- December 8, 2025
- 4:04 pm
- Ukraine
“Local historians did not know where these artifacts of Jewish heritage in Ukraine had disappeared to until 2023, when they discovered photographs of the stolen items on the official website of the ‘Museum of the History of Jews in Russia’.
Like ‘We didn’t steal — we saved’, notes Shimon Briman, comparing this to the same twisted logic by which the Russian army comes to ‘save’ Ukraine and Ukrainians with missiles and turning Ukrainian cities into ruins.
There is the most prestigious global organization of museums and museum professionals in the world — ICOM, the International Council of Museums headquartered in Paris. In mid-June 2024, at the annual meeting of ICOM’s governing bodies, ICOM Ukraine President Anastasia Cherednichenko spoke, reports Shimon Briman.
The representative of Ukraine demanded in the strongest terms to stop the gradual return of Russia to ICOM. Previously, back in 2022, the Russian Federation was suspended from participating in ICOM projects because this aggressor country was looting Ukrainian museums and destroying treasures of Ukrainian cultural heritage during the barbaric war against Ukraine.
Shimon Briman, in an article on “Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter” also notes that the list of stolen or destroyed by Russia should include objects of Jewish heritage in Ukraine.
The most high-profile story in this area is related to the theft and illegal export to Russia of two unique artifacts from the Ternopil region, writes Shimon Briman. This happened in the summer of 2014, at the beginning of Russian aggression, but it became known only recently.
At that time, unknown criminals stole three-hundred-year-old carved doors from the Chortkiv synagogue. Around the same time, unique relics disappeared from the ancient synagogue in Pidhaitsi — a baroque white stone carved decoration of a niche from the prayer hall and a carved plaque with the inscription “These are the gates of the Lord — the righteous shall enter through them” (Psalm 118).
Local historians did not know where these artifacts had disappeared to until 2023, when they discovered photographs of the stolen items on the official website of the ‘Museum of the History of Jews in Russia’.
This private museum was founded in Moscow by businessman Sergey Ustinov. The museum’s website states that it seeks to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of Jewish life in the territory of the Russian Empire and the USSR. It also states that the most important way to replenish the collection is through expeditions by staff in Russia and Eastern Europe.
The stolen ancient doors and stone slab from Chortkiv and Pidhaitsi were presented in Moscow at the exhibition “Challenge to Oblivion”.
Thus, from the point of view of Moscow museum workers, gangster raids on Ukrainian synagogues are “expeditions to replenish the collection”, and the brazen display of stolen items from Ukraine in Moscow is called “saving from oblivion”.
Like “We didn’t steal — we saved”, notes Shimon Briman, comparing this to the same twisted logic by which the Russian army comes to “save” Ukraine and Ukrainians with missiles and turning Ukrainian cities into ruins.
Shimon Briman writes that in Chortkiv and Pidhaitsi there were thefts, corruption, and vandalism against historical objects. As a result, artifacts from two synagogues were stolen. These synagogues are on the list of national historical monuments, and their artifacts could not be legally removed — only through corruption and vandalism, which was done at the request of the Moscow museum.
Local authorities in the Ternopil region showed indifference to the fate of these ancient synagogues. Although the Ukrainian authorities lack the funds to maintain the condition of these ancient buildings, this does not justify the illegal export of artifacts to Russia, Briman emphasizes.
The discovery of stolen Jewish relics in a Moscow museum in 2023 caused outrage among Judaica and art specialists from Ukraine, Israel, and the USA. They appealed to the ministries of culture and foreign affairs of Ukraine to raise the issue of returning the stolen artifacts at the international level.
Briman writes: “The dismantling and export of these artifacts abroad directly contradicts Ukrainian law. These actions are criminal, and both the customers and the executors should be held accountable for them.” Artifacts from the synagogues in Chortkiv and Pidhaitsi have enormous historical and cultural value that cannot be compensated. The illegal export and exhibition of these artifacts in Russia is part of the aggressor’s large-scale crime — the deliberate destruction and looting of Ukrainian cultural heritage, concludes Briman.
Shimon Briman writes that the actions of stealing artifacts from synagogues in Chortkiv and Pidhaitsi damage Ukraine’s relations with foreign partners, including Israel. It also gives Russian propagandists the opportunity to use the topic of Ukrainian-Jewish past to undermine Ukraine’s international image. The authors of the letter, signed by many well-known scholars, demand the inclusion of the owner of the “Museum of the History of Jews in Russia” Sergey Ustinov in the sanctions lists.
Briman notes that the attempts of the Moscow museum to justify the theft sound immoral. He emphasizes that the cities of Chortkiv and Pidhaitsi in the 17th-18th centuries had nothing to do with the “history of Jews in Russia”, as they were part of the Polish Kingdom. This act is a neocolonial appropriation of someone else’s heritage to strengthen Moscow’s imperial status.
Shimon Briman writes this text as a reminder that the Russian regime throughout its aggression against Ukraine seeks to destroy not only Ukrainian but also Jewish heritage in Ukraine. In the future, in his opinion, the list of reparations from Russia in favor of Ukraine should include the two stolen Jewish artifacts.
Original: Shimon Briman (Israel) – Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter.
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