On January 27, 2026, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the exhibition "In the Light of the Torah: The Colorful World of Orthodox Jews Before the Onset of Troubled Times" opened at the Manuscript Institute of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, organized by the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine and the Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center with the support of the Embassy of Hungary in Ukraine.
The exhibition aims to demonstrate the traditional roots of Hungarian Jewry in Central Europe and changes in its way of life – with a special focus on the socio-cultural differences of Jewish communities that arrived from the Czech-Moravian lands and Galicia, as well as the position of Hungarian Orthodox Jewry between the West and the East. The exposition presents a wide range of historical photographs and documents related to the social, religious, and family life of traditional Jewry in the Carpathian region, revealing its regional characteristics, everyday practices, and the internal diversity of Jewish communities.
The opening ceremony of the exhibition, attended by diplomats from Hungary, Israel, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the USA, Cyprus, and France, began with a unique singing of a nigun by the Shotavsky Rabbi, recorded in 1913 by Zinoviy Kiselgof, performed by Simka Koprelik, cantor of the Great Synagogue in the city of Zatslav (Izyaslav), then in the Volyn province. This recording, along with several others, is preserved in the unique collection of the Judaica fund department of the Manuscript Institute of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.
Welcoming the participants, the General Director of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine, Lyubov Dubrovinа, noted that the UN-established International Holocaust Remembrance Day serves as a reminder to all humanity of the deadly danger of Nazism. "The Library staff, especially the Judaica fund department, conducts meticulous, extremely extensive work on processing and preserving invaluable documents for history, science, and culture. And the language of culture and spirituality is understood by all," emphasized Lyubov Dubrovinа and thanked the Embassy of Hungary in Ukraine and the Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center for their cooperation in organizing and holding the exhibition, and the Embassy of Israel for their interested participation in this event honoring International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Hungary to Ukraine, Mr. Antal Heizer, reminded those present that 10 days before January 27, 1945, when soldiers of the Second and Third Ukrainian Fronts liberated about seven thousand prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp (the occasion for establishing International Holocaust Remembrance Day), on January 17, soldiers of these two fronts liberated the Budapest ghetto, saving about 70,000 Jews. The diplomat cited staggering figures and facts about the destruction of the flourishing and successful Jewish community of Hungary during the Nazi occupation and urged everyone to prevent the repetition of this terrible chapter of human history. He also expressed sincere gratitude to the staff of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine for cooperating in promoting the materials of the exhibition "In the Light of the Torah: The Colorful World of Orthodox Jews Before the Onset of Troubled Times" and the documents presented in the Library's exposition.
The Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Israel to Ukraine, Mr. Michael Brodsky, thanked the partners for their cooperation in honoring the memory of Holocaust victims. As is known, the Nazis persecuted and killed many, but Jews suffered the most: over 6 million Jews were killed during that time. In Ukraine, as in Hungary, more than half of the Jewish population was destroyed. The diplomat gratefully recalled the Righteous Among the Nations who saved Jews and Jewish families from persecution. The State of Israel, he noted, is grateful to every such person. "When I speak about the Holocaust, I simultaneously feel sorrow for the terrible victims of the current Russian-Ukrainian war, for what is happening in the world now. Today, the words 'never again' acquire extraordinary meaning," shared Michael Brodsky.
The tragic history of his family, which suffered devastating persecution, was told by the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv, Yonatan Ben-Yamin Markovich. His ancestors were born in Ukraine, and his family endured the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust: during World War II, when they were burned in Uzhhorod, only his grandfather managed to survive. But fate did not spare him from suffering in Auschwitz, where he met his future wife. Mr. Markovich said he still remembers the tattoo with the Auschwitz number on his grandmother’s arm… Concluding his speech, he thanked the organizers for this meeting and important conversation and expressed his conviction that not only Jews but all people of the European continent do not want a repetition of such horror.
General Director of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Corresponding Member Lyubov Dubrovinа added that the victims of the Holocaust were numerous in Ukraine as well and shared the story of preserving and making accessible previously unavailable to the public funds of Jewish historical and cultural heritage, collections of documents, books, and other achievements of Jewish culture at the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. These spiritual treasures survived two world wars; attempts were made to destroy or remove them from Ukraine. Today, the Library holds over 150,000 storage units of Judaica heritage – a vast field for scientific research, historical, and cultural discoveries.
With a report titled "Treasures of Jewish Culture in Ukraine", dedicated to the long-term cooperation between the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine and the Institute of Information Registration Problems of the NAS of Ukraine in studying and restoring Jewish musical heritage, spoke the Deputy Director for Scientific Work of the Institute of Information Registration Problems of the NAS of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine, Andriy Kryuchyn. The report was accompanied by a presentation of the restoration processes of unique recordings. The scientist gifted diplomats with discs containing recordings of traditional Jewish music and folklore, digitized from wax cylinders using unique technologies of the Institute of Information Registration Problems of the NAS of Ukraine. These collections of wax cylinders are now included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
A deeply reasoned and factual report titled "Jewish Historical and Cultural Heritage in the Funds of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine" was delivered by the Head of the Judaica Fund Department of the Manuscript Institute of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Tetyana Batanova. She highlighted the history of collecting Judaica at the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine since 1918, from the Library’s founding. She emphasized the necessity of honoring the memory of Holocaust victims, properly preserving and studying the unique Jewish documentary heritage, the valuable part that survived from previous generations despite the hardships of the 20th century, Nazism, Soviet discriminatory policies from the 1940s to the 1980s, and has been accessible to researchers again since 1990 – as an integral component of Ukraine’s historical and cultural heritage.
In addition to the electronic presentation, staff of the Judaica Fund Department of the Manuscript Institute of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine and the Department of Library Collections and Historical Collections of the Institute of Book Studies of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine prepared a one-day documentary Judaica exhibition from the Library’s funds for visitors. This exhibition featured editions of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds from the 19th century, handwritten record books (pinkasim) of the Jewish community of Berdychiv, original letters of the prominent Jewish ethnographer and writer S. An-sky, periodicals in Yiddish and Hebrew, children’s literature in Yiddish, and Jewish old prints preserved in the Judaica Fund Department of the Manuscript Institute of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.
Moreover, on the day of the exhibition opening, digitized authentic recordings of traditional Jewish music and folklore from S. An-sky’s 1913 expedition were played as audio accompaniment in the exhibition space – a joint long-term project of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine and the Institute of Information Registration Problems of the NAS of Ukraine to digitize the historical collection of Jewish musical folklore. All recordings are issued on CDs and are also available for listening on the project website (disc 4).
At the exhibition opening, the Operations Director of the Holocaust Memorial Center "Babyn Yar," Inna Kalenska, also spoke, thanking the Library for cooperation with the Memorial Center, for preserving and digitizing unique Jewish documentary heritage. The V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine and the Memorial Center signed a cooperation agreement, and since April 2025, they have been jointly digitizing documents from the Library’s Judaica funds.
The event was also attended by representatives of the public organization "Women’s Power of Ukraine," the National Library of Ukraine for Children, the Institute of Information Registration Problems of the NAS of Ukraine, and the magazine "Kyiv Diplomatic."
The exhibition "In the Light of the Torah: The Colorful World of Orthodox Jews Before the Onset of Troubled Times" is on display in the reading room of the Institute of Book Studies at the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine at 62 Volodymyrska Street. We invite you to visit!
According to information from the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine
