Michael Nutkiewicz translated and expanded Eli Gumener’s Yiddish memoir, originally published in Lithuania in 1921. Entitled A Ukrainian Chapter. A Jewish Aid Worker’s Memoir of Sorrow, the memoir depicts the fate of Jewish communities caught in the middle of the Russian Civil War and the challenges of providing relief to Jewish communities. Gumener (1886-1941) was Michael Nutkiewicz’s uncle and worked for major aid organizations between World War I and World War II. Michael was unaware of his story until he discovered the book in his parents’ vast Yiddish library after they passed away. Gumener’s memoir is a highly valuable and rare historical source that focuses on the two most devastating years of pogroms in[…]

With Igor Mikhaylov & Son, Ilan – A Father’s Day Reflection

A father, Igor Mikhaylov, took his Bar Mitzvah age son, Ilan on a trip to Poland in the Spring of 2023. They were spurred by Ilan’s Bar Mitzvah project at Temple Judea in Los Angeles, CA in November 2022. Ilan ambitiously raised funds for the Janusz Korczak Childcare Fund of Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland for Progressive Judaism supporting Spynka. The support for the network of 90 Day Care Centers called “Spynka” was one of many encounters with the Poland of today, which is offering refuge to Ukraine’s women and children. Father and son visited remnants of[…]