The name that remains: a Righteous Among the Nations square has appeared in Balta

Balta is a small but historically rich town in the north of the Odessa region. Here, Ukrainian, Jewish, and Moldovan cultures intertwined, and the pre-war Jewish community played a significant role in the life of the town. That is why the decision made at the end of 2025 was not a formality for Balta, but a conscious gesture of memory.

The Balta City Council approved a new name for the square located at the corner of Yaroslav the Wise and Kuznechnaya streets. It is now the Righteous Among the Nations Square — officially included in the list of toponyms of the Balta City Territorial Community.

The decision was not made “in the office.” Before the vote, public hearings were held, during which not only the name itself was discussed but also its meaning for the town. After that, the deputies supported the initiative, securing it at the municipal decision level.

The initiator of the renaming was the public organization Odessa Center for Holocaust Studies — a structure that has been working for many years with archives, local history, and educational projects related to the Holocaust in southern Ukraine. For them, Balta is not an abstract point on the map, but a specific place of tragedy and human choice.

The name “Righteous Among the Nations” has a clear international meaning. It refers to non-Jews who, during the Nazi occupation, saved Jews, risking their own lives and the safety of their families. For Ukraine, where the Holocaust took place not in camps “somewhere far away,” but in courtyards, on the outskirts of towns, and in ravines, such symbolic decisions are especially sensitive.

The place itself is also important. The square in Balta is not a memorial behind a fence and not a “commemorative point for dates.” It is a living urban space that people pass through every day. The new name makes memory a part of everyday life — without slogans, but with a constant reminder of human dignity.

For the Israeli audience, such news has a separate significance. They show how in Ukrainian towns, even small and not the most well-known ones, the history of the Holocaust and Jewish-Ukrainian coexistence is gradually returning to the public space — through community decisions, not just through state declarations.

In this sense, Balta becomes an example of how local memory can be precise, quiet, and resilient. It is such stories — about towns, names, and people — that form a living connection between the past and the present, which is increasingly written about today by NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency.