Clay in My Boots: A Romp Through My Genealogical Past

A few musical selections ... ignore the video ... Chopin in the Park, Warsaw: https://www.facebook.com/528947502/posts/10155709109172503/ Ukrainian Folk Music across the street from Hotel in Lutzk: https://www.facebook.com/528947502/posts/10155709113097503/ Ukrainian National Anthem, concluding Folk Festival in Lutzk: https://www.facebook.com/528947502/posts/10155709117157503/ ... and of course who doesn’t find John Lennon catchy ... https://www.facebook.com/1400231000/posts/10217412188402228/    

Not everything in Ukraine is about my ancestors ... we did have a lovely trip down the Styr in Lutzk. Click Here for a taste of our trip: https://www.facebook.com/528947502/posts/10155704153367503/

We arrived in Lutzk, the provincial capital of Volyn. This is where my Grandma Jeanne (at 1 year) with her Mother Rachel left from, for America. I’m hoping to find info on her and her father Jacob in Lutzk. We’ll visit the Archives tomorrow, Monday. I have no information on Jacob’s emigration, marriage or birth.  In the meantime we visited sites in the city. As we left from checking-in the hotel we heard Ukrainian folk music coming from the festival across the street.  Lutzk is a large spread out city, dotted with plaques that indicate that Jews where here. We visited Lubart’s castle near the Great Synagogue. Lubart’s is called high castle and is a traditional medieval type castle with views of commercial sites.  At the sword exhibit, I saw 1 sword, 3 battle axes, and 4 muskets. Now I know why it was called a Sword Exhibit and not a Swords Exhibit. The Great Synagogue, formerly known as low castle was built in 1629. It was the religious, educational, and community center of Lut

25,658 lives. This one included 40 possible relatives: 35 Oks , 3 Galen’s and 2 Shkurniks.  I still can’t put the feelings into words. I can just sit and cry and wonder.  But at least Lutsk has 200 Jews trying to rebuild a community and culture. 

Lutzk has a wonderful Jewish Community Center where about 200 people participate in services and community events. Services are lead by lay-leaders as there is no local Rabbi for this progressive congregation. They had a Bar Mitzva five years ago. In the main hall (used for holiday services) they were preparing for Rosh Hashanah. The stain glass windows depict each of the major holidays. The have a small chapel where the keep the 2 Torah and can hold smaller services, The chapel was locked during our visit. Rosh Hashanah: Shabbat: Pasach: Simcat Torah: Succot: We appreciate Eda Lazirivna, a Director for Hasad, taking us on a tour of the unlocked parts of the Community Center. We later met Sergei Shzarofski who is Director of the Center he gave us directions to the Holocaust Monument and hints on using the Archives.

We made a very short stop in Rivne, but we had the chance to see a small active synagogue and meet the administrator, Victoria who has been following the blog.  Then on to another massacre memorial. According to Victoria, the Soviets significantly under counted the 17,500 lives taken.  And there was no indication that those lives were Jewish. As is often the case, a Jewish Organization will add to the memorial with more appropriate information.  And in this memorial, those taken are still being identified and their names inscribed.