קהילת יהודי אוקראינה

Sonja Delaunay-Terk (1885-1979), artist born in Gradizhske, Russia (now part of Ukraine), who together with her husband Robert Delaunay, founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colors and geometric shapes. Her work included paintings, textile design for furniture and clothing and also designs for stage sets. In 1964 a comprehensive exhibition of her work was shown at the Louvre in Paris, a unique honor to be given to a living female artist, while in 1975 she was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor.

Her family was poor and at an early age she was looked after by her uncle, Henri Terk, a wealthy lawyer who lived in St Petersburg, Russia. When she was 16 her high school teacher noticed her talent for drawing. She was sent to the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 1905 she went to Paris, France, where she enrolled at the Académie de la Palette in Montparnasse and took the opportunity to study all the art galleries in Paris. She was particularly influenced by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Henri Rousseau and also Henri Matisse and Derain.

Sonia met Robert Delaunay in early 1909. They became lovers and were married in November 1910. They were supported by an allowance sent from Sonia's aunt in St. Petersburg. A short time later she made for her newly born son a blanket composed of bits of fabric like those seen in the houses of Russian peasants. “When it was finished, the arrangement of the pieces of material seemed to me to evoke cubist conceptions, a technique which was subsequently applied to other objects and paintings.”, Delaunay-Terk once said. It was the beginning of the Orphism art movement. The Delaunays' friend, the poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire, coined the term Orphism to describe the Delaunays' version of cubism in 1913 and it was through Apollinaire that in 1912 Sonia met the poet Blaise Cendrars who was to become her friend and collaborator.

The Delaunays travelled to Spain in 1914, staying with friends in Madrid. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 they decided not to return to France. In August 1915 they moved to Portugal where they shared a home with Samuel Halpert and Eduardo Viana. In Portugal she painted "Marché au Minho" ("The market at Minho", 1916), which she later says was inspired by the beauty of the country. In 1917 Sonia designed costumes for a production of Cleopatra (stage design by Robert Delaunay) and for the performance of Aida in Barcelona. In Madrid she decorated the Petit Casino (a nightclub) and founded Casa Sonia, selling her designs for interior decoration and fashion, with a branch in Bilbao.

Returning to Paris in 1921 she made clothes for private clients and friends, and in 1923 created fifty fabric designs using geometrical shapes and bold colours, commissioned by a manufacturer from Lyon. Soon after, she started her own business. Her clients were amongst the most famous stars of the time. Sonia Delaunay gave a lecture at the Sorbonne on the influence of painting on fashion. The Great Depression caused a decline in business. After closing her business, Sonia Delaunay returned to painting, but she still designed for Jacques Heim, Metz & Co and private clients. She said "the depression liberated her from business".

After the World War 2, Sonia was a board member of the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles for several years. Sonia and her son Charles in 1964 donated 114 works by Sonia and Robert to the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris.

Jazz expert Charles Delaunay is her son.

Boris Garfunkel (1866-1959), businessman and philanthropist born in Murovani Kurylivtsi, a village in the region of Vinnytsia, Ukraine (then part of Russian Empire), who emigrated to Argentine in 1891 to escape the pogroms. He settled in the Mauritius colony, the first Jewish agricultural settlement in Argentine founded by Baron Maurice de Hirsch's Jewish Colonization Association 31 km southwest of Buenos Aires.

Initially Garfunkel worked in agriculture but after some 17 years he decided that his children lacked opportunities for education and advancement. He therefore moved to Buenos Aires where he founded the furniture store Boris Gorfunkel and Sons. The store gradually extended to other areas of business and became one of the largest companies in Argentina. He wrote his memoirs which were published by his children after his death.

Isaac Husic (1876-1939), historian of Jewish philosophy, born in Vasseutinez near Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). In 1888 he was brought to the USA by his parents and settled in Philadelphia. As a youth he was influenced by Rabbi Sabato Morais of the local Sephardi congregation and started to prepared himself for a career as a rabbi. He dropped the idea when he started to study philosophy and law at the University of Pennsylvania.

From 1898 to 1916 he taught at the local Graetz College. In 1911 he was made a member of the faculty of Philosophy of the University of Pennsylvania and became a professor ten years later. In 1916 Husic published A History of Medieval Jewish Philosophy, a systematic review of the development of Jewish thought throughout the Middle Ages. In 1925 he became editor of the Jewish Publication Society of America.

Levi Eshkol (1895-1969), labour leader, Israeli statesman and third Prime Minister of Israel, born Levi Shkolnik in the Ukrainian village of Oratovo (near Kiev) (then part of the Russian Empire). He received a traditional Jewish upbringing and education which continued when he entered a Hebrew high school in Vilna at the age of 16. In Vilna, Lithuania, he joined the Zionist group, "Tzeirei Zion" ("Youth of Zion"). In 1914, at the age of 19, he emigrated to Palestine, at that time part of the Ottoman Empire, where he worked as an agricultural laborer. During World War I, he joined the Poalei Yehuda Federation on behalf of the Hapoel Hatzair socialist party and fought for the economic welfare of Jewish farmers who suffered hardship as a result of the war. Later he volunteered for the Jewish Legion of the British Army.

In 1920 Eshkol was a member of the group which founded the settlement of Degania Beth kibbutz. He participated in the establishment of the Histadrut, the National Federation of Jewish Laborers in Israel, and later joined its agricultural center. In 1930 he participated in the founding of the Mapai political alignment. During the 1930s he was sent on several long missions to Nazi Germany on behalf of the Jewish Agency. He was active in the "Ha'avara" project. The project helped Jews emigrate from Germany, while forcing them to give up most of their possessions to Germany before departing. Those assets could later be “reclaimed” when they were transferred to Palestine as German export goods. Indirectly therefore it raised capital and equipment for Jewish settlement in the land of Israel. In 1937 Eshkol participated in the establishment of "Mekorot", the Jewish Community's water utility, and served as its chief executive until 1951.

In 1940, he became a member of the Haganah command in which capacity he was in charge of purchases, equipment and mobilization and in 1947 he organized the recruiting drive for what became the Israel Defense Forces. At the end of 1944 he was elected Secretary of the Laborers Council in Tel Aviv, a post which he held until 1948. With the establishment of the State he became the first Director-General of the Ministry of Defense, in effect the supplier of the material which kept the Israeli army in the field. He also became the head of the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency's Settlement Department in 1948. He initiated the establishment of approximately 400 new settlements in the first four years of the State, and from 1949-1952 served as the Jewish Agency treasurer. In 1951 Eshkol was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Development and from 1952 until 1963 he served as Minister of Finance. He remained Chairman of the WZO/JAFI Settlement Department until 1963. In his various positions Eshkol was therefore largely responsible for obtaining funds to develop the country, absorb massive immigration waves and equip the army.

In 1963, following Ben-Gurion's retirement, Eshkol assumed the post of Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. He consolidated Israel's relations with the United States, and supplied the IDF with a large quantity of American weaponry. He also established full diplomatic relations with West Germany. He also attempted to mend relations with the Soviet Union. Eshkol founded the Ma'arach, a merger between Mapai and Achdut Ha'avoda parties, and was head of the united party in its 1965 election victory.

The high point of his premiership was the Six Day War of June 1967. When Egypt and Syria precipitated the crisis, Eshkol established a Government of National Unity, relinquishing the Defense portfolio to Moshe Dayan and bringing Menachem Begin of Herut into the cabinet. Eshkol found other sources of military supplies for the Israeli armed forces, particularly in the United States, after France began its military boycott of the Jewish state after the 1967 war. The war itself was a vindication of his efforts at the Ministry of Defense to provide the IDF with the best equipment available. In just six days, Israel succeeded in liberating Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan Heights and capturing the Sinai peninsula. Immediately after the war, Jerusalem was reunified and its boundaries were expanded. After the war, Eshkol worked for the establishment of the Israel Labor party.

Throughout his political career he was noted for his skill as a negotiator and his ability to retain friendly relations even with his political opponents. On the other hand his critics accused him of hesitancy. Eshkol died in office of a heart attack in February 1969.

Avraham Harzfeld (1888–1973), labor leader in Eretz Israel, born in Stavyshche, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), who studied at the yeshivot of Berdichev, Ukraine, and Telz, Lithuania, receiving a rabbinical diploma. In 1906 he joined the Russian Socialist Zionist Party for which crime he was arrested on two occasions and was imprisoned for two years in Vilna, Lithuania. In 1910 he was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor in Siberia, but in 1914 he succeeded in escaping from Siberia and reached Eretz Israel, where he worked as an agricultural laborer in Petach Tikvah and was active in the labor movement. During World War I he played an important role in helping Jews who had been arrested by the Ottoman authorities. From 1914 to 1919 he was a member of Poalei Zion, from 1919-1930 he was active in the Ahdut HaAvodah movement before joining Mapai in 1930. In 1920 he was one of the founders of the Histadrut and was a member of the Histadrut's Central Agricultural Council. Over forty years he played an important role in planning agricultural settlement in Palestine. He was member of the Zionist General Council from 1921, a member of the directorate of the Jewish National Fund from 1949 and a Mapai member of the Knesset in the first, second and third Knessets.

Israel Isaac Efros (1891-1981), Israeli and American rabbi, teacher, poet and scholar in Jewish philosophy, born in the Ukraine and came to the United States in 1905. He received a doctorate from Columbia University. In 1918 he founded the Baltimore Hebrew College and the Teachers' Training School. Between 1917 and 1928 he was professor of Hebrew and taught Jewish philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, and was appointed to teach at the University of Buffalo between 1929 and 1941. He was rabbi of Temple Beth El from 1929-1935, but left the synagogue in 1935 following a dispute over organ playing during Friday night services. Between 1941 and 1955 he taught at Hunter's College in New York City. He also taught Jewish philosophy at Dropsie College in Philadelphia from 1945. Dr. Efros had been president of the Histadrut HaIvrit of America, which promotes the use of Hebrew.

In 1955, he was appointed rector of Tel Aviv University

By 1930 he had already translated some of the works of Shelley into Hebrew, had written over one hundred Hebrew poems and had written two major philosophical works, "The Problem of Space in Jewish Medieval Philosophy" (1917) and "Philosophical Terms in the Moreh Nevuchim" (1924). Altogether he was the author of nine books of poetry and scholarly works, including ''Ancient Jewish Philosophy'' and ''Silent Wigwams,'' a collection of poems based on American Indian legends and lore. Efros also translated works of Shakespeare into Hebrew and H.N.Bialik into English.

Cecilio Madanes (1921-2000), theatre director and producer born in Ukraine. He founded the Teatro Caminito street theatre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied at the school of Fine Arts and then in 1947 he was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to study theatre in Paris, France. The grant was for eight months but he did not return to Argentine for eight years. In the interval he studied at the Paris Conservatory of Dramatic Arts and meet many of the most important figures of the French theatre.

He founded the Caminito street theatre in 1957 and worked there for 16 years producing plays by Shakespeare, Moliere and many others, often with the best known actors in Argentina. He also produced many plays for television. Between 1983 and 1986 he was director of the Colon theatre where he successfully attempted to increase the popularity of the Opera in Buenos Aires. In 1984 Madanes starred in the film Camila which was nominated for an Oscar.

יבגני חאלדיי הוא אחד מצלמי העיתונות הסובייטים הבולטים במלחמת העולם השנייה, ומילא תפקיד חשוב בעיצוב הזיכרון של מלחמה זו.
חאלדיי עסק בצילום למעלה מששים שנה, וחלק ניכר של תתצלומיו לפני המלחמה ולאחריה הוא בסגנון הריאליזם הסוציאליסטי.

Samuel Horodezky (1871-1957),scholar and historian of Jewish mysticism and Hasidism, born in Malin near Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). He studied at yeshivot in Malin and Chernobyl, Ukraine. A the age of 20 he was attracted to the Haskalah and settled in Berdichev where he started to write in Hebrew and began to correspond with contemporary authors.

The pogroms of 1905–06 forced him leave the Ukraine. He took advantage of being elected as a delegate to the Eighth Zionist Congress to leave the Ukraine never to return. From 1908 to 1938 he lived in Switzerland and then in Germany. In 1938 he emigrated to the Land of Israel and settled in Tel Aviv.
He edited "Ha-Goren", an annual on Jewish scholarship, and wrote "Ha-Hasidut ve-ha-Hasidim", monographs on the great Hassidim and their doctrines, and "Ha-Mistorin be-Yisrael", monographs on sources and teachers of mysticism beginning with those in the Bible, Apocrypha, and the Talmud, and continuing up to the time of the kabbalists. “Memoirs”, his last book, is autobiographical. He wrote many other books on Hassidism and Kabbalists. Horodezky was one of the last to write in the style of the Haskala, the Enlightenment of the 19th century. He was a product of the intellectual climate of the East European Jewish town and educated himself to become a Hebrew writer. His quiet, informative, non-argumentative manner of speech helped break the boycott of the Maskilim against Hasidism. Horodezky was a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Judaica.

Israel Weisburd (1886-1952) Jewish farmer, born in the Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), who was brought to Argentine by his parents in 1891, and where in 1903 he established a timber harvesting and livestock empire.

In 1919 he set up a public school for the benefit of the children of his workers. In recognition of his concern for the people who worked for his company, the village where his business was centred was called Weisburd. In 1941 Weisburd set up a factory for the production of tannins, a vital ingredient needed for the tanning industry and which also had medical properties, which were in high demand during the World War. The ingredients for the production of tannins were found in his forests. For some 12 years the factory employed about 3,500 workers. In the 1950s the production decreased due to competition from other sources and the plant closed in 1961.