The Heart of Jewish Ukraine: The Complete Journey

A Special Virtual Program with Evgenia Kempinski
The Heart of Jewish Ukraine:
The Complete Journey

A town name. A surname. An old photograph nobody can explain anymore.

Discover the world behind them — who they were, how they lived, why they left — and the story you can pass on.

Begins on Monday, November 16 at 3:00 PM ET

See the Journey & Options

Why We Are Taking This Journey Together

Hello, I’m Evgenia Kempinski. For more than 20 years I have been telling the stories of Jewish communities bringing our history to life.

So many of you write to me about a grandmother from a small town near Zhitomir or Berdichev who never talked about the past — and now there is no one left to ask.

Maybe you know this feeling. You have a town name, a surname, a photograph with faces nobody can name anymore. Your papers say "Russia", your family said "Ukraine", and you are not sure what is true. You want to know who these people were, how they lived, what they were afraid of and what they hoped for — and where you fit into their story.

I created this program for exactly this. Over six talks we travel through Kyiv and Odessa, Lviv and Galicia, Bukovina, Volhynia and Podolia — and your family's town travels with us. You will understand why your family lived where they lived, why they left, and what happened to those who stayed.

And you won't do it alone. In our Community no question is too naive or too painful to ask. You can share your stories and photographs with people whose families came from the same land.

At the end of this journey, the fragments become a story. A story you finally understand — and can pass on to your children and grandchildren.

From Fragments to a Story

Where you are today — and where this journey takes you

A town name on an old document

You see the town come alive

Its streets, its synagogue, its market day — and the people who lived there.

Questions you never got to ask your grandparents

Answers — and a guide you trust

Ask what you have wondered about for years. And for the hard chapters — the pogroms, the emigration, the war — you have someone to walk you through them.

"Russia"? "Poland"? "Austria"?

You understand where your family really came from

Empires, borders and changing names: at last you see why your family's papers say one thing and family stories say another — and why they left.

Your children aren't sure where they come from

A story you can tell at the holiday table

Who they were, where they lived, what they believed — a story your children and grandchildren will want to hear and keep.

No one around you understands why it matters

A community whose families came from the same land

People who share your questions, your photographs and your stories — and understand why this matters. This part of the journey belongs to the Community.

The Program: A Virtual Journey

Three series · Six talks · Live on Zoom
3:00 PM ET · about 90 minutes · with recordings

Each talk brings maps, archive photographs and time for your questions. Instead of scattered facts, you get one connected story — place by place, told through the people who lived there.

Join one series or the whole journey.

Monday, November 16 and Wednesday, November 18 at 3:00 PM ET

Series 1 · Kyiv and Odessa: Two Jewish Worlds

Two great cities: one old and proud, one young and daring.

Kyiv — A Jewish Metropolis. Discover the city of Sholem Aleichem and Golda Meir, where Jewish millionaires built synagogues and palaces, while poor craftsmen crowded the streets.

Odessa — The Cradle of Israeli Culture. Walk the noisy streets of a cosmopolitan city where writers, merchants, and early Zionists gathered to imagine a completely different Jewish future.

Monday, December 14 and Wednesday, December 16 at 3:00 PM ET

Series 2 · The World of the Galitzianers

One elegant city, one restless land — Jewish life under the Austrian crown.

Lviv — One of the Oldest Jewish Communities in Eastern Europe. Step into an elegant, complex city shaped by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where magnificent architecture hid a deeply rooted Jewish life.

Galicia — Who Were the Galitzianers? They loved the Austrian emperor, put sugar in their gefilte fish and argued with the Litvaks about everything. A land of famous rebbes and bold Enlighteners, of the Broderzingers and the first Yiddish theaters, and of countless small shtetls, each with a character of its own.

Monday, January 11 and Wednesday, January 13 at 3:00 PM ET

Series 3 · Crossroads and Roots

Coffee in Czernowitz, market day in the shtetl.

Bukovina — Where Empires Met. A land of famous Hasidic courts, of small market towns and of elegant Czernowitz, where Jews spoke German in the café and Yiddish at home.

Volhynia and Podolia — Shtetls and the Birth of Hasidism. In a small Podolian town, the Baal Shem Tov began a movement that still fills synagogues from Brooklyn to Jerusalem. Small homes, big families, noisy market days, matchmakers and wonder-working rebbes: the shtetls where so many of our family stories began.

Each talk ends with “Then and now”: what happened to the community in the 20th century — and what remains today.

See Your Options

What Makes the Complete Journey Special

The talks are the same for everyone. The journey is not.
A single series gives you two evenings of history. The Complete Journey gives you your family’s place in that history — and people to share it with. This is the first time I’m opening it, and the first group will shape it with me.

Only on the Complete Journey:

Your Family's Town in the Talks

Tell me the town your family came from. I’ll research it and bring it into the talks or our evening together — so you will hear your family’s place in the story of Jewish Ukraine.
An Evening of Our Family Stories

After the last talk, we meet on Zoom, just our Community. Ask the questions you have carried for years, share a photograph or a story. This is where history becomes personal.
A Safe Place to Share

A private Facebook group for the photo nobody can explain and the story your grandmother told. I add materials and answer your questions. Not on Facebook? I’ll email you the materials.
A Gift Before We Begin

Once Upon A Shtetl - a recorded two-part introduction to the world of the shtetl — how it was born and how it lived. Watch it before we begin, and you’ll arrive at our first talk already at home.

The Complete Journey is open until November 15

Join the Complete Journey

How Would You Like to Travel?

Explore the one region that speaks to your family’s past, or take the whole journey with our warm Community.

Take The Complete Journey

180 € for the whole journey

For those who want their family to be part of the story.

All six live Zoom talks: Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv, Galicia, Bukovina, Volhynia & Podolia
Recordings of all six talks
Personal touch: I research your family’s town and bring it into the talks
An Evening of Our Family Stories — a private Zoom Q&A session
A Safe Place to Share — our private Facebook group to share photos, stories and extra materials
Gift: Once Upon a Shtetl, a recorded two-part introduction
Open until......

Join The Complete Journey

Explore One Region

35 € per 2-part series

For those who want to discover one part of the map

2 live Zoom talks on the region you choose
Recordings of both talks

Choose Your Region

The talks are the same for everyone.
The Complete Journey is for those who want their own family to be part of it.

When and Where

Monday, November 16
at 3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM California on Zoom
Other timezones

10:00 PM Jerusalem
8:00 PM London,
2:00 PM Chicago
Cost and payment

35 € per 2-part series
180 € for the Complete Journey with the Community
If I miss a talk?

You will receive the video recording after each talk