Voices of Memory in Zaporizhzhia: A project to preserve the Jewish heritage of the south and east has begun in Ukraine

In Zaporizhzhia, the project “Voices of Memory: Preserving the Jewish Heritage of Southern and Eastern Ukraine” has been launched — an initiative aimed at preserving, researching, and bringing back to the public space the history of Jewish communities in southern and eastern Ukraine.

The start of the project on July 9, 2026, was announced by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine. The announcement states that a series of educational events and open lectures dedicated to the history, culture, and contribution of the region’s Jewish communities to Ukraine’s development have already begun in Zaporizhzhia.

This is not just a local cultural program. For Ukraine, which has been living in conditions of full-scale war for the fifth year, preserving Jewish heritage has become part of a broader struggle for memory, identity, and the right to its own history.

Why specifically the south and east of Ukraine

The south and east of Ukraine are often perceived through modern political and military news: the front, shelling, occupation, evacuation, destroyed cities. But behind this grim agenda, there is another layer — historical.

Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Mariupol, Berdiansk, Melitopol, Luhansk, Donetsk, and dozens of smaller towns were spaces where Jewish life developed over generations. Synagogues, schools, craft and trade families, charitable societies, cultural initiatives, religious and secular communities operated here.

The history of Zaporizhzhia itself, formerly Alexandrovsk, is also closely linked to the Jewish presence. According to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, Jews began settling in the city from the late 18th century, and the rapid growth of the community occurred in the 19th century. By 1897, 5,290 Jews lived in Alexandrovsk — about 28% of the city’s population. In 1898, the Central Synagogue of Alexandrovsk was built.

But this history was not only one of development. It included pogroms, Soviet pressure, the destruction of Jewish life during the Holocaust, and decades of silence.

Yad Vashem indicates that by 1939, 22,631 Jews lived in Zaporizhzhia, accounting for 7.8% of the city’s population. After the German occupation in October 1941, the Jewish population was subjected to registration, restrictions, forced wearing of the Star of David, and mass killings. On March 28, 1942, about 3,700 Jewish men, women, and children were shot near the anti-tank ditch near the Stalin State Farm.

That is why the project in Zaporizhzhia is important not only as an educational initiative. It gives a voice back to those communities whose history too often remained between the archive shelf, family memory, and mass grave.

What the “Voices of Memory” project will do

The project includes lectures, discussions, and educational events dedicated to the history, culture, and contribution of Jewish communities in southern and eastern Ukraine. Organizers also talk about developing intercultural dialogue, increasing historical awareness in society, and expanding access to cultural heritage.

The initiator of the project is the public organization STEP — a Ukrainian organization that implements educational, cultural, and research initiatives related to preserving historical memory, cultural heritage, and developing civil society. The project is implemented in partnership with UNESCO Ukraine with financial support from the European Union in Ukraine.

Historians, researchers, educators, representatives of universities and schools, youth organizations, museums, archives, cultural institutions, local government bodies, media, and all those who care about the Jewish history of Ukraine are invited to participate.

For the Israeli audience, this news sounds particularly close. It is not about an abstract “heritage somewhere in Eastern Europe,” but about cities from which the families of many Israelis, repatriates, volunteers, soldiers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and public activists originate.

NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency follows such initiatives precisely because Ukrainian-Jewish history does not end in archives. It continues in Israel, in Ukraine, in families, in communities, and in how new generations understand their past.

Memory during war is also protection

The project in Zaporizhzhia appears against the backdrop of large-scale international work to preserve the Jewish heritage of Ukraine. In March 2025, UNESCO and the European Union launched a separate two-year initiative worth 2.2 million euros to preserve the Jewish documentary heritage in Ukraine. It includes digitizing vulnerable and damaged documents from ten memory institutions, training more than 50 specialists, and supporting artistic and research projects.

UNESCO emphasized that the Jewish heritage of Ukraine is under threat due to the war and must be protected. This program is not only about documents but also about access to archives, support for researchers, journalists, and artists who can reopen the history of Jewish communities in Ukraine to society.

The context of the war makes such initiatives even more urgent. According to UNESCO data as of July 1, 2026, damage to 540 cultural objects has already been confirmed in Ukraine: religious buildings, historical buildings, museums, monuments, libraries, archaeological sites, and one archive.

When Russian aggression destroys cities, archives, libraries, museums, and places of memory, preserving heritage becomes not a “cultural topic” that can be postponed. It becomes a way to protect society from erasure.

For Ukraine, the Jewish heritage of the south and east is part of national history. For Israel, it is part of the family memory of millions of people whose roots are connected to Ukrainian cities and towns. For Europe, it is a reminder that the fight against anti-Semitism is impossible without knowing the real history of Jewish communities, their contributions, tragedies, and revival.

The “Voices of Memory” project is important for this very reason. It does not limit itself to the memorial formula “we remember.” It tries to make memory alive: through lectures, discussions, archives, educational programs, and conversations between people who understand that the past cannot be left unprotected.

Because if a city is deprived of memory, it becomes just a point on the map.

And if memory returns — the city begins to speak again with the voices of those who lived, built, studied, prayed, created, perished, and left a mark.

Voices of memory in Zaporizhzhia are not only a Ukrainian project and not only a Jewish project.

It is part of the overall work against oblivion.