On May 27, an international roundtable was held on «Historical Memory: Reflections of Ukrainian and Jewish Experiences» took place on May 27, organized by the Literary Heritage Research Group as part of a partnership project with UNESCO Ukraine and with financial support from the European Union in Ukraine.
The event brought together Ukrainian and international researchers to discuss cultural memory, Ukrainian-Jewish relations, the influence of totalitarian narratives on the interpretation of the past, and the role of literature and archives in preserving historical experience.
During the roundtable, presentations were given by Myroslav Shkandriy, professor of Slavic studies at the University of Manitoba; Amelia Glazer, professor of literature and Jewish studies at UC San Diego; Marianna Hirsch, professor at Columbia University; and Olga Bertelsen, professor of international relations and history, researcher of Soviet history, mass violence, and memory politics in Eastern Europe.
Participants discussed issues related to the memory of the Holocaust and the Holodomor, the characteristics of Ukrainian and Jewish narratives about World War II, the problem of silence surrounding traumatic experiences, and the possibilities for rethinking the past through interdisciplinary dialogue.
“When people ask us why so few ordinary Kyiv residents know about Bykivnia, I don’t have an answer. But it seems to me that this roundtable is one way to map out the landscapes of our memory,” noted the discussion’s moderator, Roman Veretelnyk, head of the Volodymyr Morenets Department of Literary Studies.
Olha Poliukhovych, Vice President for Research and Academic Studies at NaUKMA, emphasized: “This roundtable on historical Ukrainian-Jewish relations and shared memory is especially important during the war that Russia has unleashed against Ukraine. After all, we are still dealing with the legacy of Soviet propaganda against Ukrainians and Jews, which aimed to create and spread hostile narratives pitting one group against the other.”
Also joining the discussion were Iryna Borysyuk, associate professor at the Volodymyr Morenets Department of Literature; Rostyslav Semkiv, associate professor at the Volodymyr Morenets Department of Literature; and other representatives of the academic community at NaUKMA.
The roundtable served as a forum for an open exchange of views on the complex chapters of our shared history and marked another step toward a deeper understanding of Ukraine’s multicultural heritage.
The partnership project with NaUKMA, “Jewish Heritage in Ukraine,” is part of UNESCO’s broader efforts to preserve and digitize Ukraine’s documentary heritage.