The Jewish Archival Survey in Ukraine Receives Additional Funding

Work will be done in the former KGB Archives in Chernivtsi 

Led by JTS Professor, Dr. David Fishman and Senior Editor Alexander Ivanov, the Jewish Archival Survey (JAS) is dedicated to locating, preserving, describing, and making accessible thousands of archival collections in Ukraine that contain valuable materials on Jewish history and culture. Long hidden from the world—first under Soviet rule and then through neglect—this vast trove of documentation is now being systematically uncovered and cataloged. The project has persisted, with Ukrainian staff, even during wartime conditions that make the work more urgent than ever. 

Professor David Fishman, left, with staff researchers of the Jewish Archival Survey , at a meeting in L’viv Ukraine.

The JAS team produces user-friendly guides that describe every collection in a given city with relevance to Jewish life. These archives illuminate the rich fabric of Jewish communal and cultural life, as well as the relationships between Jews, the state, and surrounding societies. 

With generous assistance from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance, and with additional grants from the David Berg Foundation, The Blavatnik Foundation, The Genesis Philanthropy Group, and The Kronhill Pletka Foundation, the JAS is expanding its work to the historic region of Podolia and deepening its efforts in Chernivtsi.  

The JAS is cosponsored by JTS and the State Archival Service of Ukraine. It works closely with organizations that digitize Jewish documents in Ukraine – UNESCO, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Library of Israel.

In a remarkable historical turn, the JAS team is working for the first time in the former KGB archives in Chernivtsi. These will contribute to the total of 225 collections that are already or soon will be accessible online and also will be in a published reference guide next year. Researching these significant materials promises to uncover long-hidden records of Jewish families and communities that were silenced or destroyed, particularly during the Soviet and Nazi periods—offering researchers a crucial window into a lost world. 

In Podolia—an area central to the origins of the Hasidic movement—this year the JAS will begin surveying collections focusing on the cities of Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi. 

The archive descriptions are translated into English and make up the bulk of the tremendous online compilation of archives across Europe, Yerusha.eu, which is available for free to researchers and the public. 

We are deeply grateful to our funding partners for their vital support of the JAS’s mission to preserve and honor Jewish legacy in Eastern Europe—especially the voices and stories of those lost during the Holocaust.