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Ukrainian People, Families, and History in the JHC Archives

Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine and to those of Ukrainian descent living in the United States and around the world. The Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center’s archives contain several collections about families and organizations with ties to Ukraine, including the following; we invite you to explore them and learn more.

 

Myer Starr Papers

This collection contains the unpublished memoir of Myer Starr, born in Dmitrovka, Russia (now Dmytrivka, Ukraine) in 1893. It recounts his immigration to the United States in 1914, and his subsequent life in Malden, MA. Starr's memoir not only addresses his personal and family life, but the life and struggles of Jews living in the Ukraine under the Tsarist government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Kallin Family Papers

This collection contains materials related to the Piaterer Feirhein/Piaterer Verein Society, a landsmanshaft—aid society—for immigrants from the shtetl of Pyatigory, Russia (today P'yatyhory, Ukraine), with active memberships in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Husband and wife Ralph and Ida Kalika (later changed to Kallin) were both born in Pyatigory in 1894 and immigrated to the United States in 1921, settling in Springfield, Mass., where Ralph worked as a dry goods peddler and was active in the local Piaterer Feirhein. Most of the materials in this collection are in Yiddish.

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Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston Records, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Records, Dnipro Kehillah Project (DKP) Records (unprocessed)

These three collections contain records relating to the Dnipro Kehillah Project (DKP), a partnership between the Boston Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP). DKP was launched after the breakup of the Soviet Union as part of a nationwide movement to link Jewish communities in the U.S. with those in the former Soviet states. Today, the Jewish communities of Dnipro and Boston work together to address issues of poverty, health and education, elderly care, and other pressing issues within Dnipro’s Jewish community.

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Action for Post-Soviet Jewry Records (processing in progress)

This collection documents the activities of Action for Post-Soviet Jewry (APSJ; formerly Action for Soviet Jewry), an organization dedicated to aiding and engaging with Jewish communities and individuals in the former Soviet states, with much of their work focused on Ukraine. The collection includes records of antisemitic incidents in various Ukrainian town and cities; lists of medicine, clothing, and other necessities shipped to Ukrainian communities; and information about medical clinics the organization helped to open, among many other areas of assistance. Many of the individuals helped by APSJ continue to reside in Ukraine.

 

Questions? Contact us at jhcreference@nehgs.org.