Metadata: L’viv Museum of the History of Religion
Collection
- Country:
- Ukraine
- Holding institution:
- Lviv Museum of the History of Religion
- Holding institution (official language):
- Львівський музей історії релігії
- Postal address:
- pl. Muzeyna 1, 79008, L’viv
- Phone number:
- +38 (032) 235-61-00
- Web address:
- www.museum.lviv.ua
- Email:
- religio@ukrpost.ua
- Title:
- L’viv Museum of the History of Religion
- Title (official language):
- Львівський музей історії релігії
- Creator/accumulator:
- L’viv Museum of the History of Religion
- Date(s):
- 1800/2020
- Date note:
- 19th c./2000s
- Language:
- Ukrainian
- Hebrew
- Polish
- Russian
- Extent:
- approx. 500 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
Aside from ritual items and printed sources, materials of the main fonds include a collection of 427 Torah scrolls and fragments thereof that were confiscated by the Soviet authorities in 1939-41 from synagogues and houses of worship in Western Ukraine (these were housed at the L’vov/L’viv synagogue on Ugol’naia Street until 1962; their provenance has not yet been determined); an invoice issued to monks of the Lemberg/Lwów Dominican monastery by the Lemberg/Lwów company “Ozima Veksel and Son,” confirming their purchase of various sorts of beer (1912); a document issued by a commission of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church granting permission for the baptism of “the neophyte Abraham Reich” (1921); and a receipt confirming a donation to the L’vov/L’viv synagogue by a resident of that city (1958).
Most of the written sources held by the museum that pertain to Jewish history are of an anti-Zionist or anti-religious nature. These include screenplays of anti-Zionist television programs and films: Escape from Paradise and What the Charms of Zionist Propaganda Lead To, produced by the Chernovtsy/Chernivtsi television studio (1969, 1974); the texts of anti-Zionist articles and letters published in the 1970s in the local newspapers L’vovskaia Pravda and Radians’ka Bukovina; a notarised invitation for permanent residence in Israel, and a permit issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel to enter that country (1975); “letters from workers” expressing outrage at the “provocative activities of Zionists,” in particular by the Jewish Defence League, and statements of refusal to receive packages sent from abroad; a selection of letters from Soviet Jews who had emigrated to Israel or the United States that make reference to “hard life in a foreign land,” express regret at having left their homeland and the desire to return to the USSR, etc.
Likewise of an Anti-Zionist and anti-religious clerical orientation are manuscripts of an article by the L’vov/L’viv writer and commentator Iu. A. Schulmeister titled “Metropolitan Sheptytsky and Rabbi Kahane” (1979) and of fragments of his books: Zionism and Hypocrisy, Deceit, and Betrayal (1976) and The Burning Sands (1979).
The museum’s own records – documenting the receipt of items and donations – contain information on the transfer and storage of ritual items and discovered caches of synagogue silver, books, and documents. There are also materials pertaining to the modern life of Jewish communities in Ukraine: posters, booklets, catalogues, and brochures from exhibits, lectures, and other events pertaining to Jewish culture, etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The L’viv Museum of the History of Religion was established in 1970 as a branch of the L’viv Historical Museum; in April 1973, it was organised separately as an independent institution called the L’vov/L’viv Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, and since 1989, it has been called the L’vov/L’viv Museum of the History of Religion. It is located on the premises of a Dominican monastery dating from the 14th to the 18th centuries. The museum’s exhibits cover the history of world religions and religions of Ukraine, including Judaism, to which a separate section is dedicated, as well as the activities of church organisations; the museum’s collections feature over 75,000 archival storage units. In 2012, a new display area was opened at the premises on Staroevreis’ka [Old Jewish] Street; this features a permanent exhibit titled “Those Who Saved the World”, with information on the particular way of life of Galician Jewry and on how priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church rescued Jews during the Second World War. Items of Judaica from the fonds of the L’viv Museum of the History of Religion have frequently been displayed at other exhibits. (See for instance: T. Potul’nitskaia, Iudaika iz fondov L’vovskogo muzeia istorii religii. Po materialam vystavok trekh festivalei evreiskoi knigi. L’viv, 2001.)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Reich, Abraham
- Subject terms:
- Anti-religious activity (Soviet Union)
- Antisemitism
- Antisemitism--Antisemitic propaganda
- Antisemitism--Antisemitic publications
- Ceremonial objects
- Conversion to Christianity
- Film
- Jewish community
- Manuscripts
- Migration
- Migration--Emigration
- Museums
- Posters
- Radio and television
- State of Israel
- Synagogues
- Torah (scroll)
- Trade and commerce
- Trade and commerce--Alcohol trade
- Zionism
- Zionism--Anti-Zionism
- System of arrangement:
- In accordance with the museum’s accounting and storage procedures, documents are divided into two groups. The first group represents materials collected over the forty-year period of the museum’s operations, and is kept in two sections of the main fonds entitled “Archive” and “Early Printed Books”; the second group represents recordkeeping documentation and contains information on the provenance and movement of monuments of Jewish culture.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
