The “Jewish Capital of Ukraine”
Memory and the Present in Dnipropetrovsk
Tetjana Portnova, Andrii Portnov
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk) was one of the most important Jewish centres in the Russian Empire during the 19th century. In the 20th century, the Jewish community was decimated; in the mid-1980s, it seemed to be close to dying out; since the 1990s, however, it has experienced an unexpected renaissance. Under the leadership of the Chabad movement led by Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky and funded by private benefactors, Jewish life is once again flourishing. Not only do new monuments bear witness to this fact, so do schools, reopened synagogues, and, most prominently, the recently dedicated Menorah, the “largest Jewish centre in the world”. However, in general representations of the city’s history, Jewish history is barely present.
(Osteuropa 10/2012, pp. 25–40)