Kyiv Jewish Tour
Kyiv history is closely connected with Jewish community. There always have been beautiful synagogues and successful Jewish businesses in Kyiv. At one point Kyiv became a cultural and religious center of Jewish life in Eastern Europe!
Many outstanding Jewish personalities lived and worked here: Golda Meir, Ephraim Katzir, Sholom Aleichem, Ilya Erenburg, Vladimir Horowitz and Reinhold Gliere. Bessarbka market, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Regional Hospital were constructed in Kiev due to Jewish patrons. But also, we don’t have to forget about sad pages of Jewish history in Kiev. Our first stop during the Jewish Kiev tour is always at the Babi Yar memorial where we pay tribute to those thousands of Jewish, Russian and Ukrainian people who perished during the Nazi occupation of Kyiv that lasted for 777 days. ( tour can be extended by 1 hour to include a visit to Kyiv World War II museum and learn more about Holocaust from a very touching exposition about Kiev occupation.)
Also during our 3h Jewish Kiev excursion you will see: the Rozenberg Synagogue, located in Podil city district, where Jews lived since the 9th century A.D., Menora Monument, Bessarabka market, the Sholom Aleichem Museum and a monument to prolific Yiddish writer and humorist best known for the stories that inspired the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”. Later we get inside to explore the largest in East Europe collection of the Jewish silver cult-objects of the 18th – 20th centuries. And of course, our Jewish Heritage tour includes a visit to the second largest synagogue in Kyiv – Brodsky Synagogue and the house where the former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir lived.
It is a fascinating 3 hour journey in the company of an expert Jewish guide to get the other side of Kyiv community life to complete your visit!
Highlights:
1. Babi Yar Memorial
Before the German invasion, some 160,000 Jews resided in Kyiv, comprising about 20 percent of the city’s population. Approximately 100,000 Jews fled Kiev before the German advance, but when German forces entered Kiev on September 19, 1941 about 60,000 Jews remained in the city. Most of them were women, children and the elderly, who had... 2. Podil Synagogue
Built in 1894-95 during times of a severe anti-Semitic oppression the Podil Synagogue or the Rozenberg Synagogue, is the oldest synagogue in Kyiv. Financed by a wealthy merchant Gabriel Yakob Rozenberg and designed in Neo-Moorish style by a local architect Nicolay Gardenik, the synagogue had to be officially declared a private residence in order to...
