Over a Hundred Jewish Descendants of Small Ukrainian Town Come Together Virtually in Commemoration and Celebration

SAN RAFAEL, CA, UNITED STATES, October 23, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- 80 years to the day after a Jewish town (“shtetl”) in Ukraine was liquidated, descendants gather virtually in commemoration and celebration of the place their families once lived together. At a time when Ukraine is under attack by Russia, Jewish descendants are painfully reminded of the dislocation and suffering of their own families and their heart goes out to the Ukrainian people.

Several living survivors of the town’s liquidation join descendants of families who migrated earlier to America or to Palestine (what became Israel). The gathering today commemorates those who were lost and celebrates the virtual revival of their community and the recovery of the rich heritage of those who once lived there. The town appears now on contemporary maps as Mlyniv, Ukraine but was called “Mlynov” in Yiddish when it was a Jewish town.

“Growing up I never cared about my family’s life back in Ukraine,” remarked descendant and organizer, Howard I. Schwartz, PhD. “The journey to reconnect with descendants of my family and their friends and to recover their lost stories and photos has been profound. We see disturbing similarities between what our families went through and what we are seeing today in Ukraine.”

Over the past several years, descendant and researcher Howard I. Schwartz, PhD tracked down hundreds of descendants of the families who originally lived there, documented their stories, gathered photos, and translated existing resources. The process uncovered forgotten folklore, childhood memories, local sights and smells, photos and film that had been lost, and even rediscovered lost family connections among descendants. A number of families learned what became of loved ones whose stories were never known.

At the 80th anniversary of the town’s liquidation, descendants come together to honor their grief and loss but also to learn about the rich heritage of their ancestors when life flourished in this small town in Ukraine that switched hands multiple times. The story and photo of survivors taken after the town’s liberation in 1944 shows thirty some survivors, protected by Soviet soldiers, memorializing the loss of their loved ones at the location where the liquidation occurred. Eighteen of the survivors in this photo have been identified. Four of them are still alive and joining the commemoration. The liquidation of the Mlynov ghetto took place on October 8 or 9th 1942 (on the 28th or 29th of Tishrei, 5703 in the Jewish calendar).

The community has created a commemoration wall of descendants holding a new translation of their shared memorial book (“Yizkor book”) and celebrating the recovery of their lost story.

About Howard I. Schwartz
Howard I. Schwartz, a descendant of two Mlynov families, was trained as a Conservative rabbi, became a professor of Religious and Jewish Studies for ten years and published a number of books. His work on family history led him to recover the story of Mlynov.

Howard I. Schwartz, PhD
A Matter of Purpose
+1 408-838-5410
howard@amatterofpurpose.com

A Teaser About the Mlynov Story

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