population centers must now fend for themselves
By Yaakov Schwartz
Anatoliy Kesselman shows off his brainchild, Dragon’s Breath zhug, in Odessa, November 1, 2019. (Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA)
December 31, 2019, 3:42 am
Jews in Ukraine spice up fundraising with the country’s first zhug factory
With the economy struggling and charitable support down since the domestic revolution and Russia conflict started in 2013, the Jewish community’s entrepreneurial spirit pays off
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Illustrative photo of Jewish people praying in a synagogue in Warsaw, Poland, on February 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
October 31, 2018, 1:29 am
Massive European study finds large gap in East, West acceptance of Jews
Pew surveys of 56,000 adults in 34 nations find Western Europeans more willing to have Jewish family members, neighbors than in East; divide in acceptance of Muslims even greater
By ToI Staff
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