The history of Europe in the 20th century is a history of crucial changes of territories, borders, ideas and ideologies. This is particular relevant to Eastern and Central Europe, territories of co-existence and interaction of conflict and the blurring of ethnic, religious and language diversity. When we talk about Lviv, it is predominantly about its Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish cultures. This is why it is important to debate and think about ways to write and speak about Lviv’s complicated past. How should citizens of Lviv think about the history and evaluate what happened, and how significant it is to establish a dialogue in society about the past and shape the vision of the future.
Over four weeks of lectures, discussions, conferences and narrated city walks the program of “Jewish Days” in Lviv City Hall will be concentrating at the co-existence of Ukrainians, Poles and Jews before the Second World War in the city through research of two major themes: how violence of the war was changing cities and communities of people, and what was the meaning of culture in times of dramatic change, escalation of tension and even hatred.
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The guest lecturers and speakers are world famous historians from the leading Universities and Research facilities of Europe and the United States. The list of speakers will feature Katarzyna Ko- tynska (Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw), Christoph Mick (Warwick University, UK), Kai Struve (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany), Jan Tomasz Gross (Princeton University, USA), Timothy White (City University of New Jersey, USA), Mayhill Fowler (Stetson University, USA), Danylo Ilnytskyi, Victor Martyniuk (Ivan Krypyakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Lviv), Karolina Szymaniak (Wroclaw University / Jewish History Institute, Warsaw), Iryna Starovoyt (Lviv University), Natalia Aleksiun (Touro College, USA).
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The detailed schedule of events and venue addresses can be found at Center of Urban History web page or on their Facebook event page. Simultaneous interpreting into Ukrainian is provided. Admission to all events is free. Jewish Days in Lviv City Hall is organized by Center for Urban History.