We are presenting the exhibition “Synagogues of Bohuslav. Forgotten History”, displayed in the oldest building in the city of Bohuslav, a stone house (‘kamianytsia’) built in 1726. It is also a Jewish ḥeder (cheder), or primary school. The building is located in a busy area of the oldest part in the city. It has a lot in common with the civil residential architecture of the late 17th century and holds great value, as only a few buildings of this type from the 17th and 18th centuries have survived in Ukraine. Besides, it has survived without reconstruction, which is also of high scientific importance.
At the end of the 19th century, the house was owned by a local businessman, a wealthy Jew named Feinsilberg. It was at this time that Ukrainian wordsmith, outstanding writer Marko Vovchok lived in Bohuslav, and her younger son (and in fact grandson!) recalled old Bohuslav, Feinsilberg, and the stone house on Poshtova (now Shevchenka) Street as they appeared then: “The main street was a risky place to ride: huge granite stones stuck out of the ground to the demise of all carts and carriages… Not to mention the side streets, as they tended to be mazes, where one could hardly get through the bog and mud. The whole town had only one two-storey stone house of the local tycoon Feinsilberg, while the rest of the dwellings were made of clay. On the outskirts of the town lived the so-called Ukrainian burghers. Here the houses were snow-white and neat, with cherry orchards. The town looked festive only on Friday nights when candles were lit in every Jewish home on Shabbat. Then Bohuslav looked like it was illuminated. The town also came to life during fairs, which brought together peasants from all the surrounding villages.”
Bohuslav was also a hometown for the writer Sholem Aleichem, who lived here in the 1870s and described the Bohuslav multicultural market, not far from where the stone house rises, in colourful imagery: “Passing the cemetery, we drove straight into the “torzhyshche” or marketplace, a kind of bazaar or fair, where everything was mixed up: peasants, horses, cows, pigs, gypsies, carts, wheels, horse-collars, and various Jews: Jewish furriers, Jewish hatters with fine goods, bread rolls, bagels, gingerbread, apple kvass, whatever you might like. And the ladies! Ladies with baskets, ladies with apples, ladies with poultry, ladies with fried fish and just ladies. And they are all making noise, shouting, rattling… And horses, cows and pigs are ‘assisting’ them. Blind people sing and play lyres. One could go deaf! The dust is so thick that it’s hard to see each other, and the smells can suffocate you.”
It is hard to imagine the history of Bohuslav without Jews, especially in the second half of the 20th century, when they made up more than 65% of the residents, which is 7,500 people. Unfortunately, none of the 16 Jewish churches they frequented have survived to this day (a synagogue and 15 prayer rooms in craft shops).
However, we have photographs that formed the backbone of our exhibition. They show the Jews of Bohuslav at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Bohuslav synagogue after its destruction, and the stone house. As well as a banner with the project of its restoration, through which we want to remind the locals of the long-standing need and dream of residents to repair the building that now houses the Folk Crafts Museum.
The exhibition is part of the project “Religious Communities of Old Bohuslav” created by the “Around Us. Ua” NGO. “Religious Communities of Old Bohuslav” includes three thematic exhibitions, the development and presentation of which were made possible due to the implementation of the project “Traditions of Ukrainians. Folk Calendar of Bohuslavshchyna” with the support of the “Partnership for a Strong Ukraine” Foundation.
The array of exhibitions aims to provide information about the churches of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Bohuslav community and show the images of people from old photographs who could have been their parishioners. Another essential purpose of the exhibitions is to draw attention to the restoration of lost, partially destroyed, and abandoned cultural monuments. The exhibition consists of three blocks: “Orthodox Churches of Bohuslavshchyna”, “Engravings by Napoleon Orda: Roman Catholic Churches”, and “Synagogues of Bohuslav. Forgotten History”.
