Ukraine’s Jews and rabbis ‘on the front line’ as Zelenskyy meets with Trump
Rabbis in Kherson and Odesa describe Jewish life on the front line — funerals, blackouts, orphanages and a fragile faith in God’s plan
Odesa, Ukraine
The Latest
-
News -
Culture This Jewish artist got her start before WWI. A century later, she’s still in the avant garde
In the early 20th century, Odessa-born artist Sonia Delaunay pioneered abstract paintings, whimsical furniture and boldly patterned textiles that feel wholly contemporary today.
-
Fast Forward One rabbi’s lifesaving solution to help Odessa’s vulnerable Jews: jerry-rigged car batteries
Rabbi Avraham Wolff is trying to raise money for 357 heating units — one for each apartment where a Holocaust survivor lives
-
Opinion Odessa, Ukraine has a rich Jewish baseball history
Fewer than 200 Jews have played in the majors. But three Jewish players born in Odessa, the Ukrainian city now under heavy Russian siege, excelled in their adopted sport.
-
Culture In Odessa, Everyone Has a Jewish History — And They’re Not Keeping it Secret Anymore
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Once, Odessa was very much a Jewish city. Before World War II, a third of those living in the Ukrainian port city were Jewish. According to the latest census, the Jewish population today is roughly 1%. And yet, during a recent trip to Ukraine, I was surprised…
-
Fast Forward Ukraine Jews Celebrate Lag B’Omer in Odessa Under Tight Security
Hundreds of Odessa Jews celebrated Lag b’Omer under guard in the city’s first large Jewish gathering since deadly riots there two weeks ago. The participants gathered near the city’s Chabad Jewish school on Saturday evening for a bonfire accompanied by song and dances while a dozen guards secured the perimeter, according to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein,…
-
Fast Forward Odessa Jews Lay Low as Chaos Engulfs Ukraine Oasis of Calm
(JTA) — Although Ukraine has been charting a bloody course toward civil war for months, Irina Zborovskaya had always felt safe in Odessa. Living in a cosmopolitan city where hate crimes are rare and a tradition of tolerance for minorities and dissidents prevails, many Odessites were lulled into a false sense of security by the…
-
Music Can Polyglot Odessa Avoid Stain of Separatist Massacre?
(Reuters) — Odessa: the very name conjures up an archetypal melting pot, a balmy oasis of tolerance and diversity, as well as a tsarist port of imperial grandeur, immortalised in film. But can a city forever associated with a massacre of civilians more than a century ago now avoid becoming known as the place where…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV ‘Bojack Horseman’ creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg on his new, ‘unapologetically Jewish’ family affair
- 2
News ADL chief attacks Zohran Mamdani, but gets his facts wrong
- 3
Film & TV Who is Marty Reisman, the Jewish ping-pong star who inspired Timothée Chalamet’s new movie?
- 4
Culture It’s Jew vs. Jew in the fight over a Brooklyn bike lane
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward In the wake of a leadership shake-up, FIDF doubles down on a disputed claim to reassure donors
-
Fast Forward ‘Anne Frank, Superstar’? A satirical musical reimagines the Holocaust victim as a symbol of wokeness
-
Fast Forward After decades of conflict, Armenia-Azerbaijan peace plan gives Caucasus Jews new hope
-
Culture For barbraphiles and Streisand fanatics, a plethora of babtastic barbrabilia
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
