A new Jewish heritage trip through western Ukraine has begun. For four days my friends and I will explore towns and villages in Galicia and Volhynia. Today, through constantly falling rain, we traveled from Lviv to Ternopil and had stops in Toporiv, Lopatyn, Berestechko, Demydivka, Mlyniv and Dubno.

Toporiv – territory of the destroyed Jewish cemetery

Toporiv synagogue

Toporiv synagogue

Lopatyn synagogue

Berestechko synagogue

Berestechko Jewish cemetery

Berestechko – territory of the destroyed Jewish cemetery

Demydivka – mass grave site at the destroyed Jewish cemeteryDemydivka – mass grave site at the destroyed Jewish cemetery

Demydivka – mass grave site at the destroyed Jewish cemetery

Mlyniv synagogue

Mlyniv Jewish cemetery

Mlyniv Jewish cemetery

Dubno Great Synagogue

Dubno Great Synagogue

Dubno Great Synagogue

Dubno – former Beit Midrash

Dubno – destroyed Jewish cemetery

Marla, Jay, Vasyl and I are already an experienced travel team since years. This time, Iryna and Anna, two young women from Ternopil who research the multi-ethnic history of their hometown’s region, joined us and contribute to the team’s knowledge of western Ukraine. Preparing the trip, we compiled a long list of places to visit during the next days.

Today, on the first day of this new journey, not everything we found was encouraging. Most cemeteries we visited were erased either by the Germans or the Soviets. Synagogues are either abandoned or they serve different purposes. Only at Mlyniv Jewish cemetery we found an ohel, obviously attracting Hasidic pilgrims. Good news come from Dubno: Reastauration works at its magnificent Great Synagogue have begun and a new roof construction already has been set up.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.