Representatives of Jewish communities in Ukraine arrived in Israel for an educational seminar dedicated to the Shoah — the Holocaust. Among the participants are community leaders, activists, and madrichim (mentors working with children and youth). They spent the first two days at the Yad Vashem memorial complex in Jerusalem, then went to Galilee, where they celebrated Shabbat at Kibbutz Hanaton.
Ukrainian Jewish communities arrived in Israel to study the Holocaust: from Yad Vashem to Kibbutz Hanaton
Author: Alexander Khmelnitsky
On October 25, the organization Masorti Ukraine reported about the trip. Ukrainian guests participated in classes on Holocaust history, got acquainted with Israeli religious life, attended a bar mitzvah, and held a joint Havdalah — the ceremony marking the end of Shabbat.
The number of participants and the full itinerary have not yet been published by the organizers.
Yad Vashem: the history of Ukrainian Jews and the memory of the Holocaust
In Jerusalem, seminar participants attended tours and educational sessions at Yad Vashem. It is not only a memorial museum but also an international research center with archives, a database of victims’ names, and teacher training programs.
For Ukrainian communities, this topic is directly related to the history of the cities in which they operate.
During the Holocaust, on the territory of modern Ukraine, Nazis and their collaborators killed about 1.5 million Jews, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. A significant portion of the victims were shot near their places of residence.
Among the most well-known sites of mass killings are Babi Yar in Kyiv and Drobytsky Yar in Kharkiv.
On September 29–30, 1941, 33,771 Jews were shot in Babi Yar over two days. In September 2026, it marked the 85th anniversary of this tragedy. The killings continued later, and the total number of victims in Babi Yar during the years of German occupation is estimated at about 100,000 people.
After the war, the Soviet authorities suppressed the Jewish specificity of the tragedy for decades. The deceased were referred to as “Soviet citizens,” without mentioning that the main target of the mass murder in September 1941 was Jews.
In 1966, independent memorial actions took place in Kyiv, where participants sought open recognition of the tragedy. Among them were writer Viktor Nekrasov, literary critic Ivan Dzyuba, and Emmanuil Diamant, who later emigrated to Israel.
This history was covered by NAnovosti in the article “Shameful Gathering of Jewish and Ukrainian Nationalists”: the first rally in Babi Yar took place in 1966.
Today, Yad Vashem has identified the names of approximately five million of the nearly six million Jews killed during the Holocaust. The search for information about the rest continues.
For Israeli families originating from Ukraine, there is a practical opportunity here: preserved documents, photographs, letters, and pre-war addresses of relatives can help restore the names of the deceased. Information can be checked in the Central Database of Yad Vashem.
Kibbutz Hanaton: Shabbat with the Israeli community
After Jerusalem, the Ukrainian delegation went to Hanaton (חנתון) — a kibbutz in the Lower Galilee, near the HaMovil junction.
Hanaton was established in 1983–1984 by a group of American Jews associated with Conservative Judaism. They sought to combine kibbutz life with religious tradition, including more equal participation of women in communal prayer.
Today, there is an educational center, Midreshet Hannaton, which trains youth leaders and conducts Jewish education programs for Israelis and international participants.
According to Masorti Ukraine, the local Conservative community comprises about 90 families. This is an estimate of the community’s size, not all Hanaton residents.
Ukrainian guests celebrated Shabbat with local residents and participated in a bar mitzvah — the religious coming-of-age ceremony for a Jewish boy at 13 years old.
Participants particularly remembered the Havdalah, which they held among open landscapes with views of the Golan Heights. The exact location of the ceremony was not specified by the organizers.
Here, Ukrainian representatives were able to get acquainted with the everyday life of the Israeli community — its religious practices, family traditions, and educational work.
What is Masorti Ukraine and where do its communities operate
Masorti Ukraine is the Ukrainian part of the international Conservative Judaism movement Masorti/Conservative Judaism.
For Israeli readers, there is an important distinction: the colloquial definition of masorti usually refers to Jews who observe some religious traditions. However, the international Masorti movement is an independent branch of Judaism with its own rabbis, communities, and educational institutions.
In Israel, it is known as התנועה המסורתית — “ha-tnua ha-masortit.” Its communities combine adherence to Jewish religious tradition with modern approaches, including women’s participation in religious life.
The international organization Masorti Olami, headquartered in Jerusalem, has been developing activities in Ukraine since 2012 in collaboration with the Schechter Institutes in Israel.
Among the first representatives of the movement in Kyiv were Rabbi Reuven Stamov and Lena Michal Stamova.
Today, the movement reports on the work of communities in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernivtsi, Odessa, and the emergence of a new minyan — a prayer group — in Dnipro.
In Kyiv, according to published data from Masorti Olami, more than 250 people attend weekly community programs. The exact date of this figure’s update is not specified.
In addition to prayers, there are Hebrew classes, programs on Jewish history and culture, family events, and the youth movement NOAM — known to Israelis as נוע”ם.
Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, executive director of Midreshet Schechter, plays a significant role in the development of Ukrainian programs, engaging in educational and humanitarian work. However, her participation in the current trip to Israel is not confirmed.
How Ukrainian communities operate during the war
After the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, some members of Jewish communities left their cities or Ukraine. Others stayed despite shelling, power outages, and economic difficulties.
Masorti Olami, in collaboration with the Schechter Institutes, organized humanitarian support. According to the movement, the program covers more than a thousand community members and refugees, assisting with food, clothing, medical supplies, heating, housing, and educational resources.
Meanwhile, religious and educational activities have not ceased.
The September bulletin of Masorti Olami for 2026 contains specific results:
- 42 participants from Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odessa, and Chernivtsi gathered for a separate seminar for community leaders under the guidance of Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya.
- More than 70 people participated in the Mishpachton Yachad 2026 family camp in the Chernivtsi region.
- 165 children and young people spent two weeks at the Ramah Yachad Ukraine camp near Chernivtsi. This was the 34th session of the camp.
- Four representatives of Ukrainian communities received qualifications as shochtim — specialists in the ritual slaughter of animals according to kashrut rules. Practical training took place in Chernivtsi under the guidance of Rabbi Shlomo Zakharov.
All these events took place separately from the current seminar in Israel.
The figures show that Ukrainian communities continue to train their own teachers, mentors, and religious specialists. For small communities, this is especially important: having local personnel allows for less dependence on specialists coming from abroad.
NAnovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency
Ukraine and Israel: cooperation in studying the Holocaust
The trip of Masorti Ukraine takes place against the backdrop of other international educational programs dedicated to the history of Ukrainian Jewry.
In August 2026, a seminar for history teachers was held in Kyiv, organized by the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies in collaboration with Yad Vashem and partners. Its participants discussed Nazi anti-Semitism, mass killings of Jews in Ukraine, Ukrainian-Jewish relations, and teaching methods.
In October, a separate Ukrainian-Polish seminar was held in Tarnów, Poland, with the participation of the French Shoah Memorial. 40 teachers worked with historical documents and Holocaust teaching issues.
These programs are not organizationally connected to the current trip of Masorti Ukraine, but they show that Ukrainian-Israeli and European cooperation in this area continues even during the war.
For Israel, it has special significance. Many Israeli families originate from Ukrainian cities where large Jewish communities existed before World War II.
The current cooperation also has a modern component: Israeli institutions help Ukrainian communities maintain religious and educational activities, and representatives of Ukraine participate in programs conducted in Israel.
What’s next
As of October 25, organizers have only shared the initial stages of the trip: Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, Hanaton, and Shabbat. The full composition of the delegation, funding sources, and further program have not yet been published.
It is also unknown what specific activities and projects participants plan to conduct after returning to Ukraine.
For NAnovosti, Alexander Khmelnitsky studied the published materials of Masorti Ukraine and the international movement. They show that the current seminar is not an isolated trip but part of the ongoing work of Ukrainian Jewish communities with Israeli educational and religious organizations.
The main question now is how the knowledge gained in Israel will be used in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, Chernivtsi, and other Ukrainian cities.