This is not a classic news story from Israel, but these are the kinds of stories that are important for the Israeli reader: a warring Ukraine shows that even under attack, it continues to live, develop the Jewish community, support culture, and turn memory into a living conversation between generations.
In the gallery “Fiddler on the Roof” (original Ukr. – “Fiddler on the Roof“) at the Brodsky Synagogue in Kyiv, an exhibition of student graphic design “Judaica in Ukrainian Poster” is opening. This is not just a poster for a cultural event, but a conversation about how the Jewish memory of Ukraine continues to live in the modern visual language.
The project is presented with the participation of the “Fiddler on the Roof” gallery, the Kyiv Jewish community, the Sholom Aleichem Charitable Foundation, the poster and graphic design section of KONSHU, the National Academy of Culture and Arts Management, Kyiv University of Culture, and the Creative Resistance initiative.
The title “Judaica in Ukrainian Poster” stands for much more than a student graphic project.
It is a conversation about how the Jewish theme sounds in modern Ukrainian culture. Not as a museum showcase, not as frozen memory from archives, but as a living visual language with which young designers work.
The opening of the exhibition will take place on May 28 at 18:00 in the “Fiddler on the Roof” gallery in Kyiv. The space is located at: Shota Rustaveli Street, 13, entrance from Esplanadna Street. The exhibition will run from May 28 to June 23, free entry.
And the place itself explains a lot.
The connection of the exhibition with the Brodsky Synagogue is reinforced by the figure of Rabbi Moshe Reuven Asman. He is associated with the Central Kyiv Brodsky Synagogue as its chief rabbi; in Ukrainian and international publications, he is also called the chief rabbi of Ukraine. For this story, this is important not formally, but in essence: the Brodsky Synagogue has long become not only a house of prayer but also one of the symbols of the revival of Jewish life in Kyiv. Therefore, the exhibition about Judaica in the Ukrainian poster is held not just in a beautiful historical building, but in the space of a living community that continues to pray, help, remember the fallen, and remain part of the Ukrainian civil resistance during the war.
Poster as a conversation about memory
Judaica in Ukrainian Poster is a subtle and multi-layered theme. It is not only about religious symbols, ornaments, Jewish letters, or recognizable images. Much more important is how modern Ukraine looks at the Jewish heritage, which for centuries has been part of its cities, towns, streets, language, music, trade, literature, and tragic memory.
In this sense, the poster is a very precise genre.
It does not like long explanations. It must speak quickly, strongly, and clearly. One image, one composition, one color strike — and the viewer already understands that in front of them is not just a picture, but a statement.
That is why the exhibition may turn out to be no less important than an academic conference. Young designers work with the theme not as a mandatory historical reference, but as a material that can be felt, disassembled, and reassembled.
Why this is important now
Ukraine is experiencing a war, which is not only about territories but also about the right to its own memory. Russia is trying to destroy cities, erase biographies, appropriate history, and impose a foreign perspective. In such a situation, cultural projects become not an embellishment of life, but a way to resist oblivion.
The Jewish history of Ukraine is one of the most complex parts of this memory.
It includes great names, communities, synagogues, towns, music, literature, Hasidic routes, modernist art, Zionist biographies, the Holocaust, Soviet silence, and a new attempt to return to an honest conversation. It is not one line, but a whole map.
The exhibition “Judaica in Ukrainian Poster” is important precisely because it does not lock this theme in the past. It shows: heritage lives not when it is only protected, but when new generations begin to speak with it.
Gallery “Fiddler on the Roof”: a place where symbols work stronger than words
The “Fiddler on the Roof” gallery is located in the building of the Brodsky Synagogue — one of the most recognizable Jewish addresses in Kyiv. It is not a neutral exhibition hall where any theme can be brought and simply hung on the walls.
Here, the location itself becomes part of the meaning.
The name of the gallery is also not accidental. “Fiddler on the Roof” refers to the image of Jewish tradition, fragility, survival, family memory, and constant movement between the old world and the new time. Fiddler on the Roof is not only a cultural quote. It is a symbol of life on the border: between stability and danger, between home and road, between past and future.
In such a space, the exhibition about Judaica in the Ukrainian poster sounds especially accurate.
It does not say: “Look at what once was.” It says differently: “Look at how it continues to live.”
For the Israeli audience, this project is especially interesting. In Israel, the Ukrainian Jewish theme is often perceived through family stories, aliyah, memory of towns, the tragedy of the Holocaust, figures of rabbis, writers, artists, politicians, and public figures associated with Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv, Drohobych, Chernivtsi, Uman, and other cities.
But today’s Ukraine shows another layer: Jewish heritage is not only remembered. It is included in the modern cultural conversation.
That is why NAnovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency considers such an exhibition not as an ordinary Kyiv poster, but as part of a large Ukrainian-Israeli dialogue about memory, identity, and the place of Jewish culture in modern Ukraine.
Kyiv as a city of intersections
Kyiv has always been a city of many cultures. Ukrainian, Jewish, Polish, Russian-speaking, Soviet, European, religious, and secular lines have constantly intersected here — sometimes peacefully, sometimes painfully, sometimes tragically.
Therefore, an exhibition in the center of Kyiv, in the space of the Jewish community, during the war, with the participation of students and curators connected with Ukrainian art and the Ukrainian-Israeli public theme, looks like an important gesture.
It is not an attempt to make a beautiful decoration around a complex history.
Rather, the opposite: it is an attempt to recognize that a complex history requires a new language. And the modern poster can become such a language — direct, emotional, visual, understandable even without long lectures.
Curators and young designers: who is behind the project
The curators of the exhibition are Albert-Leizer Feldman and Andrey Budnik. This is an important combination because each of them adds their perspective to the project.
Albert-Leizer Feldman is a Ukrainian-Israeli artist, public figure, doctor of psychology, a person whose biography is connected with Ukraine, Israel, Jewish memory, and civil initiatives. His participation in the project makes the exhibition part of a broader conversation: not only about graphic design but also about how culture helps society maintain a connection with the past.
Andrey Budnik is a Ukrainian artist, graphic artist, poster designer, and teacher associated with the Ukrainian school of poster and the training of young authors. His role is especially logical: the exhibition is built around the poster as a form of artistic and public expression.
As a result, the project connects two lines.
The first is the Jewish heritage of Ukraine, memory, community history, the connection of Kyiv with Jewish culture. The second is the Ukrainian poster as a genre that gained new strength during the war: from cultural posters to visual resistance to Russian aggression.
Why students
The most interesting thing about this exhibition is not only the theme but also the authors. Student graphic design here becomes a way to test how the new generation sees Judaica.
This is fundamental.
When only the elders speak about heritage, it often turns into a duty. When young artists come to it, it can become alive again. They choose different colors, different compositions, different visual associations. They can make mistakes, argue, search, but it is in this search that new cultural energy appears.
For Ukraine, this is especially important. A country that defends itself from an external enemy simultaneously continues to build its own complex identity. Not simplified, not one-dimensional, not closed, but one where there is room for Ukrainian, Jewish, Crimean Tatar, Polish, Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian, and other lines of memory.
In such a context, the Jewish theme ceases to be a “foreign history.” It returns to where it has always been: in the fabric of the Ukrainian city, Ukrainian culture, and Ukrainian memory.
Exhibition as a sign for Israel
For the Israeli reader, this story is also important because it shows Ukraine not only through news from the front, missiles, diplomacy, and requests for help.
Here, another Ukraine is visible — a country that even during the war continues to talk about culture, about Jewish heritage, about young authors, about memory, and about the future.
This does not cancel the pain and does not make reality easier. But it is such events that show that society lives not only by survival. It continues to create meanings.
The exhibition “Judaica in Ukrainian Poster” reminds of a simple but important thing: memory cannot be preserved only by order, a commemorative date, or an official speech. It needs to be constantly translated into the language of time.
Today, that language becomes the poster.
Bright, sharp, modern, sometimes minimalist, sometimes emotional, but always addressed directly to the viewer.
And if young Ukrainian designers take on the theme of Judaica, it means that this memory has not disappeared. It continues to sound — already with different lines, fonts, colors, and images.
Exhibition Information
Exhibition: “Judaica in Ukrainian Poster”
Opening: May 28, 18:00
Dates: 28.05 — 23.06
Entry: free
Working hours: Sunday–Thursday, 12:00–19:00
Address: Kyiv, Shota Rustaveli St., 13
Entrance: from Esplanadna Street
Curators: Albert-Leizer Feldman, Andrey Budnik